The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency responsible for monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases that cause global warming in order to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. The act requires all state agencies to consider and implement strategies to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. This bill would additionally require state agencies to prioritize strategies to reduce methane emissions, including emissions from imported natural gas, where feasible and cost effective. The bill would require the state board, no later than December 31, 2024, to establish a certification standard for natural gas producing low methane emissions. The bill would require the state board to encourage natural gas procurement on behalf of the state to shift to certified natural gas producing low methane emissions. The bill would also require the state board, the Public Utilities Commission, and other relevant agencies to timely consider programs, or changes to existing programs, to reduce methane emissions, including emissions from imported natural gas procured by utilities and other large gas users. Existing law requires the state board to inventory sources of air pollution within the air basins of the state and determine the kinds and quantity of air pollutants. Existing law requires the state board to make available, and update at least annually, on its internet website the emissions of greenhouse gases, criteria air pollutants, and toxic air contaminants for each facility that reports to the state board and air pollution control and air quality management districts as well as the emissions of greenhouse gases, criteria air pollutants, and toxic air contaminants throughout the state broken down to a local and subcounty level for stationary sources and to at least a county level for mobile sources, as specified. Existing law also requires the state board to quantify and publish annually the amount of greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the loss or release of uncombusted natural gas to the atmosphere and emissions from natural gas flares during all processes associated with the production, processing, and transporting of natural gas imported into the state from out-of-state sources. This bill would require the state board to annually request and incorporate, as part of this quantification for annual publication, information from utilities and other large gas users regarding any contract for and use of natural gas certified to have a methane emissions intensity of less than 0.2% across the natural gas supply chain, as data are available, or the use of other best practices to minimize emissions of methane and greenhouse gases from natural gas supplying California. The bill would also require the state board to quantify and publish annually, commencing January 1, 2025, an estimate of potential greenhouse gas emissions reductions associated with the use of natural gas certified to have a methane emissions intensity of less than 0.2% across the natural gas supply chain, as data are available, or the use of other best practices applied to natural gas supplies to California.
The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 prohibits a business from selling the personal information of a consumer if the business has actual knowledge that the consumer is less than 16 years of age, unless the consumer, in the case of a consumer at least 13 years of age and less than 16 years of age, or the consumer's parent or guardian, in the case of a consumer who is less than 13 years of age, has affirmatively authorized the sale of the consumer's personal information. The California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act requires, beginning July 1, 2024, a business that provides an online service, product, or feature likely to be accessed by children to comply with specified requirements, including a requirement to configure all default privacy settings offered by the online service, product, or feature to the settings that offer a high level of privacy, as prescribed, and requires a business, before any new online services, products, or features are offered to the public, to complete a Data Protection Impact Assessment for any online service, product, or feature likely to be accessed by children and maintain documentation of this assessment as long as the online service, product, or feature is likely to be accessed by children. This bill would prohibit a social media platform, as defined, from using a design, algorithm, or feature that the platform knows, or by the exercise of reasonable care should have known, causes child users, as defined, to do any of certain things, including experience addiction to the social media platform. This bill would provide that a social media platform is not in violation of the bill if the social media platform instituted and maintained a program of at least quarterly audits, as defined, of its designs, algorithms, and features that have the potential to cause violations of the provision described above, and the social media platform corrected, within 60 days of the completion of the audit, any design, algorithm, or feature discovered by the audit to present more than a de minimis risk of violating that provision. This bill would subject a social media platform that knowingly and willfully violates these provisions to a civil penalty not to exceed $250,000 per violation, an injunction, and an award of litigation costs and attorney's fees in an action brought only by certain public attorneys, including the Attorney General.
