Asm. Joaquin Arambula

Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services and under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions. Existing law requires the department to establish the Medically Tailored Meals Pilot Program and the Short-Term Medically Tailored Meals Intervention Services Program, to operate in specified counties and during limited periods for the purpose of providing medically tailored meal intervention services to eligible Medi-Cal beneficiaries with certain health conditions, including congestive heart failure, cancer, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or renal disease. Existing law, subject to implementation of the California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal (CalAIM) initiative, authorizes a Medi-Cal managed care plan to elect to cover community supports approved by the department as cost effective and medically appropriate in a comprehensive risk contract that are in lieu of applicable Medi-Cal state plan services. Under existing law, community supports that the department is authorized to approve include, among other things, medically supportive food and nutrition services, including medically tailored meals. This bill would make medically supportive food and nutrition interventions a covered benefit under the Medi-Cal program, through both the fee-for-service and managed care delivery systems, no sooner than July 1, 2026, upon appropriation and subject to federal approval and the issuance of final guidance by the department. The bill would require those interventions to be covered if determined to be medically necessary by a health care provider or health care plan, as specified. The bill would require the provision of interventions for 12 weeks, or longer if deemed medically necessary. The bill would require the department to define the qualifying medical conditions for covered interventions and delineate the services included in the definition of a medically supportive food and nutrition intervention. The bill would require a health care provider, to the extent possible, to match the acuity of a patient's condition to the intensity and duration of the covered intervention and to include culturally appropriate foods. The bill would require the department, upon appropriation, to establish a medically supportive food and nutrition benefit stakeholder group, with a specified composition, to advise the department on certain related items, such as the scope of the benefit, among others.

Under existing law, the State Water Resources Control Board and the 9 California regional water quality control boards regulate water quality in accordance with the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act and the federal Clean Water Act. Existing law authorizes a regional board to order the provision of sewer service by a receiving sewer system, as defined, to a disadvantaged community served by an inadequate onsite sewage treatment system, as defined. This bill would authorize the state board, until January 1, 2029, and after it makes a specified finding or findings by resolution, to require a designated sewer system to contract with an administrator designated or approved by the state board for administrative, technical, operational, legal, or managerial services to assist a designated sewer system with the delivery of adequate sewer service, as defined. The bill would also authorize the state board to order a designated sewer system to accept those services, including full management and control of all aspects of the designated sewer system, from an administrator. The bill would define "designated sewer system" for these purposes as a sewer service provider that serves a disadvantaged community that is either an inadequate sewer service or a sewer system that has a demonstrated failure to maintain technical, managerial, or financial capacity to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse. The bill would require the state board to take specified actions before determining that a sewer service provider is a designated sewer system, including providing the sewer service provider an opportunity to show that it has taken steps to timely address its failure to be an adequate sewer system or to timely address its failure to maintain technical, managerial, and financial capacity, conducting a public meeting, and providing an opportunity for public comment. The bill would authorize the state board to grant specified authority over the designated sewer system to the administrator, including the authority to expend money for various purposes and to set and collect sewer rates and fees. The bill would require the state board to work with the administrator and the communities served by the designated sewer system to develop, within the shortest practicable time, adequate technical, managerial, and financial capacity to deliver adequate sewer service so that the services of the administrator are no longer necessary. Existing law creates the State Water Pollution Cleanup and Abatement Account in the State Water Quality Control Fund and continuously appropriates moneys in the account to the state board for specified purposes, including providing grants for cleaning up a waste, abating the effects of a waste on waters of the state, or addressing an urgent drinking water need, as provided. This bill would authorize the state board to also use moneys in the account to provide grants to administrators for specified purposes, including, among others, to provide administrative, technical, operational, legal, or managerial services to a sewer service provider, until December 31, 2029, as provided. By expanding the purposes for which moneys in a continuously appropriated account may be spent, the bill would make an appropriation. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Existing law requires the Department of Housing and Community Development, through its Office of Migrant Services, to assist in the development, construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation, or operation of migrant farm labor centers, as provided. Existing law authorizes the Director of Housing and Community Development to contract with specified local public and private entities, including school districts and housing authorities, for the procurement or construction of housing or shelter and to obtain specified services, including education, for migratory agricultural workers. Existing law authorizes a migrant farm labor center subject to these contracts to be operated for an extended period prior to or beyond the standard 180-day period, but not to exceed 275 days in any calendar year, if certain conditions are satisfied. This bill would require the department, by January 1, 2026, to engage and solicit feedback from specified stakeholders on the definition of "migratory agricultural worker" for the purposes of updating the definition. The bill would also require the department to develop, and by July 1, 2027, submit to specified legislative committees, a report that analyzes the feasibility and impact of transitioning housing units at Office of Migrant Services centers to year-round availability. The bill would require the report to include specified criteria, including, among other things, the quantity of housing units at each center. The bill would require the department, by December 31, 2028, and following the completion of the report, to coordinate with the Department of General Services and the Department of Food and Agriculture to identify available excess sites in proximity to migrant farm labor centers and prioritize those locations for the development of permanent farmworker housing. The bill would prescribe various requirements on the department, including that the department conduct an annual inspection of each migrant farm labor center to determine whether health, safety, and infrastructure standards are properly met. The bill would also prescribe various requirements on entities operating a migrant farm labor center, including that the entities ensure that each housing unit complies with all applicable local health and safety laws and prescreen Office of Migrant Services program applicants for eligibility in farmworker-restricted units on properties funded by the Joe Serna, Jr. Farmworker Housing Grant Program. By imposing additional duties on entities with regard to operating a farm labor center, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would make related findings and declarations. 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, the Small Business Procurement and Contract Act, requires state agencies to take certain actions in order to facilitate the participation of small businesses and microbusinesses in the provision of goods, information technology, and services to the state, and in the construction of state facilities. Existing law gives the Department of General Services sole responsibility for certifying and determining the eligibility of small businesses and microbusinesses under the act. Existing law requires the department to require an applicant or certified firm to submit a written declaration, under penalty of perjury, that information submitted to the department is true and correct, as specified. Existing federal law provides that certain aliens are not eligible for any state or local public benefit, except as provided. Existing federal law authorizes a state to provide that an alien who is not lawfully present in the United States is eligible for a state or local public benefit for which the alien would otherwise be ineligible under these provisions only through the enactment of a state law after August 22, 1996, which affirmatively provides for that eligibility. This bill would specify that the act is a state law that provides assistance and services for persons regardless of immigration status within the meaning of the federal law described above. By expanding the scope of the crime of perjury, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. 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 reimbursement is not required by this act for a specified reason.

