Asm. Pilar Schiavo

Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of clinics and health facilities, including, but not limited to, primary care and specialty clinics, by the State Department of Public Health. Under existing law, the department is also responsible for the statewide administration of various programs and policies relating to personal health, including maternal, child, and adolescent health. Existing law requires the department to develop a coordinated state strategy for addressing the health-related needs of women, including implementation of goals and objectives for women's health, as specified. This bill would require the department to conduct an awareness campaign to communicate with local health departments, health care providers, and the public regarding facilities that provide health care services, including, but not limited to, primary care and specialty clinics. The bill would require the awareness campaign to include information about the services the facilities offer, and the activities of the department, relating to pregnancy care and abortion. The bill would require the campaign to make that information available to, among others, health care professional associations and societies and health care employers. The bill would authorize the department to award grants or enter into contracts to perform the functions required to conduct the awareness campaign, as specified. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2025.

Existing law establishes bid preferences and participation goals in public contracting for certain types of bidders. The Small Business Procurement and Contract Act establishes a minimum goal of 25% procurement participation for small businesses, including microbusinesses, in the provision of goods, information technology, and services to the state, and in the construction of state facilities. The Small Business Procurement and Contract Act requires that state agencies awarding contracts for goods, information technology, services, and construction give 5% bid preferences, as specified, to small business and microbusiness bidders. The California Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise Program requires state departments that award contracts to establish 3% participation goals for certain types of contracts for certified disabled veteran business enterprises, as defined. This bill would require an awarding department, defined as a state agency, department, governmental entity, or other officer or entity empowered by law to enter into contracts on behalf of the state, to have a statewide procurement participation goal of not less than an unspecified percentage for childcare business enterprises, as defined. The bill would require an awarding department, within its respective area of responsibility, to provide for a bid preference in an unspecified percentage, as prescribed, to contractors, companies, or businesses that engage in specified business activities relating to childcare, if their bid is otherwise similar to that of other bidders. The bill would require the Department of General Services to adopt rules and regulations for the purpose of implementing these provisions.

Existing law establishes various classes of insurance, including, among others, fire insurance. Under existing law, fire insurance includes, among other things, insurance against loss by fire, lightning, windstorm, tornado, or earthquake, and includes certain insurance against loss or damage of specified items and personal property. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation to require fire insurance companies to send notifications to their insureds about how they can qualify for discounts on their fire insurance.

Existing law, the Planning and Zoning Law, requires each city, county, and city and county to prepare and adopt a general plan that contains certain mandatory elements, including a housing element. Existing law requires the housing element to identify the existing and projected housing needs of all economic segments of the community. Existing federal law requires a continuum of care, a group organized under the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, to develop a plan that includes planning for and conducting, at least biennially, a point-in-time count of homeless persons within the geographic area. Existing law requires that information from the point-in-time count be used to, among other things, allocate funding for the Homeless Emergency Aid program and Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention program. This bill would require a city, county, and city and county, within 60 days after the local continuum of care releases the results of a point-in-time count for a city, county, or city and county's jurisdiction, to, among other things, agendize the point-in-time count results at a meeting of the city, county, or city and county and present the steps the city, county, or city and county is taking to prevent and end homelessness, including, but not limited to, consideration of specified actions. By imposing new duties on local agencies, 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, including charter cities. 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 federal law establishes the federal Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program to provide monthly benefits to qualified retired and disabled workers and their spouses, dependents, and survivors. Existing federal law provides various benefits to veterans, their dependents, and their survivors administered by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (USDVA) . This bill would require the Department of Child Support Services to issue guidance to local child support agencies directing them to, and would require local child support agencies to, inform a custodial parent or guardian of benefits under the federal OASDI program and benefits provided to survivors of veterans by the USDVA when the local child support agency becomes aware that a child's noncustodial parent has died and the local child support agency has information that suggests that the child may be eligible for either of those programs. The bill would similarly require the State Department of Social Services and the State Department of Health Care Services to jointly issue guidance to county human services agencies directing them to, and would require county human services agencies to, inform a parent or guardian of benefits under the federal OASDI program and benefits provided to survivors of veterans by the USDVA when the county becomes aware that a child's parent has died and the county has information that suggests that the child may be eligible for either of those programs. By imposing new duties on local agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the State Department of Social Services to submit a report to the Legislature that includes information on the requirements and cost to establish a state-funded program to provide cash assistance to a child with a deceased parent who is not eligible for survivor benefits under the federal OASDI program and how many children in California would be eligible for that state-funded program. This bill would, subject to an appropriation by the Legislature or a provision of federal or private funds for these purposes, require the State Department of Social Services to establish and oversee the California Survivor Benefit (CalSurvivor) Program, a county- or county consortia-administered program to provide cash assistance for a minor who is a California resident with a deceased parent, who was also a California resident upon their death, when the minor is not eligible for federal OASDI survivor benefits, as specified. The bill would authorize the department to authorize counties to establish an advocacy program to assist specified applicants and recipients of CalSurvivor benefits in the application process for federal OASDI survivor benefits if they do not meet certain verification requirements of the program. The bill would require participating counties, as part of the advocacy program, to inform the applicant of the potential impact of receiving benefits under the CalSurvivor Program on their eligibility for other assistance programs. The bill would require the department to report to the Legislature, by July 1, 2027, on the outcomes of the CalSurvivor Program and the advocacy programs. The bill would authorize the department to implement these provisions though all-county letters or similar instructions or emergency regulations. By requiring counties to administer the CalSurvivor Program, 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, 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, Bergeson-Peace Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank Act, establishes the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank (I-Bank) in the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development, that is governed by a board of directors. The act, among other things, authorizes the I-Bank to make loans, issue bonds, and provide financial assistance for various types of projects that qualify as economic development or public development facilities. This bill, the End the Foster Care-to-Homelessness Pipeline Act, would establish the End the Foster Care-to-Homelessness Pipeline Program within the I-Bank to guarantee qualified loans made by financial institutions to qualified nonprofit and for-profit businesses for the construction, acquisition, and renovation of housing for current and former foster youth between 18 and 25 years of age and who qualify for specified programs. The bill would authorize the bank, in determining whether to guarantee a qualified loan, to give preference to counties with high housing inelasticity and high rates of foster youth, as specified. The bill would authorize the bank to reimburse up to 80% of the guaranteed portion of principal and interest that result from a qualified loan that is in default, not to exceed $250,000,000, and would require the Controller to transfer moneys from the General Fund to the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank Fund, at the direction of the bank, for that purpose. By requiring the Controller to transfer moneys into a continuously appropriated fund, the bill would make an appropriation.

