The Sherman Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Law regulates the packaging, labeling, and advertising of drugs and devices, and is administered by the State Department of Public Health. Among other things, the law prohibits a person from conducting a home medical device retail facility business in this state unless the person has obtained a license from the department and sets forth standards for operating that facility. Existing law authorizes the department to waive any licensing requirements for a medical device retail facility when, in the opinion of the department, a high standard of patient safety, consistent with good patient care, can be provided by the licensure of a home medical device retail facility that does not meet all of the requirements for licensure. This bill would enact the Medical Device Right to Repair Act, and would require an original manufacturer of powered medical equipment used in the treatment, monitoring, or diagnosis of a patient to provide documentation, parts, service access methods, and tools used to inspect, diagnose, maintain, and repair powered medical equipment to a hospital and an independent service organization engaged by the hospital for the purpose of providing medical equipment maintenance and repair, on fair and reasonable terms, as defined. The bill would exempt from these requirements any trade secret information. The bill would subject an original equipment manufacturer who knowingly violates these provisions to specified civil penalties, and would authorize the Attorney General or a district attorney, county counsel, or city attorney to bring a civil action for this purpose.
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Existing law, the Cannella Environmental Farming Act of 1995, requires the Department of Food and Agriculture, in consultation with the Scientific Advisory Panel on Environmental Farming, to establish and oversee a Healthy Soils Program to seek to optimize climate benefits while supporting the economic viability of California agriculture by providing incentives, including, but not limited to, loans, grants, research, and technical assistance, and educational materials and outreach, to farmers whose management practices contribute to healthy soils and result in net long-term on-farm greenhouse gas benefits. This bill would make a nonsubstantive change to this provision.
Existing law requires a pupil to complete designated coursework while in grades 9 to 12, inclusive, in order to receive a diploma of graduation from high school. Existing law requires the governing board of an elementary school district to certify to the Superintendent of Public Instruction that it has adopted a policy to implement a course of instruction that sufficiently prepares the pupils in the district for the course of study required to receive a diploma of graduation from high school. This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to the latter provision.
Existing law, the California Urban Forestry Act of 1978, has as stated purposes the promotion of the use of urban forest resources for purposes of increasing integrated projects with multiple benefits in urban communities and promoting policies and incentives that advance improved maintenance of urban forest canopy to optimize multiple benefits. Existing law authorizes the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection to make grants to provide assistance for projects that further the goals of the act. Existing law also authorizes the director to waive the cost sharing requirements for projects that are in disadvantaged and severely disadvantaged communities, and to authorize advance payments from a grant awarded to a nonprofit organization that is located in or providing service to disadvantaged or low-income communities, as provided. This bill would make a nonsubstantive change to those provisions.
Existing law authorizes the Employment Development Department (department) to administer the federal-state unemployment insurance program and provides for the payment of unemployment compensation benefits to eligible individuals who are unemployed through no fault of their own. Existing law establishes procedures for the filing, determination, and payment of benefit claims, and those benefits are payable from the Unemployment Fund. Existing law requires the department to promptly pay benefits if it finds the claimant is eligible and to promptly deny benefits if it finds the claimant is ineligible for benefits. Existing law requires the department to consider facts submitted by an employer in making this determination and also provides for the department to audit claims, as specified. Existing law provides a procedure for a claimant or a base employer to challenge a determination of the computation or recomputation of the benefits. This bill would require the department to provide a claimant with a notification of the computation used to determine their benefits within 30 days of the receipt of the claim and to respond to a challenge by the claimant or the base employer based on the computation or recomputation of benefits within 15 days of the receipt of the protest, except as specified. This bill would also make technical changes to these provisions. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
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 the state funding apportioned to school districts and charter schools to be based on a base grant, as specified, and requires, among other things, the base grant for grades 9 to 12, inclusive, to be adjusted by an additional 2.6%, as adjusted for inflation. Commencing with the 2021–22 fiscal year, this bill would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to additionally adjust each grade span adjusted base grant by a certain amount, as provided, and would condition eligibility of those funds on a school district or charter school annually electing to receive the funds and documenting in its annual audit that certain requirements relating to pupil mental health services have been met for the corresponding fiscal year.
Existing law establishes the Office of Small Business Advocate (CalOSBA) within the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development, also known as GO-Biz, to advocate for causes of small business and to provide small businesses with the information they need to survive in the marketplace. Existing law authorizes counties, cities, and other local agencies to impose various taxes and fees in connection with activity or property within those jurisdictions. This bill would enact the California Small Business Rent Relief Act, which would authorize a county to establish a local small business rent forgiveness and tax relief program, as provided, for the purpose of providing credits to qualified taxpayers, as defined, to be used against any tax or fee owed to the county by the qualified taxpayer, and for which the county has authority to collect a credit in lieu of cash. The bill would authorize CalOSBA to establish the California Small Business Rent Forgiveness and Tax Relief Program, as provided, for the purpose of allocating credit authority to qualified counties, as defined, to implement a small business rent forgiveness and tax relief program. The bill would create the Small Business Rent Forgiveness and Tax Relief Account within the California Economic Development Fund, for the purpose of receiving moneys transferred to the account, and would require all moneys in the account to be available for expenditure, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for the purpose of implementing the California Small Business Rent Forgiveness and Tax Relief Program. The bill would require CalOSBA to submit a report to the Governor and the Legislature on program activities, as provided.
