Asm. Freddie Rodriguez

Existing law, the California Emergency Services Act (CESA) , among other things, authorizes the Governor to proclaim a state of emergency in an area affected or likely to be affected thereby if (1) the Governor finds that certain conditions exist and (2) the Governor either is requested to do so by specified local officials or finds that local authority is inadequate to cope with the emergency. Upon the proclamation of a state of emergency, CESA authorizes the Governor to exercise various, specified powers, including the power to promulgate, issue, and enforce orders and regulations that the Governor deems necessary and to suspend any regulatory statute, statute prescribing the procedure for conduct of state business, or the orders, rules, or regulations of any state agency, as provided. CESA also authorizes the Governor to suspend certain local laws under specified circumstances. This bill would require the Governor to immediately notify in writing the Speaker of the Assembly and the President pro Tempore of the Senate of a proclamation of a state of emergency or promulgating or issuing an order or regulation pursuant to these provisions. The bill would require the Governor to provide to the Speaker of the Assembly, the President pro Tempore of the Senate, and certain committees of the Legislature a monthly report on specified information relating to requests by local government for the Governor to proclaim a state of emergency. The bill would also require the Governor to immediately provide notification in writing to the governing body of each city and county affected by a suspension of a statute, order, rule, regulation, or local law, as described above, that only applies to those cities and counties. CESA establishes the Office of Emergency Services (CalOES) in the office of the Governor and provides that the office is responsible for the state's emergency and disaster response services for natural, technological, or manmade disasters and emergencies. This bill would require CalOES, during a state of emergency, to provide certain committees of the Legislature an update every 60 days on the goals and objectives of the emergency response. CESA authorizes the Governor to expend any appropriation for support of CESA to carry out its provisions and to make expenditures from any legally available fund in order to deal with actual or threatened conditions of a state of emergency. Existing law, the California Disaster Assistance Act (CDAA) , which is administered by the Director of Emergency Services, provides for the allocation of funds to state and local agencies and to eligible private nonprofit organizations for specified purposes and in accordance with specified requirements, including, among others, that a local agency make application to the director for state financial assistance within 60 days after the date of the proclamation of a local emergency. Existing law establishes the Disaster Assistance Fund and continuously appropriates moneys in that fund for purposes of CDAA. Existing law creates the California State Auditor's Office, which is independent of the executive branch and legislative control, to examine and report annually upon the financial statements prepared by the executive branch and to perform other related assignments, including performance audits, that are mandated by statute. Existing law establishes, within the State Treasury, the State Audit Fund, which is a continuously appropriated fund, for the expenses of the California State Auditor. This bill would require the Governor to immediately notify in writing certain committees of the Legislature of any expenditure of state or federal emergency response funds, and would require the California State Auditor's Office, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to conduct annual performance audits of any expenditure of state or federal disaster emergency response funds. The bill would define "state or federal emergency response funds" to mean any moneys appropriated by the Legislature or provided by the federal government that are expended in response to a state of emergency, expressly including moneys expended pursuant to the above-described authority under CESA and the CDAA or any appropriation by the Legislature for purposes of emergency response and recovery. This bill would require the Director of Emergency Services to provide to the Speaker of the Assembly, the President pro Tempore of the Senate, and certain committees of the Legislature a monthly report on specified information relating to applications by local agencies for state financial assistance pursuant to the CDAA. This bill would also make various nonsubstantive changes to CESA. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

