Asm. Cecilia Aguiar-Curry

Existing law authorizes any postsecondary higher educational institution with a medical center to establish diagnostic and treatment centers for Alzheimer's disease, and requires the State Department of Public Health to administer grants to the postsecondary higher educational institutions that establish a center pursuant to these provisions. This bill would require the department to establish the Office of the Healthy Brain Initiative to conduct all department activities relating to Alzheimer's disease and to implement the action agenda items in the Healthy Brain Initiative, as defined. The bill would also, upon appropriation by the Legislature, require the office to establish a program in at least 10 local health jurisdictions, as specified, and award participating local health jurisdictions one-time grant funding, to develop local initiatives that are consistent with the Healthy Brain Initiative. The bill would require the office to conduct an evaluation of the program and produce a report describing best practices and making recommendations regarding which solutions and innovations are most feasible to replicate. The bill would require the office to provide a copy of the report to the Legislature by December 31, 2025, and to provide an updated copy of the report to the Legislature every 3 years thereafter. Existing law requires the Secretary of California Health and Human Services to be responsible for oversight and coordination of programs serving people living with Alzheimer's disease and related disorders, and their families. Existing law establishes the Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders Advisory Committee in the California Health and Human Services Agency, and specifies that the committee consists of 14 members, including, among others, one member who represents a consumer organization representing persons with Alzheimer's disease, and 2 people who have been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, serving one-year terms. This bill would, in the provisions governing the committee, revise references to Alzheimer's disease to also refer to related disorders. The bill would also expand the membership of the committee to at least 21, but not more than 25, members and would specify that the additional members include a 2nd member representing a consumer organization representing persons with Alzheimer's disease or related disorders, one member who represents first responders, one commissioner from the California Commission on Aging who has expertise regarding Alzheimer's disease or related disorders, one member who represents primary care physicians, one member representing local health jurisdictions, and 2 ex officio, nonvoting members, one of which is a Member of the Assembly and one of which is a Senator. The bill would remove the requirement that the 2 members who have been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease or related disorders serve a one-year term.

(1) Existing law establishes in the Natural Resources Agency the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire) , and requires CalFire to be responsible for, among other things, fire protection and prevention, as provided. Existing law establishes the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection in CalFire to represent the state's interest in the acquisition and management of state forests and requires the board to maintain an adequate forest policy. The former Governor, Edmund G. Brown Jr., issued Executive Order No. B-52-18 that, among other things, established a Forest Management Task Force, now known as the Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force, involving specified state agencies to create the action plan for wildfire and forest resilience. The executive order also established a Joint Institute for Wood Products Innovation, to be located within the state board. This bill would establish the Forest Waste Biomass Utilization Program to be administered by the state board's Joint Institute for Wood Products Innovation to develop an implementation plan to meet the goals and recommendations of, and the comprehensive framework to align with the state's wood utilization policies and priorities and focused market strategy of, specified statewide forest management plans and to develop a workforce training program to complement workforce needs associated with the implementation plan. The bill would require the state board, in coordination with the Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force, to submit an annual report to the Legislature, beginning January 1, 2024, on the progress made on implementing the implementation plan. This bill would require the Natural Resources Agency, in furtherance of the program, to facilitate the integration of recommendations for forest biomass waste utilization in relevant, state climate adaptation plans. (2) The Warren-Alquist State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Act establishes the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) and requires the Energy Commission to undertake various actions in furtherance of meeting the state's clean energy and pollution reduction objectives. Existing law requires the Energy Commission, in consultation with specified state and federal agencies and at least every 2 years, to conduct assessments and forecasts of all aspects of energy industry supply, production, transportation, delivery and distribution, demand, and prices. Existing law requires the Energy Commission, in consultation with specified entities, to adopt a biennial integrated energy policy report containing certain information. This bill would require the Energy Commission, in furtherance of the Forest Waste Biomass Utilization Program, to prepare and submit a report to the Legislature, on or before December 31, 2023, that evaluates innovative bioenergy technologies that utilize forest biomass waste, as specified. The bill would also require the Energy Commission to include, as part of the 2023 edition of the integrated policy report, and each report adopted biennially thereafter, an assessment of the potential for forest biomass waste energy to provide firm renewable power. (3) The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board (state air board) as the state agency charged with monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases. The act requires the state air board to adopt a statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit, as specified, and to adopt rules and regulations in an open public process to achieve the maximum technologically feasible and cost-effective greenhouse gas emission reductions. The act requires the state air board to develop, on or before December 31, 2020, and every 5 years thereafter, a report that assesses greenhouse gas emission associated with wildfire and forest management activities. The act requires the state air board to prepare, approve, and update at least once every 5 years, beginning on January 1, 2009, a scoping plan for achieving the maximum technologically feasible and cost-effective reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from sources or categories of sources of greenhouse gases under the act. This bill would require the state air board, in the report developed on or before December 31, 2025, and every 5 years thereafter, to include, among other things, a methodology to quantify the greenhouse gas and short-lived climate pollutant emissions from wildfire, pile burning, and forest management activities, as specified. The bill would also require the state air board to consider the results of that report, as applicable, in the next update of the scoping plan.

