Asm. Marc Berman

This measure would call upon all Californians to embrace the individual and social benefits of family and community acceptance, upon religious leaders to counsel on LGBTQ matters from a place of love, compassion, and knowledge of the psychological and other harms of conversion therapy, and upon the people of California and the institutions of California with great moral influence to model equitable treatment of all people of the state.

This measure would designate June 2019 as Second Chances Month in California, highlighting existing services and events to support reentry from incarceration.

This measure would recognize the need to pursue avenues to implement proposed reparations for the descendants of African slaves in the United States. The measure would further recognize August 2019 as marking 400 years since Africans were brought to Virginia.

This measure would proclaim September 29, 2019, as Gold Star Mothers' and Families' Day in California.

This measure would welcome refugees and declare its support for the resettlement of refugees in California, no matter their religion, race, nationality, sexual orientation, gender identity, or country of origin, and calls upon other local governments and communities to join them in supporting a stronger national effort to resettle the world's most vulnerable refugees. This measure would call on the federal government to resettle all 30,000 refugees that the United States has committed to resettle in the fiscal year 2019, and would call on Congress and the presidential administration to raise the Presidential Determination to at least 75,000 refugees for fiscal year 2020.

This measure would designate October 20, 2019, and each 20th day of October thereafter, as Leyte Landing Commemoration Day in recognition of the significance of the Leyte landing in liberating the Philippines from Japanese occupation and would also honor the significant contributions to California made by generations of Filipino Americans since that time.

Existing law establishes rules of the road for the operation of a vehicle on state highways and roads. Existing law requires motor vehicles being driven outside of a business or residence district in a caravan or motorcade, whether or not towing other vehicles, to be operated so as to allow sufficient space and in no event less than 100 feet between each vehicle or combination of vehicles so as to enable any other vehicle to overtake or pass. Existing law authorizes the Department of Transportation, in coordination with the Department of the California Highway Patrol, to conduct testing of technologies that enable drivers to safely operate motor vehicles with less than 100 feet between each vehicle or combination of vehicles, exempts motor vehicles participating in this testing from the above-described rule, and prohibits a person from operating a motor vehicle participating in this testing unless the person holds a valid driver's license of the appropriate class for the participating vehicle. Existing law requires the department to report its findings from the testing to the Legislature on or before July 1, 2017, and to submit an updated report to the Legislature on or before July 1, 2019. Existing law repeals these provisions on January 1, 2020. This bill would extend the operation of these provisions until January 1, 2024, and would require the department to submit an additional updated report to the Legislature on or before April 1, 2023, that also includes any recommendations for subsequent actions that should be taken with regard to the technologies tested pursuant to the above-described provisions.

Existing law, the Stop Tobacco Access to Kids Enforcement (STAKE) Act, prohibits the sale, distribution, or nonsale distribution of tobacco products, as defined, directly or indirectly to any person under 21 years of age through the United States Postal Service or through any other public or private postal or package delivery service. Existing law requires a person selling or distributing tobacco products directly to a consumer through the United States Postal Service or by another postal or package delivery service to comply with specified age-verification policies and deliver only to the consumer's verified mailing or billing address, as applicable. Existing law authorizes enforcing agencies to assess civil penalties for violations of the STAKE Act. This bill would additionally require sellers, distributors, and nonsale distributors to deliver tobacco products only in conspicuously marked containers, as specified, and to obtain the signature of a person 21 years of age or older before delivering a tobacco product. The bill would allow a person to designate an address for delivery that is different from the person's mailing or billing address, if the person's mailing or billing address has been verified in accordance with specified provisions.

(1) Existing law establishes a public school financing system that requires state funding for county superintendents of schools, school districts, and charter schools to be calculated pursuant to a local control funding formula, as specified. Existing law requires funding pursuant to the local control funding formula to include, in addition to a base grant, supplemental and concentration grant add-ons that are based on the percentage of pupils who are English learners, foster youth, or eligible for free or reduced-price meals, as specified, served by the county superintendent of schools, school district, or charter school. Existing law specifies the amount of the base grant in the 2013–14 fiscal year, as provided, and requires that amount to be adjusted for changes in cost of living in subsequent fiscal years. Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to compute the supplemental and concentration grant add-ons as certain percentages of the amount of the base grant. This bill would express the intent of the Legislature to increase the base grants to amounts equal to the national average per-pupil funding level, as provided. The bill would express the intent of the Legislature to apply a cost-of-living adjustment separate from, in addition to, and above the specified cost-of-living adjustment described above for purposes of certain funding provisions. (2) Commencing with the first fiscal year after full implementation of the local control funding formula, existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction, within 3 business days of the first principal, 2nd principal, and annual apportionments for each fiscal year, to publish on the State Department of Education's internet website the amount of a county office of education's, school district's, or charter school's funding derived from its local control funding formula allocation that is attributable to the supplemental and concentration grants. Commencing July 1, 2020, this bill would require the Superintendent to additionally publish on the department's internet website (A) the amount of a county office of education's, school district's, or charter school's funding derived from its local control funding formula allocation that is attributable to base grants and (B) the unduplicated pupil counts and percentages calculated for each school district, charter school, and county office of education. The bill would prohibit the Superintendent from publishing this information for any necessary small school, as defined.

This measure would, among other things, designate the year 2019 as "State of California Year of Commemoration of the Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide of 1915–1923," would designate April 24, 2019, as "State of California Day of Commemoration of the 104th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide of 1915–1923," and would call upon the President of the United States and the United States Congress to formally and consistently reaffirm the historical truth that the atrocities committed against the Armenian people constituted genocide.