Asm. Carlos Villapudua

This measure would urge the United States Congress and the President of the United States to permit states to extend burial and memorial benefits in state veterans cemeteries to Republic of Korea veterans and Republic of Vietnam veterans who served in the Vietnam War and who subsequently became United States citizens. The measure would urge the United States Congress and the President of the United States to extend the same benefits in national cemeteries.

This measure would, on June 23, 2021, commemorate the 49th anniversary of the enactment of Title IX, and would urge Californians to continue to work together to achieve the goals set by Title IX, as specified.

This measure would designate the month of June 2021 as Healthy Homes Awareness Month.

Existing law designates 8 agencies in state government and requires the secretary of an agency to be generally responsible for the sound fiscal management of each department, office, or other unit within the agency. Existing law further requires the secretary of an agency to, among other duties, continually seek to improve the organization structure, the operating policies, and the management information systems of each department, office, or other unit. This bill would, until January 1, 2029, establish the Immigrant and Refugee Affairs Agency as an agency within state government, to be headed by a secretary who is appointed by the Governor and subject to Senate confirmation. The bill would specify that the purpose of the agency is to reduce obstacles and enhance immigrant integration, as defined, into the social, cultural, economic, and civic life of the state. The bill would establish the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs within the agency. The bill would transfer functions relating to immigrants and refugees to the office and would declare the intent to incorporate existing and future programs created to assist immigrants and refugees into the office. The bill would transfer the property of any office, agency, or department that relates to functions transferred to the office by these provisions and would transfer the unencumbered balance of any appropriation and any other funds that are available for use in connection with any function transferred to the office. The bill would also provide that every officer and employee who is serving in the state civil service, as provided, and who is transferred to the office, shall retain the status position, and rights. The bill would create the Immigrant and Refugee Integration Fund within the State Treasury, and would make the moneys available in the fund available to the secretary of the office to administer the duties of the office. This bill would establish the duties and responsibilities of the agency and the office which includes, among other duties, establishing a permanent structure within the state to serve immigrants, assisting other state agencies in evaluating their programs for accessibility and effectiveness in providing services to immigrants and refugees, and recommending policy and budget mechanisms for meeting immigrant and refugee integration goals. The bill would prohibit interagency sharing of personal information and would prohibit use of agency resources to directly or indirectly participate or assist in immigration enforcement activity. Existing law establishes the Statewide Director of Immigrant Integration and requires the director serve as the statewide lead for the planning and coordination of immigrant services and policies in California. Existing law requires, among other things, that the director develop a comprehensive statewide report on programs and services that serve immigrants, develop an online clearinghouse of immigrant services, resources, and programs, and monitor the implementation of statewide laws and regulations that serve immigrants. This bill would recast those provisions to rename the director as the Statewide Director of Immigrant and Refugee Integration. The bill would place the director in charge of the office, and would require the director to report to the Governor and the Legislature on programs and services that serve immigrants and refugees by January 1, 2023, and require the director to provide a statewide plan for better implementation and coordination of immigrant and refugee assistance policies and programs. The bill would require the director to incorporate refugee services, resources, and programs into the online clearinghouse by January 1, 2023, and would require the director to monitor statewide laws and regulations that serve refugees, in addition to immigrants. The changes made by this bill would be in effect until January 1, 2029, and as of that date would be repealed. The provisions of this bill would only become operative if funds have been appropriated for the purposes described in the bill in the annual Budget Act or another statute. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.

The California Constitution establishes the Public Utilities Commission, with jurisdiction over all public utilities, subject to control by the Legislature. The California Constitution provides that the commission consists of 5 members appointed by the Governor and approved by the Senate, a majority of the membership concurring. This bill would, beginning January 1, 2023, state that when selecting and confirming commissioners, the Governor and Senate should consider achieving regional diversity by selecting at least one candidate with a permanent residence in northern California, at least one candidate with a permanent residence in the central valley, and at least one candidate with a permanent residence in southern California, and directs that the Governor and Senate should consider a candidate pool that collectively represents each of those areas. Existing law requires that the office of the commission be in the City and County of San Francisco. This bill would authorize the office of the commission to be located in the City and County of San Francisco and authorize the commission to consider options to locate operations and staff outside of the commission's San Francisco headquarters, including in the City of Stockton.

Existing law establishes and requires the State Department of Social Services to administer the CalFood Program to provide food and funding to food banks whose primary function is to facilitate the distribution of food to low-income households, as specified. This bill would require the department to provide a food assistance benefit to low-income California residents, regardless of immigration status, by contracting with nonprofit entities, as defined, to issue the food assistance benefit in the form of prepaid cards. The bill would require the department to procure the prepaid cards to administer the food assistance benefit and to ensure the availability of those prepaid cards to nonprofit entities, as specified. The bill would require participating nonprofit entities to maintain specified records. The bill would require the department and nonprofit entities to distribute all of the food assistance benefits by July 1, 2023. The bill would authorize the department to implement, interpret, or make specific these provisions without taking regulatory action. The bill would exempt contracts awarded pursuant to these provisions from personal services contracting requirements, the Public Contract Code, and the State Contracting Manual, and the contracts would not be subject to the approval of the Department of General Services. The bill would make these provisions operative upon appropriation. The bill would require the department, in consultation with a workgroup, to author a report to provide recommendations and solutions for a permanent food assistance program for low-income California residents experiencing food insecurity, to complete that report by January 1, 2023, and to submit a copy of that report to the Legislature, as specified. This bill would repeal its provisions on January 1, 2025. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Existing federal law establishes the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) , which provides specified services for older individuals at a PACE center, defined, in part, as a facility that includes a primary care clinic, so that they may continue living in the community. Federal law authorizes states to implement the PACE program as a Medicaid state option. Existing state law establishes the California Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE program) to provide community-based, risk-based, and capitated long-term care services as optional services under the state's Medi-Cal State Plan, as specified. Existing law authorizes the State Department of Health Care Services to enter into contracts with various entities for the purpose of implementing the PACE program and fully implementing the single-state agency responsibilities assumed by the department in those contracts, as specified. This bill would exempt a Medi-Cal beneficiary who is enrolled in a PACE organization with a contract with the department from mandatory or passive enrollment in a Medi-Cal managed care plan, and would require persons enrolled in a PACE plan to receive all Medicare and Medi-Cal services from the PACE program. The bill would require, in areas where a PACE plan is available, that the PACE plan be presented as a Medi-Cal managed care plan enrollment option in the same manner as other Medi-Cal managed care plan options. In areas of the state where a presentation on Medi-Cal managed care plan enrollment options is unavailable, the bill would require the department or its contracted vendor to provide outreach and enrollment materials on PACE. The bill would require the department to establish a system to identify Medi-Cal beneficiaries who appear to be eligible for PACE based on age, residence, and prior use of services, and, with respect to that system, would require the department to conduct specified outreach and referrals.