(1) Existing law authorizes the governing board of any school district or community college district to order an election and submit to the electors of the district the question of whether the bonds of the district shall be issued and sold to raise money for specified purposes. Existing law generally requires, to pass a school bond measure, that either at least 23 of the votes cast on the proposition of issuing bonds be in favor of issuing the bonds to pass the measure, or, if certain conditions are met, at least 55% of the votes cast on the proposition of issuing bonds be in favor of issuing the bonds. Existing law prohibits the total amount of bonds issued by a school district or community college district from exceeding 1.25% of the taxable property of the district, as provided. This bill would raise that limit to 2%. (2) Existing law also authorizes a unified school district to issue bonds receiving at least 55% of the votes cast on the proposition of issuing the bonds that, in aggregation with bonds issued with a 23 favorable vote, do not exceed 2.5% of the taxable property of the district, as provided. This bill would raise that limit to 4%. The bill would make a similar percentage increase for community college districts. (3) The Leroy F. Greene School Facilities Act of 1998 provides for the adoption of rules, regulations, and procedures, under the administration of the Director of General Services, for the allocation of state funds by the State Allocation Board for the construction and modernization of public school facilities. This bill would, among other things, require a school district to submit to the Department of General Services a 5-year school facilities master plan or updated 5-year school facilities master plan, as provided, as a condition of participating in the school facilities program under the act, would require the school district to submit specified information in the school district's application for an apportionment of state funds, and would make other changes to requirements a school district is required to comply with before participating in programs under the act. The bill would require the department to process applications to participate in the program, as specified, and would make other changes to the method by which the board makes apportionments of moneys under the act. This bill would establish the 2024 State School Facilities Fund, and authorize the board to apportion, and make disbursements of, moneys in the fund, as provided. The bill would require, for bonds approved by voters in 2024 or thereafter, the board to adjust a school district's required local and state contribution, as specified. The bill would authorize new construction and modernization grants to be used for seismic mitigation purposes and, among other things, to establish schoolsite-based infrastructure to provide broadband internet access. The bill would also authorize modernization grants to be used, among other things, for the control, management, or abatement of lead and for the demolition and construction of a building on an existing schoolsite that meets specified conditions. The bill would prohibit the use of new construction and modernization grants for the purchase of portable electronic devices with a useful life of less than 3 years. This bill would authorize funding for health and safety projects by a school district, as provided. This bill would authorize the board to provide a grant to test for lead in water outlets used for drinking or preparing food on schoolsites serving kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, as provided. The bill would specify procedures that small school districts, as defined, may use to obtain project and construction management, new construction grants, and modernization grants. The bill would also make conforming changes in, and remove inoperative provisions from, the act. (4) The act also requires the board to adopt regulations for determining the amount of funding and the eligibility and prioritization of funding that school districts with a financial hardship may receive from bond acts for construction, modernization, or relocation assistance. The act requires those regulations to include consideration of various factors, including whether the school district's total bonding capacity is $5,000,000 or less, in which case the school district shall be deemed eligible for financial hardship. This bill, for purposes of the regulations related to financial hardship eligibility, would increase the total bonding capacity cap to $15,000,000, to be adjusted as specified. (5) The California Constitution prohibits the Legislature from creating a debt or liability that singly or in the aggregate with any previous debts or liabilities exceeds the sum of $300,000, except by an act that (A) authorizes the debt for a single object or work specified in the act, (B) has been passed by a 23 vote of all the Members elected to each house of the Legislature, (C) has been submitted to the people at a statewide general or primary election, and (D) has received a majority of all the votes cast for and against it at that election. This bill would set forth the Public Preschool, K–12, and College Health and Safety Bond Act of 2024 as a state general obligation bond act that would provide $15,500,000,000 to construct and modernize education facilities, as specified. This bond act would become operative only if approved by the voters at the March 5, 2024, statewide primary election. The bill would also provide for the submission of the bond act to the voters at that election. (6) Existing law establishes the California State University, which is administered by the Board of Trustees of the California State University, and the University of California, under the administration of the Regents of the University of California, as segments of public postsecondary education in this state. This bill would require the Board of Trustees and the Regents to comply with certain conditions, as provided, before receiving funds from the 2024 University Capital Outlay Bond Fund established pursuant to the Public Preschool, K–12, and College Health and Safety Bond Act of 2024. (7) This bill would become effective upon the adoption of the Public Preschool, K–12, and College Health and Safety Bond Act of 2024 by the voters at the March 5, 2024, statewide primary election.
Existing law requires the State Department of Public Health to administer a statewide program for prenatal testing for genetic disorders and birth defects, including, but not limited to, ultrasound, amniocentesis, chorionic villus sampling, and blood testing. Existing law requires the department to expand prenatal screening to include all tests that meet or exceed the current standard of care as recommended by nationally recognized medical or genetic organizations and to establish any rules, regulations, and standards for prenatal diagnostic testing and the allocation of subsidies, as specified. Existing law requires a clinical laboratory performing laboratory tests or examinations classified as moderate or high complexity under the federal Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA) to obtain a clinical laboratory license from the department. Existing law generally exempts specified clinical laboratories from rules and regulations of the department, including clinical laboratories owned and operated by the United States and certified under CLIA. Under existing regulations, a certificate of accreditation issued by the United States Department of Health and Human Services is considered a state license or registration issued by the department, as specified. Existing law requires a city or county public health laboratory, as specified, to be approved by the department and to comply with the requirements of CLIA. This bill would prohibit the department, by way of rule, regulation, contract, or any other manner, from preventing a laboratory with both a CLIA certificate of accreditation and a current state clinical or public health laboratory license from offering all noninvasive prenatal tests to pregnant persons who have an order from a prenatal care provider, as defined. The bill would also prohibit the department from limiting the number of noninvasive prenatal tests that the laboratory may provide.
