Existing law establishes the California Health and Human Services Agency, which includes the State Department of Health Care Services, among other state departments charged with the administration of health, social, and other human services. Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal program 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 sets forth a schedule of covered benefits under the Medi-Cal program, which includes community health worker services. Existing law defines "community health worker" as a liaison, link, or intermediary between health and social services and the community to facilitate access to services and to improve the access and cultural competence of service delivery and who is a frontline health worker either trusted by, or who has a close understanding of, the community served. Existing law includes in the definition of community health worker Promotores, Promotores de Salud, Community Health Representatives, navigators, and other nonlicensed health workers with specified qualifications. This bill would require the department, by no later than January 1, 2025, and until December 31, 2026, to convene the Promotores and Promotoras Advisory and Oversight Workgroup to provide perspective and guidance to changes in the health and human services delivery system, including, but not limited to, the Medi-Cal program. The bill would require the secretary to appoint no fewer than 9 individuals to the workgroup who have at least ten years experience working in California as, or with, Promotores or Promotoras. The bill would require the workgroup to be comprised of no less than 51% Promotores or Promotoras, as specified, and require the appointees to be from geographically diverse areas of the state. The bill would require the workgroup to advise the departments under the agency to ensure that services provided by Promotores or Promotoras are available and accessible to all eligible populations. The bill would also require the workgroup to advise the agency to ensure that Promotores and Promotoras training and outreach materials are culturally and linguistically appropriate, to make recommendations on outreach efforts, as specified, and to provide input on issues that should be informed by community representatives who have lived experience with using and navigating Promotores or Promotoras services and the Medi-Cal program. The bill would also make findings and declarations related to the inclusion of Promotoras.
Sponsored bills
Existing law establishes the Natural Resources Agency, composed of departments, boards, conservancies, and commissions responsible for the restoration, protection, and management of the state's natural and cultural resources. This bill would establish in the agency the California Trails Conservancy Program. The bill would require the program to have specified purposes, including promoting enhanced and expanded environmentally sound greenways and trail networks. If the agency determines that it would benefit these purposes, the bill would authorize the agency to establish an ad hoc working group with specified members, including a representative from the Department of Parks and Recreation. This bill would also make its provisions operative contingent on Section 2 of Assembly Bill 1567 of the 2023–24 Regular Session taking effect on or before January 1, 2025.
Existing law defines "disabled veteran" for purposes of the Vehicle Code as, among other things, a person who, as a result of injury or disease suffered while on active service with the Armed Forces of the United States, has a disability that has been rated at 100% by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Existing law also defines a "disabled veteran" as a veteran who is unable to move without the aid of an assistant device. This bill would instead define a disabled veteran as a veteran who cannot walk without the use of an assistant device. The bill would expand the definition of "disabled veteran" to include a veteran who cannot walk 200 feet without stopping to rest, a veteran who is severely limited in the ability to walk because of an arthritic, neurological, or orthopedic condition, or a veteran who has visual acuity of 20/200 or less, among other conditions, as specified.
Existing law establishes the California Community Colleges, under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, the California State University, under the administration of the Trustees of the California State University, and the University of California, under the administration of the Regents of the University of California, as the 3 segments of public postsecondary education in the state. This bill would establish, until January 1, 2031, the California-Mexico Higher Education Development and Academic Exchange Program for 400 students who attend a campus of the University of California, the California State University, or the California Community Colleges to attend universities in Mexico and for 400 students who attend a university in Mexico to attend a campus of the University of California, the California State University, or the California Community Colleges each year, as provided. The bill would also establish the California-Mexico Higher Education Development and Academic Exchange Program Fund in the State Treasury to fund the program, as provided. The bill would require the program to become operative only upon an appropriation of funds for its purposes.
Existing law requires the Governor to create the Homeless Coordinating and Financing Council, renamed the California Interagency Council on Homelessness, to, among other things, identify mainstream resources, benefits, and services that can be accessed to prevent and end homelessness in California and to serve as a statewide facilitator, coordinator, and policy development resource on ending homelessness in California. Existing law establishes the Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention Program, administered by the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency, for the purpose of providing jurisdictions, as defined, with one-time grant funds to support regional coordination and expand or develop local capacity to address their immediate homelessness challenges, as specified. Existing law requires the council, upon appropriation, to distribute certain amounts, as specified, for purposes of the program. Existing law requires an applicant to submit an application containing specified information in order to apply for a program allocation. Existing law requires an applicant to prioritize finds received to specific programs, including to create youth-specific coordinated entry systems and improve assessment tools. This bill would require a continuum of care, upon appropriation and beginning with the 2026–27 fiscal year, to create or maintain a youth-specific process with their respective coordinated entry system, as specified, implement a youth-specific assessment tool, create a body or identify an existing body composed of youth with lived experience of homelessness that the continuum of care and other Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention Program grantees must consult with regularly, and create an array of youth-specific housing inventory. The bill would require the continuum of care to document in their application how the housing assessment is youth-specific and their prioritization policy if the continuum of care states they already maintain a youth-specific coordinated entry system. The bill would also make findings and declarations related to youth-specific programs and the Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention Program.