Existing law imposes strict liability upon persons who place a defective product on the market, including retailers engaged in the business of distributing goods to the public, for injuries caused by the product. Existing law exempts a manufacturer or seller from liability, except as provided, in any action for injury or death caused by a product, other than an action based on a manufacturing defect or breach of an express warranty, if the product is inherently unsafe and the product is known to be unsafe by the ordinary consumer who consumes the product with the ordinary knowledge common to the community and the product is a common consumer product intended for personal consumption, as specified. This bill would, in any strict products liability action, make an electronic place that, by contract or other arrangement with one or more third parties, engages in specified acts strictly liable for all damages proximately caused by a defective product that is purchased or sold through the electronic place to the same extent as a retailer would be liable for selling the defective product in the retailer's physical store, regardless of whether the electronic place ever takes physical possession of, or title to, the defective product.
Existing law authorizes cities and counties to license any kind of business, not prohibited by law, transacted and carried on within the limits of its jurisdiction. Cities and counties, pursuant to certain restrictions, may impose a license fee on those businesses. This bill would prohibit cities and counties, including charter cities and counties, from imposing or collecting license fees from restaurants from January 1, 2020, to December 31, 2021, as provided, and would require the city or county to refund to a restaurant any license fees collected during that period. By imposing new duties on cities and counties with respect to imposing or collecting specified license fees, and by requiring that the fees be refunded, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law, the Alcoholic Beverage Control Act, is administered by the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control and regulates the granting of licenses for the manufacture, distribution, and sale of alcoholic beverages within the state. Existing law imposes various assessments, including annual renewal fees for licenses and permit fees, depending on the type of license issued, and specified surcharges. Existing law authorizes an adjustment of the renewal fees, as provided, and requires these fees and surcharges to be deposited into various funds, including the Alcohol Beverage Control Fund, the Alcoholic Beverage Control Appeals Fund, and the Motor Vehicle Account in the State Transportation Fund. This bill would waive specified permanent license application fees, annual renewal fees, and associated surcharges for applications submitted on or after January 1, 2020, but before January 1, 2022, and would require the department to refund those fees if already paid. The bill would waive specified interim operating permit fees from January 1, 2020, to December 31, 2021, and would require the department to refund those fees if already paid. The bill would also authorize, subject to specified limitations, the department to adjust specified annual renewal fees on or after January 1, 2022, and each January 1 thereafter, as if the annual renewal fees were adjusted on January 1, 2020, and January 1, 2021. By requiring fees and surcharges to be refunded to licensees from the Alcohol Beverage Control Fund, the Alcoholic Beverage Control Appeals Fund, and the Motor Vehicle Account, this bill would make an appropriation. Existing law, the California Retail Food Code, establishes uniform health and sanitation standards for, and provides for regulation by the State Department of Public Health of, retail food facilities, as defined, and requires local health enforcement agencies to enforce these provisions. The code requires each food facility to have a valid permit to be open for business and requires any fee for the permit to be determined by the local governing body. This bill would require a local enforcement agency to waive or refund the fee, as applicable, for the issuance of a new permit or the renewal of an existing permit from January 1, 2020, to December 31, 2021. By imposing new duties on local law enforcement agencies with respect to waiving or refunding specified permit fees, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would include findings that changes proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities and counties, including charter cities and counties. 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 establishes the California Career Technical Education Incentive Grant Program, administered by the State Department of Education, with the purpose of encouraging, maintaining, and strengthening the delivery of high-quality career technical education programs. Existing law appropriates specified amounts for the program from the General Fund for the 2015–16, 2016–17, and 2017–18 fiscal years. Existing law provides, for the 2018–19 fiscal year and every fiscal year thereafter, that $150,000,000 is made available for the program upon appropriation by the Legislature. Existing law specifies minimum eligibility requirements for grant applicants. Existing law also requires the department, on or before January 31, 2024, and on or before January 31 every 5 years thereafter, to submit to the Department of Finance, the Governor, and the appropriate policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature a report evaluating the progress that local educational agencies have made with respect to specified issues related to the program. This bill would provide that, for the 2021–22 fiscal year and each fiscal year thereafter, $300,000,000 would be made available to the department, upon appropriation by the Legislature in the Budget Act or another statute, for the program. The bill would also make slight adjustments to program provisions relating to eligibility requirements for grant applicants and to the reporting requirements referenced above.