Existing law generally requires the State Department of Public Health to license, inspect, and regulate health facilities, defined to include, among other types of health facilities, an acute psychiatric hospital. Existing law generally requires the State Department of Social Services to license, inspect, and regulate various types of care facilities, including, among others, a community crisis home. Existing law requires the State Department of Health Care Services to license and regulate facilities that provide residential nonmedical services to adults who are recovering from problems related to alcohol, drug, or alcohol and drug misuse or abuse, and who need alcohol, drug, or alcohol and drug recovery treatment or detoxification services. This bill would require, by January 1, 2026, the State Department of Health Care Services, in consultation with the State Department of Public Health and the State Department of Social Services, and by conferring with specified stakeholders, to develop a real-time, internet-based database to collect, aggregate, and display information about beds in specified types of facilities, such as chemical dependency recovery hospitals, acute psychiatric hospitals, and mental health rehabilitation centers, among others, to identify the availability of inpatient and residential mental health or substance use disorder treatment. The bill would require the database to include a minimum of specific information, including the contact information for a facility's designated employee, the types of diagnoses or treatments for which the bed is appropriate, and the target populations served at the facility, and have the capacity to, among other things, enable searches to identify beds that are appropriate for individuals in need of inpatient or residential mental health or substance use disorder treatment. This bill would authorize the department to impose a plan of correction or assess penalties against a facility that fails to submit data accurately, timely, or as otherwise required and would establish a process for facilities to appeal these penalties. The bill would create the Available Care for Inpatient and Residential Mental Health or Substance Use Disorder Treatment Database Maintenance and Oversight Fund for the receipt of any penalties. Because the bill would continuously appropriate moneys in the fund for administrative costs of implementing the database, it would create an appropriation.
The Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA) , an initiative measure, authorizes a person who obtains a state license under AUMA to engage in commercial adult-use cannabis activity pursuant to that license and applicable local ordinances. The Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act (MAUCRSA) , among other things, consolidates the licensure and regulation of commercial medicinal and adult-use cannabis activities, and requires the Department of Cannabis Control to administer its provisions. 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 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. This bill would provide that the Department of Cannabis Control is not required to serve as a responsible agency under CEQA if the local jurisdiction acting as lead agency under CEQA has filed a notice of determination for the commercial cannabis activity, or a notice of exemption for a retail commercial cannabis project, with the Office of Planning and Research following the adoption of a mitigated negative declaration or certification of an environmental impact report by the local jurisdiction, as specified, and the commercial cannabis activity for which the applicant is seeking a license from the department is the same project as the commercial cannabis activity analyzed by the local jurisdiction under CEQA.
Existing law requires the Department of Water Resources to gather and correlate information and data pertinent to an annual forecast of seasonal water crop. Existing law also requires the department to update every 5 years the plan for the orderly and coordinated control, protection, conservation, development, and use of the water resources of the state, which is known as "The California Water Plan." This bill would require the department, on or before December 31, 2025, to establish a formal process for annually evaluating and improving the accuracy of its water supply forecasts, adopt a new water supply forecasting model that better addresses the effects of climate change, and implement a formal policy and procedures for documenting its operational plans for the state's water supply and its rationale for its operating procedures. The bill would require the department, by December 1, 2024, to prepare, and submit to the Legislature, a report on its progress toward meeting these requirements. The bill would require the department, commencing in 2026 and annually thereafter, to present specified information at an open and public meeting, including the department's operational decisions and their rationale for the state's water supply during the preceding water year. The bill would require the department to include the information presented at the meeting in a report, make the report publicly available on the department's internet website, and submit the report to the Legislature. The bill would require the department to inventory its existing drought mitigation and response plans and submit a report to the Legislature identifying these plans and their purposes by December 31, 2025. The bill would require the report to include a recommendation on whether there is a need for a new comprehensive, long-term plan for mitigating and responding to the effects of drought at the state level.
Existing law vests the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) with various responsibilities for developing and implementing the state's energy policies. Existing law requires certain state agencies, including the Energy Commission, to develop and implement various energy efficiency programs. This bill, the California's Layered Energy Applications for Residents (CLEAR) Act of 2023, would require the Energy Commission to develop and make publicly available an internet website for energy efficiency and building decarbonization programs administered by the Energy Commission, federal or local governmental agencies, and nonprofit organizations that are available in the state for residential buildings and residential electricity customers, as specified. The bill would require the Energy Commission to enable customer application for the included programs through the internet website. The bill would prohibit including energy efficiency and building decarbonization programs established or administered by the Public Utilities Commission on the internet website, but would authorize the Energy Commission to provide a link to programs that cannot be included.
