Existing law establishes the 15-member Student Aid Commission as the primary state agency for the administration of state-authorized student financial aid programs available to students attending all segments of postsecondary education. Existing law requires the commission to include 3 public members. This bill would increase the membership of the commission to 16 by adding an additional public member.
Existing law, the Employment Agency, Employment Counseling, and Job Listing Services Act, regulates employment agencies and job listing services. The act imposes certain obligations on an employment agency with regard to domestic workers referred by the agency. The act provides that an employment agency, as defined, is not the employer of a domestic worker for whom it procures, offers, refers, provides, or attempts to provide, work, if prescribed factors characterize the nature of the relationship between the employment agency and the domestic worker (nonemployment factors) . Nonemployment factors include the factor that payments for domestic services are made directly to either the domestic worker or to the employment agency and payments made directly to the employment agency are deposited into a trust account until payment can be made to the domestic worker (direct payment factor) . This bill, notwithstanding any other provision of law, including specified existing law relating to worker status as either employees or independent contractors, would require that the nonemployment factors set forth in the act be used to determine employee status of domestic workers, as defined, who are referred through an employment agency. The bill, with regard to the direct payment factor, would exclude the alternative of payments to the employment agency in the case of a domestic worker who provides care to an individual over 21 years of age and, instead, require that payments for domestic services in such a case be made only directly to the domestic worker.
Existing law prohibits a person from installing, selling, offering for sale, or advertising any device, apparatus, or mechanism intended for use with, or as a part of, a required motor vehicle pollution control device or system that alters or modifies the original design or performance of the motor vehicle pollution control device or system. A violation of this provision is a crime. This bill would create an exception to this prohibition for a new aftermarket catalytic converter that has been approved for sale and use by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, as specified.
Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services and under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions. Under existing law, a hospital designated by the department as a critical access hospital, and certified as such by the Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services under the federal Medicare rural hospital flexibility program, is eligible for supplemental payments for Medi-Cal covered outpatient services rendered to Medi-Cal eligible persons. Existing law conditions those payments on receipt of federal financial participation and an appropriation in the annual Budget Act for the nonfederal share of those payments, with supplemental payments being apportioned among critical access hospitals based on their number of Medi-Cal outpatient visits. This bill, subject to appropriation and the availability of federal funding, would require the department to provide an annual supplemental payment, for services covered under Medi-Cal, to each critical access hospital that operates on an island that is located more than 10 miles offshore of the mainland coast of the state but is still within the jurisdiction of the state. The bill would specify the formula of the payment amount, which would be in addition to any supplemental payment described above. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for critical access hospitals operating on those islands.
Existing law establishes the Division of Occupational Safety and Health within the Department of Industrial Relations and sets forth its powers and duties, including jurisdiction over all employment and places of employment, with the power necessary to enforce and administer all occupational health and safety laws and standards. Existing law, the California Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1973, requires employers to comply with certain safety and health standards, as specified, and charges the division with enforcement of those provisions. Existing law requires the division to submit to the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board a rulemaking proposal to consider revising, among other things, the Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez heat illness standard, as specified. Under existing law, certain knowing, negligent, or willful violations of safety and health standards are punishable as misdemeanors. This bill would, commencing July 1, 2028, require an employee to obtain a heat illness prevention certification from the division within 30 days after the date of hire and to maintain a valid certification for the duration of their employment, as specified. The bill would require the division to develop and make accessible the heat illness prevention certification process on its internet website by July 1, 2028, and to offer the certification process in English and in the five most used non-English languages. This bill would require the certification process to include certain minimum requirements, including, among other things, that the training course include basic, introductory instruction on the elements of knowledge and heat illness prevention practices as described in the heat illness standard. The bill would require an employer to include the heat illness prevention certification process as part of its on-the-job training for employees, subject to specified requirements. This bill would require an employer to consider the time that it takes for an employee to complete the training course and examination as compensable hours worked and to pay an employee for necessary expenditures or losses associated with the employee obtaining a heat illness prevention certification. The bill would prohibit an employer from conditioning employment on an applicant or employee having an existing valid heat illness prevention certification. By expanding the scope of an existing crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Existing law authorizes the commission to fix the rates and charges for every public utility and requires that those rates and charges be just and reasonable. This bill would require the commission to reduce the kilowatt-per-hour rate for electricity charged to ratepayers by not less than 30%.