(1) Existing law prohibits health care service plans and their contracting entities from including provisions in their contracts that interfere with the ability of a physician and surgeon or other licensed health care provider to communicate with a patient regarding their health care. This bill would prohibit a health facility from requiring a physician or surgeon, as a condition of obtaining or maintaining clinical privileges, to agree to comply with criteria, rules, regulations, or other policies or procedures that are not knowingly and explicitly ratified, issued, or promulgated by the medical staff, that directly or indirectly prohibit, limit, or restrict the ability of the physician or surgeon to provide a particular medical treatment or service that falls within the scope of their privileges, or from requiring a physician or surgeon to obtain permission from a nonphysician or nonsurgeon to perform a particular medical treatment or service for which consent has been obtained from the patient or the patient's representative, except as provided. The bill would prohibit a health facility from limiting or otherwise exercising control over the independent professional judgment of a physician or surgeon concerning the practice of medicine or the diagnosis or treatment of disease, if the physician or surgeon, exercising their independent professional judgment, determines that a particular medical service or treatment is medically appropriate, unless specified circumstances apply. This bill would authorize a superior court, upon application by a health facility's medical staff or an individual member of a facility's medical staff, to issue an injunction or other appropriate order restraining any acts or practices that could constitute a violation of these provisions. The bill would specify that its provisions cannot be construed to prohibit a health facility from establishing criteria, rules, regulations, policies, or procedures that are required by federal or state law or regulation as a condition of licensure, receipt of federal or state funds, or participation in Medicare, Medi-Cal, or other federal or state health care programs, or limit a medical staff's authority to take corrective action against medical staff members in accordance with the medical staff bylaws, except in specified circumstances. The bill would also prohibit health facility corporate bylaws, policies, rules, contracts, or other institutional requirements that conflict with these provisions from being applied to directly or indirectly affect a physician's clinical privileges or rights, or privileges of membership on the medical staff, except as required by federal or state law. (2) Existing law requires each shareholder, director, and officer of a medical or podiatry corporation, except as provided, to be a licensed person, as defined. This bill would require the shareholders, directors, and officers of a medical corporation to manage and have ultimate control, as defined, over the assets and business operations of the medical corporation and not be replaced, removed, or otherwise controlled by any lay entity or individual, as specified. (3) Existing law requires any nonprofit corporation that operates or controls a health facility or operates or controls a facility that provides similar health care, as specified, to provide written notice to, and to obtain the written consent of, the Attorney General prior to entering into any agreement or transaction to sell, transfer, lease, or exchange its assets to a for-profit corporation or entity or to a mutual benefit corporation or entity when a material amount of the assets of the nonprofit corporation are involved in the agreement or transaction, or to transfer control, responsibility, or governance of a material amount of the assets or operations of the nonprofit corporation to any for-profit corporation or entity or to any mutual benefit corporation or entity, as specified. Existing law requires any nonprofit corporation that operates or controls a health care facility, or that or operates or controls a facility that provides similar health care to provide written notice to, and to obtain the written consent of, the Attorney General prior to entering into any agreement or transaction to sell, transfer, lease, or exchange its assets to another nonprofit corporation or entity when a material amount of the assets of the nonprofit corporation are involved in the agreement or transaction, or to transfer control, responsibility, or governance of a material amount of the assets or operations of the nonprofit corporation to another nonprofit corporation or entity. Existing law gives the Attorney General discretion to consent to, give conditional consent to, or not to consent to these agreements or transactions considering any factor they determine to be relevant. This bill would include among those factors that, if applicable, may be relevant to the Attorney General in determining whether to consent whether the agreement or transaction may create a reduction of or limitation on the availability of the full range of health care services to any group of individuals based on any characteristic listed or defined in the Unruh Civil Rights Act. The bill would also include among those factors whether the agreement or transaction may result in undue interference in patients' access to medical care due to improper or unlawful motives. (4) This bill would state that its provisions are severable.

(1) 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 under authority of the Director of 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 under the authority of the Insurance Commissioner. Existing law limits the maximum amount an enrollee or insured may be required to pay at the point of sale for a covered prescription drug to the lesser of the applicable cost-sharing amount or the retail price. This bill would require an enrollee's or insured's defined cost sharing for each prescription drug to be calculated at the point of sale based on a price that is reduced by an amount equal to 90% of all rebates received, or to be received, in connection with the dispensing or administration of the drug. The bill would require a health care service plan or health insurer to, among other things, pass through to each enrollee or insured at the point of sale a good faith estimate of their decrease in cost sharing. The bill would require a health care service plan or health insurer to calculate an enrollee's or insured's defined cost sharing and provide that information to the dispensing pharmacy, as specified. The bill would require a health care service plan or health insurer to disclose information, as specified, sufficient to show compliance with these provisions to the director or commissioner. The bill would prohibit a health care service plan, health insurer, or a plan's or insurer's agents from publishing or otherwise revealing information regarding the actual amount of rebates the health care service plan or health insurer receives on a product-specific, manufacturer-specific, or pharmacy-specific basis. The bill would make a violation of its provisions not a crime under the act. The bill would authorize the director or commissioner to assess a civil penalty for each violation of these provisions, as specified. The bill would make those provisions inoperative on January 1, 2025. The bill would require the department and the commissioner, on or before March 1 each year, to provide a report on the impact of those provisions on drug prices and health care premium rates, as specified. The bill would repeal those provisions January 1, 2026. (2) Existing law requires a health care service plan or health insurer that files certain rate information to report to the appropriate department specified cost information regarding covered prescription drugs, including generic drugs, brand name drugs, and specialty drugs, dispensed as provided. This bill, until January 1, 2025, would require a health care service plan or health insurer to report additional information on the above-described point of sale provision. 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. (3) 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. (4) 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.