Under existing law, the State Department of Health Care Services is responsible for the administration and oversight of various health care programs, including those related to cancer screening and research. This bill, the California Childhood Cancer Research Fund Act, would request the Regents of the University of California to establish and administer the Childhood Cancer Research Grant Program to provide funding to various entities to support research and treatment for children impacted by cancer and the long-term effects of cancer treatment. The bill would create the Childhood Cancer Research Council composed of 7 members, including specialists in pediatric oncology, appointed by the Governor, Senate Committee on Rules, or Speaker of the Assembly, and would require the council to develop the strategic objectives and priorities of the program and make grant recommendations to the University of California in accordance with the program's goals. The bill would require the council to submit an annual report to the Legislature describing the grants made, grants in progress, program accomplishments, and future program directions. The bill would create the Andrew Hirschman Childhood Cancer Research Fund for the implementation and administration of the grant program, upon appropriation by the Legislature. The bill would make these provisions operative until January 1, 2028.

The California Constitution provides that the University of California constitutes a public trust, and requires the university to be administered by the Regents of the University of California, a corporation in the form of a board, with full powers of organization and government, subject to legislative control only for specified purposes. The California Constitution requires the board to consist of 7 ex officio members and 18 appointive members appointed by the Governor and approved by the Senate. The California Constitution authorizes the members of the board to appoint either a member of the faculty at a campus of the university or of another institution of higher education, or a person enrolled as a student at a campus of the university, or both, as members of the board serving for no less than one year with all rights of participation. This measure would require, rather than authorize, the members of the board to appoint 2 students enrolled at a campus of the university for each regular academic term during their service as members of the board, as provided.

The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency charged with monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases. The state board is required to approve a statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit equivalent to the statewide greenhouse gas emissions level in 1990 to be achieved by 2020 and to ensure that statewide greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to at least 40% below the 1990 level by 2030. The act requires the state board to prepare and approve a scoping plan for achieving the maximum technologically feasible and cost-effective reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and to update the scoping plan at least once every 5 years. The act requires the scoping plan to identify and make recommendations on direct emissions reduction measures, alternative compliance mechanisms, market-based compliance mechanisms, and potential monetary and nonmonetary incentives for sources and categories of sources that the state board finds are necessary or desirable to facilitate the achievement of the maximum feasible and cost-effective reductions of greenhouse gas emissions, as provided. This bill would require, on or before March 1, 2023, and on or before March 1 of each year thereafter, each state agency, board, or department to post on its internet website a report regarding its compliance with and efforts to implement any goal or recommendation related to that state agency, board, or department, as defined, that is identified by the state board in the scoping plan, including any scoping plan updates. The bill would require a state agency, board, or department to include specified information in its report, including, but not limited to, identification of all scoping plan goals or recommendations that the state agency, board, or department is charged with or responsible, in whole or in part, for implementing, a description of the state agency's, board's, or department's, efforts to implement each scoping plan goal or recommendation, and whether the state agency, board, or department has fully implemented each scoping plan goal or recommendation. The bill would require, for each scoping plan goal or recommendation that is not fully implemented, a state agency, board, or department to describe in detail why the scoping plan goal or recommendation has not been fully implemented and the steps necessary for the state agency, board, or department to fully implement the goal or recommendation.

Existing law provides that the California Horse Racing Board may authorize a California harness racing association conducting a live racing meeting to accept wagers on the full card of races conducted by another racing association on the day that other association conducts the Breeder's Crown Stakes, the Meadowlands Pace, the Hambletonian, the Cane Pace, the Kentucky Futurity, or the North American Cup. This bill would also authorize the board to permit a California harness racing association conducting a live racing meeting to accept wagers on the full card of races conducted by another racing association on the day that other association conducts the Metro Pace. The bill would make nonsubstantive changes.

Existing law, the Gambling Control Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of various legalized gambling activities and establishments by the California Gambling Control Commission and the investigation and enforcement of those activities and establishments by the Department of Justice. Existing law establishes the Bureau of Gambling Control under the direction of the department. Existing law requires the commission to establish a 10-member Gaming Policy Advisory Committee composed of representatives of controlled gambling licensees and members of the general public in equal numbers. Existing law requires the executive director of the commission to convene the committee, from time to time, for the purpose of discussing matters of controlled gambling regulatory policy and any other relevant gambling-related issue. This bill would increase the membership of the committee from 10 to 12 members and would require the additional members to include one representative of academia who possesses knowledge on matters related to gaming and one representative from the bureau. The bill would require the executive director to convene the committee at least twice every calendar year, rather than from time to time.

Existing law establishes the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection in the Natural Resources Agency to provide fire protection and prevention services, as specified. This bill would require the department to maintain a standard minimum level of staffing for each of its engines, as specified, without the regular practice of forcing overtime on its personnel. The bill would require the department to increase its existing firefighter fuel crews, as specified. The bill would require the department, on or before January 1, 2024, to provide to the Legislature a long-term staffing plan to meet the new era of wildfire firefighting.