Asm. Joan Buchanan

Existing law requires specified information to be provided to patients regarding their health care. Existing federal law requires a written report of the results of each mammography examination and requires a summary of that report to be sent to the patient within a specified time period. This bill, from April 1, 2013, until January 1, 2019, would require, under specified circumstances, a health facility at which a mammography examination is performed to include in the summary of the written report that is sent to the patient a prescribed notice on breast density.

This measure would memorialize the President and Congress of the United States to enact legislation that would add comprehensive, preventative dental care coverage to Medicare benefits.

This measure would recognize September 2012 as Recovery Month in California, in order to raise awareness of the importance of substance use disorders treatment and to help people living with substance use disorders and their families to receive treatment.

This measure would recognize the 45th anniversary of Kwanzaa and proclaim December 26 through January 1 each year as Kwanzaa Week.

This measure would urge the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and specifically its director, Edward DeMarco, to immediately allow the Federal National Mortgage Association and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation to offer principal reductions to homeowners who owe more on their home loans than what their homes are worth.

This measure would recognize the 25th anniversary of the California Vietnam Veterans Memorial on November 23, 2013, and encourage all Californians to take part in ceremonies, organized by the California State Council of Vietnam Veterans of America along with assistance from the Department of Veterans Affairs and other veterans service organizations. This measure would call upon the state archives to display memorabilia in a special display on the Vietnam War, as provided, the California State Military Museum to prepare and display exhibits on the Vietnam War, as provided, and the Department of Veterans Affairs to add names to the memorial, as provided.

This measure encourages the California Community Colleges, the California State University, and the University of California to consider and adopt the American Council on Education credit recommendations to give veterans due credit for their military experience.

The Public Employees' Retirement Law establishes the Public Employees' Retirement System (PERS) for the purpose of providing pension benefits to specified public employees. PERS is funded by investment returns and employer and employee contributions. Existing law authorizes a contracting agency and its employees to agree in writing to share the costs of any optional benefit that is inapplicable to a contracting agency until the agency elects to be subject to the benefit. This bill would instead authorize a contracting agency and its employees to agree in writing to share the costs of the employer contribution with or without a change in benefits, as specified. The bill would prohibit an employer from using impasse procedures to impose member cost sharing on any contribution amount above that which is authorized by law. The County Employees Retirement Law of 1937 (CERL) authorizes counties and districts, as defined, to provide a system of retirement benefits to their employees. CERL defines compensation earnable for the purpose of calculating benefits as the average compensation for the period under consideration with respect to the average number of days ordinarily worked by persons in the same grade or class of positions during the period, and at the same rate of pay, as determined by the retirement board. This bill would exclude from the definition of compensation earnable any compensation determined by the board to have been paid to enhance a member's retirement benefit. The bill would also exclude various payments from the definition of compensation earnable, including payments for unused vacation, annual leave, personal leave, sick leave, and compensatory time off, as well as payments made at the termination of employment, except what may be earned and payable in each 12-month period during the final average salary period.

This measure would declare December 12, 2012, as California Bullying Prevention Day, and would recognize the need for individuals, schools, communities, businesses, local governments, and the state to take action on behalf of bullying prevention in California.

This measure would request the President and the Congress of the United States to enact the Social Security Fairness Act of 2011, which would repeal the Government Pension Offset and the Windfall Elimination Provision from the Social Security Act.