The California Health Facilities Financing Authority Act authorizes the California Health Facilities Financing Authority (authority) to, among other things, make loans from the continuously appropriated California Health Facilities Financing Authority Fund to participating health institutions, as defined, for financing or refinancing the acquisition, construction, or remodeling of health facilities. Under existing law, the board of supervisors of each county may maintain in the county hospital, in any other hospital situated within or without the county, or in any other psychiatric health facility situated within or without the county, suitable facilities and nonhospital or hospital services for the detention, supervision, care, and treatment of persons who have a mental health disorder or a developmental disability, or who are alleged to be such. Existing law defines "county psychiatric hospital" as a hospital, ward, or facility provided by the county pursuant to certain provisions. This bill would establish the California Acute Care Psychiatric Hospital Loan Fund to be used by the authority to provide loans to qualifying county or city and county applicants for the purpose of building or renovating acute care psychiatric hospitals, psychiatric health facilities, or psychiatric units in general acute care hospitals, as defined. The bill would authorize the authority to establish an interest rate for loans funded by general obligation bonds, as specified, and would otherwise require that loans be provided at zero interest. The bill would require the authority to develop an application for county or city and county applicants by January 1, 2025. The bill would require initial preliminary applications for projects to be submitted to the authority by April 1, 2025, and would require the authority to approve the project based on specified criteria. The bill would provide for the return of any funds not encumbered by a loan recipient within a specified period and would require a loan recipient to maintain and operate the facility for the life of the loan. The bill would authorize the authority to charge a fee to cover the cost of administering the loan. The bill would also require the authority to provide a report to the Department of Finance and the budget and health committees of the Assembly and Senate by a specified date that would include, among other things, the number of projects that are receiving loans and their geographic distribution.
The Unruh Civil Rights Act generally prohibits business establishments from discriminating on specified bases. The California Fair Employment and Housing Act (act) prohibits discrimination in housing and employment on specified bases and provides procedures for enforcement by the Civil Rights Department. Existing law specifies that while it is the intent of the Legislature that the act occupy the field of regulation of discrimination in employment and housing, nothing in the act shall be construed to limit or restrict the application of the Unruh Civil Rights Act. This bill would, commencing on January 1, 2025, also specify that nothing in the act shall be construed to limit or restrict efforts by local entities to enforce state law prohibiting discrimination against classes of persons covered by the act in employment and housing, provided that the enforcement complies with regulations governing local enforcement of the act that the bill would require the Civil Rights Department to promulgate by____. The bill would require those regulations, at a minimum, to ensure consistent application of employment and housing discrimination laws across the state, protect complainants against inadvertent loss of federal or state legal claims, avoid duplication of investigatory work, and minimize any possible loss of federal funding for the Civil Rights Department's work.
Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to undertake various actions in furtherance of meeting the state's clean energy and pollution reduction objectives. This bill, contingent upon an appropriation for its purposes, would require the commission to award grants for agrivoltaic system projects to support research and development in agrivoltaic systems, study the impacts of agrivoltaic systems on farms, on the state's agricultural economy, and on electricity generated from solar panels, and study the potential of agrivoltaic systems to reduce the impact of extreme heat on crops, livestock, and agricultural workers. The bill would require the commission, in consultation with the Department of Food and Agriculture, to develop guidelines and criteria for determining a project's eligibility for grant funding and to take certain actions for purposes of the grant program. The bill would require the commission to conduct an evaluation of the grant program, as specified, and make the evaluation publicly available on its internet website.
(1) Existing law, the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975, provides for the licensure and regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care under authority of the Director of the Department of Managed Health Care and makes a willful violation of the act a crime. Existing law provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Department of Insurance under the authority of the Insurance Commissioner. Existing law limits the maximum amount an enrollee or insured may be required to pay at the point of sale for a covered prescription drug to the lesser of the applicable cost-sharing amount or the retail price. This bill, commencing no later than January 1, 2025, would require an enrollee's or insured's defined cost sharing for each prescription drug to be calculated at the point of sale based on a price that is reduced by an amount equal to 90% of all rebates received, or to be received, in connection with the dispensing or administration of the drug. The bill would require a health care service plan or health insurer to, among other things, pass through to each enrollee or insured at the point of sale a good faith estimate of the enrollee's or insured's decrease in cost sharing. The bill would require a health care service plan or health insurer to calculate an enrollee's or insured's defined cost sharing and provide that information to the dispensing pharmacy, as specified. The bill would require the department and the commissioner to submit an annual report on the impact of these provisions to the appropriate policy committees of the Legislature, as specified. The bill would make these provisions inoperative on January 1, 2027. (2) Existing law requires a health care service plan or health insurer that files certain rate information to report to the appropriate department specified cost information regarding covered prescription drugs, including generic drugs, brand name drugs, and specialty drugs, dispensed as provided. This bill, until January 1, 2027, would require a health care service plan or health insurer to report additional information on the above-described point of sale provision. (3) Because a willful violation of the bill's provisions by a health care service plan would be a 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.