(1) Existing law prohibits health care service plans and their contracting entities from including provisions in their contracts that interfere with the ability of a physician and surgeon or other licensed health care provider to communicate with a patient regarding their health care. This bill would prohibit a health facility from requiring a physician or surgeon, as a condition of obtaining or maintaining clinical privileges, to agree to comply with criteria, rules, regulations, or other policies or procedures that are not knowingly and explicitly ratified, issued, or promulgated by the medical staff, that directly or indirectly prohibit, limit, or restrict the ability of the physician or surgeon to provide a particular medical treatment or service that falls within the scope of their privileges, or from requiring a physician or surgeon to obtain permission from a nonphysician or nonsurgeon to perform a particular medical treatment or service for which consent has been obtained from the patient or the patient's representative, except as provided. The bill would prohibit a health facility from limiting or otherwise exercising control over the independent professional judgment of a physician or surgeon concerning the practice of medicine or the diagnosis or treatment of disease, if the physician or surgeon, exercising their independent professional judgment, determines that a particular medical service or treatment is medically appropriate, unless specified circumstances apply. This bill would authorize a superior court, upon application by a health facility's medical staff or an individual member of a facility's medical staff, to issue an injunction or other appropriate order restraining any acts or practices that could constitute a violation of these provisions. The bill would specify that its provisions cannot be construed to prohibit a health facility from establishing criteria, rules, regulations, policies, or procedures that are required by federal or state law or regulation as a condition of licensure, receipt of federal or state funds, or participation in Medicare, Medi-Cal, or other federal or state health care programs, or limit a medical staff's authority to take corrective action against medical staff members in accordance with the medical staff bylaws, except in specified circumstances. The bill would also prohibit health facility corporate bylaws, policies, rules, contracts, or other institutional requirements that conflict with these provisions from being applied to directly or indirectly affect a physician's clinical privileges or rights, or privileges of membership on the medical staff, except as required by federal or state law. (2) Existing law requires each shareholder, director, and officer of a medical or podiatry corporation, except as provided, to be a licensed person, as defined. This bill would require the shareholders, directors, and officers of a medical corporation to manage and have ultimate control, as defined, over the assets and business operations of the medical corporation and not be replaced, removed, or otherwise controlled by any lay entity or individual, as specified. (3) Existing law requires any nonprofit corporation that operates or controls a health facility or operates or controls a facility that provides similar health care, as specified, to provide written notice to, and to obtain the written consent of, the Attorney General prior to entering into any agreement or transaction to sell, transfer, lease, or exchange its assets to a for-profit corporation or entity or to a mutual benefit corporation or entity when a material amount of the assets of the nonprofit corporation are involved in the agreement or transaction, or to transfer control, responsibility, or governance of a material amount of the assets or operations of the nonprofit corporation to any for-profit corporation or entity or to any mutual benefit corporation or entity, as specified. Existing law requires any nonprofit corporation that operates or controls a health care facility, or that or operates or controls a facility that provides similar health care to provide written notice to, and to obtain the written consent of, the Attorney General prior to entering into any agreement or transaction to sell, transfer, lease, or exchange its assets to another nonprofit corporation or entity when a material amount of the assets of the nonprofit corporation are involved in the agreement or transaction, or to transfer control, responsibility, or governance of a material amount of the assets or operations of the nonprofit corporation to another nonprofit corporation or entity. Existing law gives the Attorney General discretion to consent to, give conditional consent to, or not to consent to these agreements or transactions considering any factor they determine to be relevant. This bill would include among those factors that, if applicable, may be relevant to the Attorney General in determining whether to consent whether the agreement or transaction may create a reduction of or limitation on the availability of the full range of health care services to any group of individuals based on their membership in a protected class. The bill would, in the case of an agreement or transaction to sell, transfer, lease, or exchange its assets to another nonprofit corporation or entity, also include among those factors whether the agreement or transaction may result in undue interference in patients' access to medical care due to improper or unlawful motives. (4) This bill would state that its provisions are severable.