Maddy summaryThis bill designates October 2024 as Menopause Awareness Month in California to highlight the health and societal impacts of menopause on women. It acknowledges that millions of women face symptoms that can affect their daily lives and work, noting that women of color are at higher risk for complications like premature menopause and heart disease. The resolution encourages the state to provide better health information and services to support women's well-being before, during, and after this transition. While the text outlines these goals, the bill itself is a formal recognition rather than a law that creates new funding or mandates specific programs.
The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law allow various credits against the taxes imposed by those laws. This bill, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2025, and before January 1, 2030, would allow a credit against those taxes to a qualified taxpayer in an amount equal to 40% of the qualified wages paid or incurred to a qualified employee employed during the taxable year. The bill would define a qualified employee for this purpose to mean an individual that, among other things, has been convicted of a felony, as provided, and has a hiring date not more than one year after the date the individual was convicted or was released from prison. Existing law requires any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure to contain, among other things, specific goals that the tax expenditure will achieve, detailed performance indicators, and data collection requirements. This bill would include additional information required for any bill authorizing a new income tax expenditure. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
(1) The Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act establishes a statewide program for the control of the quality of all the waters in the state and makes certain legislative findings and declarations. Existing law defines the term "beneficial uses" for the purposes of water quality as certain waters of the state that may be protected against quality degradation, to include, among others, domestic, municipal, agricultural, and industrial supplies. This bill would add findings and declarations related to California tribal communities and the importance of protecting tribal water use, as those terms are defined. The bill would add tribal water uses as waters of the state that may be protected against quality degradation for purposes of the defined term "beneficial uses." The bill would require any project or regulatory program subject to approval by the State Water Quality Control Board or a regional water quality control board, within a specified environmental review, and in any findings and declarations presented for state board or a regional board approval, to describe, with both quantitative and qualitative information, how the project or regulatory program will impact tribal water uses, and would require, on or before December 1, 2025, and every 2 years thereafter, the state board to publish a report on implementation of this provision on its internet website. (2) Existing law requires the state board to consult with and carefully evaluate the recommendations of concerned federal, state, and local agencies during the process of formulating or revising state policy for water quality control. This bill would additionally require the state board to consult and carefully evaluate the recommendations of concerned California tribal communities. (3) Existing law requires the state board to formulate and adopt state policy for water quality control. Existing law requires each regional board to formulate and adopt water quality control plans for all areas within the region and prohibits a water quality control plan, or a revision of the plan, adopted by a regional board from becoming effective unless it is approved by the state board. Existing law authorizes the state board to adopt certain water quality control plans. Existing law requires a regional board to establish water quality objectives in water quality control plans that in its judgment will ensure reasonable protection of beneficial uses and the prevention of nuisance and requires each regional board to consider specified factors in establishing water quality objectives. This bill would require, on or before January 1, 2026, the state board to incorporate water quality standards to achieve reasonable protection of tribal water uses into the water quality control plan for the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta watershed. This bill would add consultations with California tribal communities and environmental justice considerations as factors for a regional board to consider in establishing water quality control objectives. The bill would exempt adoption of tribal water uses within water quality control plans from the California Environmental Quality Act, and would require, on or before January 1, 2028, each regional board to adopt water quality standards to achieve reasonable protection of tribal water uses into water quality control plans. (4) Existing law requires the California Environmental Protection Agency and the Natural Resources Agency, on or before December 1, 2007, to enter into a memorandum of understanding for the purposes of establishing the California Water Quality Monitoring Council, which the state board is required to administer. Existing law requires the monitoring council to review existing water quality monitoring, assessment, and reporting efforts and to recommend specific actions and funding needs necessary to coordinate and enhance those efforts. Existing law requires the memorandum of understanding to describe the means by which the monitoring council shall formulate recommendations to reduce redundancies, inefficiencies, and inadequacies in existing water quality monitoring and data management programs and to ensure that water quality improvement projects financed by the state provide specific information necessary to track project effectiveness with regard to achieving clean water and healthy ecosystems. This bill would require, on or before December 1, 2025, the California Environmental Protection Agency and the Natural Resources Agency to amend the memorandum of understanding to incorporate participation from California tribal communities in the actions of the monitoring council, and would describe these potential methods of participation. The bill would require the memorandum of understating to include recommendations on how to achieve and maintain tribal water uses through state board and regional board regulatory actions and other programs, as specified. (5) 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.
This measure would proclaim the week of April 14, 2024 to April 20, 2024, to be Cities Week, and would encourage all Californians to be involved in their communities and be civically engaged with their local government.
This measure would join Asian and Pacific Islander communities throughout the state, nation, and world in celebrating April 13, 2024, to April 15, 2024, as the Songkran New Year Festival.