Existing law, the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975, provides for the licensure and regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care, and makes a willful violation of the act a crime. Existing law provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Department of Insurance. Existing law prohibits a health care service plan or health insurer from employing marketing practices or benefit designs that discriminate based on an individual's race, color, national origin, present or predicted disability, age, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, expected length of life, degree of medical dependency, quality of life, or other health conditions. Existing law requires a plan or insurer to notify enrollees and insureds that it does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, ancestry, religion, sex, marital status, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, or disability. This bill would prohibit a health care service plan or health insurer from discriminating on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability through the use of clinical algorithms in its decisionmaking. Because a willful violation of these provisions by a health care service plan would be a crime, the 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Existing law requires the Public Utilities Commission to require the administration, until January 1, 2026, of a self-generation incentive program to increase the deployment of distributed generation resources and energy storage systems. Existing law requires the commission, in administering the program, to use funds that are appropriated by the Legislature, as provided, for the purposes of providing incentives to eligible residential customers who install behind-the-meter energy storage systems or solar photovoltaic systems paired with energy storage systems. This bill would require, as part of administering the funds used to provide incentives to eligible residential customers, the commission to establish a block grant structure for eligible entities, as defined, to apply for grants on behalf of residential households to increase the resiliency of residential households, as specified. The bill would require the commission, in determining the block grant funding criteria, to consider and prioritize one or more specified requirements. Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. Because the above provision would be a part of the act and a violation of a commission action implementing this bill's requirements would be a crime, the 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, working with specified state entities, to prepare a statewide assessment of the electric vehicle charging infrastructure needed to support the levels of electric vehicle adoption required to meet the goals of putting at least 5,000,000 zero-emission vehicles in service by 2030 and of reducing emissions of greenhouse gases to 40% below 1990 levels by 2030. This bill would require the commission to submit to the Legislature, no later than July 1, 2025, a report assessing the suitability of gasoline stations for conversion into electric vehicle charging stations and identifying potential financial incentives and regulatory barriers for gasoline stations to convert to electric vehicle charging stations.

Existing law establishes the Clean Transportation Program, administered by the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, to provide funding, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to certain entities to develop and deploy innovative technologies that transform California's fuel and vehicle types to help attain the state's climate change policies. Existing law requires the commission to give preference to those projects that maximize the goals of the program based on specified criteria and to fund specified eligible projects, including, among others, alternative and renewable fuel infrastructure, fueling stations, and equipment. This bill would expand the list of eligible projects to include, among other things, roadway integrated fueling and parking surface integrated fueling projects.