Asm. Richard Gordon

This measure would proclaim January 13, 2015, as Korean-American Day.

This measure would proclaim January 26, 2015, as India Republic Day, and would urge all Californians to join in celebrating India Republic Day.

Existing federal law provides for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) , known in California as CalFresh, formerly the Food Stamp Program, under which supplemental nutrition assistance benefits allocated to the state by the federal government are distributed to eligible individuals by each county. Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services to establish and maintain a plan, known as the County Administrative Cost Control Plan, whereby costs for county administration of CalFresh are effectively controlled within the amounts annually appropriated for that administration, and whereby standards and performance criteria are established and are required to be adhered to by counties. This bill would require the department, in collaboration with key stakeholders, to establish statewide customer service standards and performance goals with regard to CalFresh, revise the standards and goals to reflect changes in CalFresh performance over time, measure the progress made toward the execution of the standards and goals on an annual basis, and make the standards and goals publicly available for the purpose of informing the Legislature and the public. The bill would also require the department to develop a data management tool that includes specified data, including, but not limited to, data regarding CalFresh applications received through multiple channels. This bill would require data from the data management tool to be made publicly available on an ongoing basis and updated at least on a quarterly basis within 60 days following the end of each quarter, and would require the department to use the data from the tool to measure the progress made towards the standards and goals established pursuant to these provisions. The bill would make related findings and declarations.

Existing law, the Child Care and Development Services Act, is enacted for, among other purposes, the purpose of providing a comprehensive, coordinated, and cost-effective system of child care and development services for children from infancy to 13 years of age and their parents, including a full range of supervision, health, and support services through full- and part-time programs. Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to administer all California state preschool programs. Existing law requires those programs to include, but not be limited to, part-day age and developmentally appropriate programs designed to facilitate the transition to kindergarten for three- and four-year-old children in educational development, health services, social services, nutritional services, parent education and parent participation, evaluation, and staff development. Existing law requires fees to be assessed and collected for families with children in a part-day preschool program and requires the Superintendent to establish a fee schedule for families using preschool and child care and development services pursuant to the act. This bill would eliminate the requirement for families to be assessed these fees for part-day preschool and for the Superintendent to establish a fee schedule for families using the part-day preschool program.

Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Decisions of the PUC are adopted in the California Solar Initiative, a program providing the ratepayer funded incentives for eligible solar energy systems. Existing law also authorizes the PUC to, among other things, conduct annual random audits of solar energy systems to evaluate their performance. This bill would make a nonsubstantive change to the latter provision.

Under existing law, the Department of Food and Agriculture is responsible for enforcing provisions relating to the importation of animals, milk and milk products, produce dealers, and other agricultural regulations. Existing law, the California Meat and Poultry Inspection Act, establishes a meat and poultry inspection program and, in connection with the operation of that program by the department, authorizes the Secretary of Food and Agriculture to adopt, by regulation, standards and requirements that meet those prescribed by the Federal Meat Inspection Act and the Federal Poultry Products Inspection Act. This bill would prohibit a livestock or poultry product from being sold in California if the livestock or poultry product is constituted of livestock or poultry that was administered a medically important antimicrobial for nontherapeutic use, such as growth promotion, feed efficiency, weight gain, or disease prevention. The bill would also prohibit a livestock or poultry product sold in California to be constituted of livestock or poultry that was administered a medically important antimicrobial for nonroutine disease control unless certain conditions are met. The bill would prohibit a livestock or poultry product from being sold in California unless the livestock or poultry product is constituted wholly or in part of livestock or poultry that was slaughtered at a registered slaughter facility and the slaughter facility annually reports specified information to the department regarding the use of medically important antimicrobials. The bill would also prohibit a medically important antimicrobial from being administered to a food-producing animal unless the medically important antimicrobial is administered for a therapeutic use and consistently with specified veterinarian provisions. The bill would require the department to establish, by regulation, a schedule for the implementation of these provisions and require that they be fully implemented on or before on January 1, 2020. The bill would require the department to post the information reported by the slaughter facilities on an Internet Web site commencing on or before December 31, 2017. This bill would require the department to adopt any regulations necessary to implement the provisions of the bill.

Existing provisions of the California Constitution provide for the Legislature and electors to propose amendments or revisions to the Constitution. Any proposed constitutional amendment or revision submitted to the voters becomes effective if it is approved by a majority of votes cast. This measure would increase the vote requirement from a majority to 55% of the votes cast for the electors to amend or revise the Constitution, except that this measure would permit the electors by a majority vote to approve an amendment or revision if the sole effect is to reverse one or more changes made to the Constitution by a previous amendment or revision that, prior to the adoption of this measure, was adopted by a majority vote.