WHEREAS, Denise Moreno Ducheny was born on March 21, 1952, and was first elected to represent the 40th District in the California State Senate in November of 2002, serving two terms until 2010; and

WHEREAS, Ducheny currently serves as the Senior Policy Advisor at the University of California, San Diego, Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies (USMEX); and

WHEREAS, Before being elected to the Senate, Ducheny served in the Assembly from 1994 to 2000 and on the Board of Trustees of the San Diego Community College District from 1990 to 1994; and

WHEREAS, Before serving in public office, Ducheny was an attorney in private practice and holds a B.A. in history from Pomona College and a J.D. from the Southwestern University School of Law; and

WHEREAS, While serving in each house of the Legislature, Ducheny was the first San Diegan, first woman, and the first Latino to chair the Budget Committee, serving as Chair for four years in each house; and

WHEREAS, While in the Senate, Ducheny served on multiple committees, including the Water, Transportation, Housing, and Judiciary committees, and was actively engaged in developing binational meetings of legislators from California with United States and Mexican state legislators along the length of the border and among the legislators of California, Baja California, and Baja California Sur; and

WHEREAS, While in the Assembly, Ducheny served as Chair of the Assembly Budget Committee between 1997 and 2000, and as Vice Chair in 1996, and also served as Chair of the Select Committee on California-Mexico Cooperation, as Cochair of the Special Committee on Welfare Reform, as Vice Chair of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee, and as Vice Chair of the California Legislative Latino Caucus; and

WHEREAS, In 2014, in recognition of her dedication to the United States–Mexico relationship, Ducheny was presented with the Ohtli Award by the Mexican government and was appointed by President Barack Obama to the Board of Directors of the North American Development Bank, on which she continues to serve; and

WHEREAS, Senator Ducheny’s legislative accomplishments in the Senate include legislation to develop the California Workforce Development Board Strategic Plan, a statewide plan that invests in our state workers; the geothermal development bill that removed barriers in state law to allow for the development of geothermal energy; revisions of the California Tire Recycling Act, which required that information be provided on remediation activities for tire piles that pose a huge environmental threat in the border region; improvements to the Employee Housing Act for farm workers, which provided flexibility to local jurisdictions to increase their supply of farm work housing; and the Salton Sea Restoration Act, which established state policy for restoring that important environmental ecosystem; now, therefore be it