State Sen. Josh Becker, D-Menlo Park, won a plum assignment on Thursday when the California Legislative Bay Area Caucus elected him as its chair for the coming year.

Becker, who is seeking his second term in the Senate, is succeeding Assemblymember Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, who has led the caucus for eight years. The vote occurred during the Bay Area Caucus’ annual summit on Jan. 4. The Caucus, which consists of 27 lawmakers, also elected Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, as its vice chair.

Becker told this publication that he is excited about having a larger role in addressing the Peninsula’s biggest problems. As the leader of the group, he said he wants to look across the region for local solutions that work – whether it’s on education, affordable housing or climate – and to scale them up.

He gave as an example his proposed legislature to encourage more interim modular housing, an approach that was pioneered in Mountain View and is now being implemented in Palo Alto to provide shelter and social services to unhoused individuals. Becker said he believes can similarly use developments of this sort in other regions to address their affordable housing problems. The legislation, Senate Bill 634, would create a streamlined approval process for developments of this sort.

"I’m excited because it gives me a regional platform to work on local issues that are really regional issues, including homelessness, transportation, affordable housing and even climate resilience and wildlife preparedness," Becker said.

Becker, who last year served as vice chair of the Bay Area Caucus, also issued a statement after the summit thanking Ting and other caucus members for electing him to the top position for the coming legislative session.

"I am grateful to my colleagues for entrusting me with this responsibility to lead our caucus and to take a greater role in working on solutions that impact our region," Becker said.

In a statement, Ting called Becker a "creative legislator who is always looking at new ideas and approaches to solve our many regional issues."

"Along with Assemblymember Wicks, he will fight to make sure we get our share of resources and pass legislation that helps our region," Ting said.