Existing law, the County Fire Service Retirement Law, administered by the County Foresters, Firewardens, and County Fire Protection District Firemen's Retirement Board, prescribes additional retirement benefits to county foresters, firewardens, and firefighters who are members of the system when specified conditions are met. Existing law requires the board to report annually in January to the board of supervisors the condition of the County Foresters, Firewardens, and Firemen's Retirement Fund, as specified, with a complete list of the beneficiaries of the fund and the amounts paid to the beneficiaries for the preceding calendar year. This bill would instead require the County Foresters, Firewardens, and County Fire Protection District Firemen's Retirement Board to report to the board of supervisors on or before February 1 each year.
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report (EIR) on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. CEQA requires the courts to give an action or proceeding alleging noncompliance with CEQA preference over all other civil actions. CEQA requires superior courts in counties with a population of more than 200,000 people to designate one or more judges to develop expertise in CEQA and certain related laws so that those judges will be available to hear and quickly resolve actions or proceedings alleging noncompliance with CEQA. This bill would require, in all actions or proceedings brought pursuant to the provisions of CEQA, that a filing party include with the filing a disclosure of the identity and interests of the party, as provided. The bill would authorize a court to request more information as needed, including, but not limited to, financial statements and testimony, in the event a filing party that has previously brought an action or proceeding concerning a project makes a subsequent filing in an action or proceeding concerning the same project. Because the bill would impose additional duties on a lead agency that is a filing party to an action or proceeding, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 requires the State Air Resources Board to approve a statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit equivalent to ensure that statewide greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to at least 40% below the 1990 level by 2030. The act requires the state board, by December 31, 2035, to evaluate and report its findings and recommendations to the Legislature on the feasibility and tradeoffs of achieving the policy goal of ensuring that by 2045 statewide anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to at least 85% below the statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit, relative to alternative scenarios that achieve the policy goal of achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible, but no later than 2045, and achieving and maintaining net negative greenhouse gas emissions thereafter. This bill would instead require the state board to do the evaluation and report its findings and recommendations to the Legislature by December 31, 2030.
Existing law imposes various limitations on emissions of air contaminants for the control of air pollution from vehicular sources. Existing law generally designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency with the primary responsibility for the control of vehicular air pollution. Existing law requires the state board to adopt and implement emission standards for new motor vehicles for the control of emissions from new motor vehicles that the state board finds to be necessary and technologically feasible, as provided. Existing state regulations establish exhaust emissions standards and test procedures for 1985 and subsequent model heavy-duty engines and vehicles, as provided. Existing law defines "heavy-duty" for purposes of laws governing air resources. This bill would exempt, notwithstanding any other law, a 2024 and subsequent model heavy-duty truck that meets federal exhaust emission standards from the state regulations described above governing exhaust emissions standards and test procedures for 1985 and subsequent model heavy-duty engines and vehicles.
Existing law establishes the Department of Fish and Wildlife and sets forth the duties of that department, which include administering various programs for the protection and conservation of fish and wildlife resources. This bill would require the Department of Fish and Wildlife to prepare and submit a report to the Legislature on or before January 1, 2029, regarding the environmental impact on marine mammals and wildlife from offshore energy production off the California coast.
Existing law generally regulates the requirements for vehicle tires. Existing law prohibits a dealer or person with a retail seller's permit from selling, offering for sale, exposing for sale, or installing on a vehicle for use on a highway, a tire that is not in compliance with regulations that set noise standards for pneumatic tires. This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to that provision.
