Existing law, the California Organic Food and Farming Act, requires the Secretary of Food and Agriculture, county agricultural commissioners, and the Director of Public Health to enforce state and federal laws governing the production, labeling, and marketing of organic products, as specified. Existing law requires every person engaged in the state in the processing or handling of specified products for human consumption that are sold as organic to register with the director, as specified. Existing law requires the director to provide a registration form for those purposes and requires specified information on the registration form. The bill would require the director to create an online registration and payment option on or before January 1, 2026.
Sponsored bills
Existing law requires the Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force, including the Natural Resources Agency, the California Environmental Protection Agency, the Office of Planning and Research, and the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, in coordination with certain public agencies, to develop a comprehensive implementation strategy to track and ensure the achievement of the goals and key actions identified in the California's Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan, as provided. Existing law establishes the Regional Forest and Fire Capacity Program to support regional leadership to build local and regional capacity and develop, prioritize, and implement strategies and projects that create fire adapted communities and landscapes by improving ecosystem health, community wildfire preparedness, and fire resilience. Under the program, the Department of Conservation is required to provide block grants to regional entities to develop regional strategies that develop governance structures, identify wildfire risks, foster collaboration, and prioritize and implement projects within the region to achieve the program's goals. Existing law requires that regional priority strategy development be in coordination with public landowners and other relevant forest and fire planning efforts in wildfire and forest resiliency planning. This bill would, by January 1, 2025, require the Department of Conservation, in consultation with the task force and its member agencies, to establish guidelines for funding the implementation of the regional priority strategies, as provided, and to establish regional investment strategies to identify and align resources that support implementation of regional priority strategies that contribute to the goals and key actions identified in the California's Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan issued by the task force in January 2021 and any subsequent updates to this plan, and the implementation strategy. The bill would authorize conservancies, departments, and boards within the Natural Resources Agency to directly award regional block grants to eligible regional entities, forest collaboratives, and partnerships to implement regional plans, strategies, agreements, and initiatives. The bill would require the department to provide the task force and to post on its internet website a description, amount, and outcome of each regional block grant.
Existing law vests the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission with the exclusive power to certify sites and related facilities for thermal powerplants. Existing law requires an electrical corporation, local publicly owned electric utility, or community choice aggregator with a contract to procure electricity generated from biomass that expires or expired on or before December 31, 2028, to seek to amend the contract to include, or seek approval for a new contract that includes, an expiration date 5 years later than the expiration date in the contract that was operative in 2022, except as specified. This bill would require the commission, on or before December 31, 2025, to issue a report on the utility-scale biomass combustion facilities still in operation as of January 1, 2024. The bill would require the report to include various assessments of biomass combustion facilities still in operation as of January 1, 2024, and options to maximize the environmental benefits of these facilities. The bill would also require the report to include a recommended strategy to upgrade biomass combustion facilities, where appropriate, that considers impacts on disadvantaged, rural, forested, and agricultural communities, impacts on the ability to maintain existing capacity for managing forest or other excess biomass, the cost of upgrading facilities and financing opportunities, impacts of upgrading biomass combustion facilities on the procurement costs of the energy produced and the associated impacts to ratepayer costs, and job creation or job loss that may result from the strategy. The bill would require the report to include recommendations related to baseload energy generation and managing excess biomass if biomass combustion facilities cease operation and strategies related to processing waste and job training in areas where biomass combustion facilities cease operation. The bill would require the commission to include in the report an evaluation of the practicality and cost-effectiveness of upgrading utility-scale biomass combustion facilities that ceased operation before January 1, 2024, to determine whether such facilities could help California increase its capacity to manage forest and other excess biomass. The bill would require the commission, in preparing the report, to coordinate with the State Air Resources Board and local air districts on assessments of environmental benefits and available technologies to maximize those benefits. By imposing new duties on local air districts, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would also require the commission, in preparing the report, to coordinate with specified state entities for feedstock assessments for forest, agricultural, urban, and postfire waste, engage with and solicit feedback from the communities in which biomass combustion facilities are located and the applicable local governments, and provide opportunities for stakeholder and public input. 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, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
Existing law establishes the Ocean Protection Council in state government to, among other things, establish policies to coordinate the collection, evaluation, and sharing of scientific data related to coastal and ocean resources among agencies. Existing law requires the council to develop and implement a voluntary sustainable seafood promotion program for the state, to consist of specified components, including a competitive grant and loan program for eligible entities, including, but not limited to, fishery groups and associations, for the purpose of assisting California fisheries in qualifying for certification to internationally accepted standards for sustainable seafood. This bill would require the council, on or before January 1, 2026, in coordination and in consultation with various entities, including the State Air Resources Board, to implement a statewide voluntary vessel speed reduction and sustainable shipping program for the California coast in order to reduce air pollution, the risk of fatal vessel strikes on whales, and harmful underwater acoustic impacts. The bill would require the program to expand a certain existing program and would authorize the program to include specified components, including incentives to program participants based on a percentage of distance traveled by a participating vessel at a reduced speed, as provided. The bill would limit application of the program to vessels that are 300 gross tons or greater. The bill would require the council, on or before December 31, 2026, to submit a report to the Legislature regarding the implementation of the program.