The Alcoholic Beverage Control Act provides for the issuance of various categories of alcoholic beverage licenses, including the imposition of fees, conditions, and restrictions in connection with the issuance of those licenses. The act provides that any on-sale licensee authorized to sell wine may also sell soju, an imported Korean alcoholic beverage, as specified, and shochu, an imported Japanese alcoholic beverage, as specified. This bill would provide that any on-sale licensee authorized to sell wine may also sell domestically produced soju and shochu, as specified.

Existing law establishes the State Department of State Hospitals within the California Health and Human Services Agency and provides the department with jurisdiction over specified facilities for the care and treatment of persons with mental health disorders. This bill would require, on or before January 31, 2026, the State Department of State Hospitals to submit a report to the Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review and the Assembly Committee on Budget providing amounts expended during the 2024–25 fiscal year, pursuant to Article 10.15 of the Bargaining Unit 16 Memorandum of Understanding between the State of California and the Union of American Physicians and Dentists, as specified. The bill would make these provisions inoperative on June 30, 2026, and would repeal them as of January 1, 2027.

Existing law, the Ralph M. Brown Act, requires, with specified exceptions, that all meetings of a legislative body, as defined, of a local agency be open and public and that all persons be permitted to attend and participate. The act generally requires for teleconferencing that the legislative body of a local agency that elects to use teleconferencing post agendas at all teleconference locations, identify each teleconference location in the notice and agenda of the meeting or proceeding, and have each teleconference location be accessible to the public. Existing law also requires that, during the teleconference, at least a quorum of the members of the legislative body participate from locations within the boundaries of the territory over which the local agency exercises jurisdiction, except as specified. Existing law, until January 1, 2026, authorizes specified neighborhood city councils to use alternate teleconferencing provisions related to notice, agenda, and public participation, as prescribed, if, among other requirements, the city council has adopted an authorizing resolution and 23 of the neighborhood city council votes to use alternate teleconference provisions, as specified. This bill, until January 1, 2026, would authorize a California Community College student body association and other specified student-run community college organizations to use similar alternate teleconferencing provisions related to notice, agenda, and public participation, as prescribed, if, among other requirements, the board of trustees of the community college district has adopted an authorizing resolution and 23 of an eligible legislative body votes to use the alternate teleconferencing provisions, as specified. 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 requires local agencies, for the purpose of ensuring public access to the meetings of public bodies and the writings of public officials and agencies, to comply with a statutory enactment that amends or enacts laws relating to public records or open meetings and contains findings demonstrating that the enactment furthers the constitutional requirements relating to this purpose. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.

Existing law establishes the California Housing Finance Agency in the Department of Housing and Community Development, and authorizes the agency to, among other things, make loans to finance affordable housing, including residential structures, housing developments, multifamily rental housing, special needs housing, and other forms of housing, as specified. Existing law requires the agency to administer a home purchase assistance program for the purpose of assisting low- and moderate-income home buyers to qualify for the purchase of owner-occupied homes, as specified. Existing law establishes the Home Purchase Assistance Fund, which is continuously appropriated for expenditure pursuant to the program and defraying the administrative costs for the agency. Existing law requires, on and after July 1, 2016, unobligated amounts remaining in any fund established for specified purposes to be transferred to the fund for expenditure by the agency for the purposes of the program. This bill would specify that an applicant who meets all other requirements for a loan under the program, including, but not limited to, any requirements imposed on the agency in administering the program by specified entities, and who is otherwise eligible under applicable federal and state law, shall not be disqualified solely based on the applicant's immigration status. By expanding the persons eligible to receive moneys from a continuously appropriated fund, this bill would make an appropriation.

This measure would, among other things, urge the United States Congress and President Joseph R. Biden to fully fund the United States Environmental Protection Agency's Comprehensive Infrastructure Solution for the Tijuana River due to the ongoing impacts to public health, the environment, and the local economy caused by cross-border pollution and would urge President Joseph R. Biden to declare a national emergency due to those ongoing impacts.

Maddy summaryAssembly Concurrent Resolution 120 designates January 2024 as Positive Parenting Awareness Month in California. This measure does not change laws or allocate funding but instead encourages state agencies, communities, and organizations to focus on the importance of positive parenting strategies. The resolution highlights how supportive family environments can improve children's health and well-being while acknowledging the diverse forms families take in the state. It serves as a formal acknowledgment of existing programs and resources rather than creating new mandates or policies.