Existing law requires the Department of Community Services and Development to, among other things, plan and evaluate strategies for overcoming poverty in the state, mobilize resources in support of antipoverty and community services programs, and administer public and private funds designed to support antipoverty programs that are not currently administered by other departments. Existing law establishes the Cradle-to-Career Data System for the purpose of connecting individuals and organizations to trusted information and resources, as a source for actionable data and research on education, economic, and health outcomes for individuals, families, and communities, and to provide for expanded access to tools and services that support the education-to-employment pipeline, as specified. This bill, the It Takes a Village Act of 2023, subject upon an appropriation in the annual Budget Act or another statute for these purposes, would establish the California Coordinated Neighborhood and Community Services Grant Program to be administered by the State Department of Social Services or another department within the California Health and Human Services Agency. The bill would require the department to grant awards on a competitive basis for the 2025–26 through 2027–28 fiscal years to eligible entities that are Promise Neighborhoods, other community-based networks, or multineighborhood regional cradle-to-career networks, as those terms are defined, to either implement a comprehensive, integrated continuum of cradle-to-career solutions at the neighborhood level or support the civic infrastructure and backbone of cradle-to-career networks that support their network partners to accomplish systems change. The bill would define "cradle-to-career" to mean a system of integrated services that begins before birth and leads to appropriate postsecondary success, including academic, occupational, and independent living, that benefits the individual and community as a whole. The bill would require the department, in consultation with the State Department of Education, to develop an application process and would require the department to establish performance standards to measure progress on indicators and results relevant to the evaluation of the grant program. The bill would require grant recipients to contribute matching funds and prepare and submit an annual report to the department, as specified.
Existing law establishes the Atmospheric Rivers: Research, Mitigation, and Climate Forecasting Program in the Department of Water Resources. Existing law requires the department, upon an appropriation for purposes of the program, to research climate forecasting and the causes and impacts that climate change has on atmospheric rivers, to operate reservoirs in a manner that improves flood protection, and to reoperate flood control and water storage facilities to capture water generated by atmospheric rivers. This bill would rename that program the Atmospheric Rivers Research and Forecast Improvement Program: Enabling Climate Adaptation Through Forecast-Informed Reservoir Operations and Hazard Resiliency (AR/FIRO) Program. The bill would require the department to research, develop, and implement new observations, prediction models, novel forecasting methods, and tailored decision support systems to improve predictions of atmospheric rivers and their impacts on water supply, flooding, post-wildfire debris flows, and environmental conditions. The bill would also require the department to utilize relevant information to operate reservoirs in a manner that improves flood protection in the state and to reoperate flood control and water storage facilities to capture water generated by atmospheric rivers and other storms.
Existing law requires the Department of Food and Agriculture to promote and protect the agricultural industry of the state. Existing law under Article XVI of the California Constitution requires measures authorizing general obligation bonds to specify the single object or work to be funded by the bonds and further requires a bond act to be approved by a 23 vote of each house of the Legislature and a majority of the voters. This bill would enact the Climate-resilient Farms, Sustainable Healthy Food Access, and Farmworker Protection Bond Act of 2024, which, if approved by the voters, would authorize the issuance of bonds in the amount of $3,650,000,000 pursuant to the State General Obligation Bond Law, to finance programs related to, among other things, agricultural lands, food and fiber infrastructure, climate resilience, agricultural professionals, including farmers, ranchers, and farmworkers, workforce development and training, air quality, tribes, disadvantaged communities, nutrition, food aid, meat processing facilities, and fishing facilities. The bill would make its provisions severable. The bill would provide for the submission of the bond act to the voters at the November 5, 2024, statewide general election. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law, the California Coastal Act of 1976, among other things, requires anyone wishing to perform or undertake any development in the coastal zone, except as specified, in addition to obtaining any other permit required by law from any local government or from any state, regional, or local agency, to obtain a coastal development permit from the California Coastal Commission, as provided. This bill would authorize the commission to authorize blue carbon demonstration projects, as defined, in order to demonstrate and quantify the carbon sequestration potential of these projects to help inform the state's natural and working lands and climate resilience strategies. The bill would, among other things, authorize the commission to require an applicant with a project that impacts coastal wetland, subtidal, intertidal, or marine habitats or ecosystems to build or contribute to a blue carbon demonstration project.
Existing law requires the California Department of Aging to administer the Mello-Granlund Older Californians Act, which establishes various programs that serve older individuals, defined as persons 60 years of age or older except as specified. The act requires the department to designate various private nonprofit or public agencies as area agencies on aging to work within a planning and service area and provide a broad array of social and nutritional services. Under the act, the department's mission is to provide leadership to those agencies in developing systems of home- and community-based services that maintain individuals in their own homes or least restrictive homelike environments. This bill would, until January 1, 2030, and subject to an appropriation, require the department to establish a case management services pilot program. Under the bill, the purpose of the program would be to expand statewide the local capacity of supportive services programs by providing case management services to older individuals who need assistance to maintain health and economic stability. The bill would require the Counties of Alameda, Marin, and Sonoma to participate in the pilot program. The bill would require the 3 counties to coordinate with their respective area agencies on aging or other county or community-based entities to deliver the services. The bill would also require those counties to measure performance outcomes during the course of implementing the program. The bill would require those counties, on an annual basis, for the first 5 years during which an appropriation is made, to submit reports to the department containing data on the performance outcomes, in order to determine program efficacy and to inform and shape solutions under a master plan for aging that has been established pursuant to a specified executive order. By creating new duties for the 3 counties relating to participation in the pilot program, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the Counties of Alameda, Marin, and Sonoma. 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, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.