(1) Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission and the State Air Resources Board, on or before December 31 of each year, to jointly review and report on progress toward establishing a hydrogen-fueling network that provides the coverage and capacity to fuel vehicles requiring hydrogen fuel that are being placed into operation in the state. The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law authorize various credits against the taxes imposed by those laws. Existing law requires any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure to contain, among other things, specific goals, purposes, and objectives the tax expenditure will achieve, detailed performance indicators, and data collection requirements. This bill would allow a green hydrogen, as defined, production facility and distribution credit against the personal income and corporate income taxes for each taxable year beginning on or after January 1, 2023, and before January 1, 2033, to a qualified taxpayer for qualified building or qualified distribution costs, or both, as defined. The bill would also allow a hydrogen infrastructure credit against those taxes for each taxable year beginning on or after January 1, 2023, and before January 1, 2033, to a qualified taxpayer for qualified building costs, as defined. The bill would decrease the green hydrogen production facility and distribution credit as the amount of green hydrogen produced on average per day in the state increases and would decrease the hydrogen infrastructure credit as the number of public hydrogen fueling stations in operation in the state increases. The bill would limit the total amount of the green hydrogen production facility and distribution credit to $1,000,000,000 over all available taxable years, as specified, and would limit the hydrogen infrastructure credit to $500,000,000 per taxable year. The bill would require each credit to be allocated to qualified taxpayers by the Franchise Tax Board in the order the returns are received by the board. This bill would, except as specified, require the State Air Resources Board, on or before January 1 of each year, to provide certification to the Franchise Tax Board on the average amount of green hydrogen produced in the state and the number of publicly available hydrogen fueling stations in operation in the state for the prior calendar year. The bill would repeal this requirement on December 1, 2033. This bill would also include additional information required for any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure. (2) Existing law generally designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency with the primary responsibility for the control of vehicular air pollution and requires the state board, in partnership with the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission and in conjunction with other state agencies, to develop and adopt a state plan to increase the use of alternative fuels, as defined. Existing law requires the state board to adopt regulations that will ensure that, in any year immediately following a 12-month period in which the mass of hydrogen fuel dispensed for transportation purposes in California exceeds 3,500 metric tons, no less than 33.3% of the hydrogen produced or dispensed in California for motor vehicles be made from eligible renewable energy resources, as defined. This bill would require those regulations to require that, on a statewide basis, no less than 33.3% of the hydrogen produced or dispensed in California for motor vehicles be green hydrogen. The bill would require that the green percentage be increased to 44% by December 31, 2024, 52% by December 31, 2027, 60% by December 31, 2030, and would require that by December 31, 2045, 100% of the hydrogen produced or dispensed in California for motor vehicles be either green hydrogen or clean hydrogen, as defined.

Existing sales and use tax laws impose taxes on retailers measured by the gross receipts from the sale of tangible personal property sold at retail in this state or on the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of tangible personal property purchased from a retailer for storage, use, or other consumption in this state, and provides various exemptions from the taxes imposed by those laws. Existing law requires a bill that would authorize a new tax expenditure under the Sales and Use Tax Law to identify specific goals, purposes, and objectives that the tax expenditure will achieve, and detailed performance indicators and data collection requirements for determining whether the tax expenditure achieves these goals, purposes, and objectives. This bill, on and after January 1, 2022, until January 1, 2024, would exempt from those taxes the gross receipts from the sale of, and the storage, use, or other consumption of, emergency preparation items, as defined, sold or purchased during the 3-day period beginning at 12:01 a.m. on the Saturday before the last Monday in June and ending at midnight on the last Monday in June. The bill would include additional information required for any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure. The bill would also make related findings and declarations. The Bradley-Burns Uniform Local Sales and Use Tax Law authorizes counties and cities to impose local sales and use taxes in conformity with the Sales and Use Tax Law, and existing laws authorize districts, as specified, to impose transactions and use taxes in accordance with the Transactions and Use Tax Law, which generally conforms to the Sales and Use Tax Law. Amendments to the Sales and Use Tax Law are automatically incorporated into the local tax laws. Existing law requires the state to reimburse counties and cities for revenue losses caused by the enactment of sales and use tax exemptions. This bill would provide that, notwithstanding Section 2230 of the Revenue and Taxation Code, no appropriation is made and the state shall not reimburse any local agencies for sales and use tax revenues lost by them pursuant to this bill. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.

(1) Existing laws defines persons who are peace officers and the entities authorized to appoint them. Existing law requires certain minimum training requirements for peace officers including the completion of a basic training course, as specified. Existing law prescribes certain minimum standards for a person to be appointed as a peace officer, including moral character and physical and mental condition, and certain disqualifying factors for a person to be employed as a peace officer, including a felony conviction. This bill would disqualify a person from being employed as a peace officer if that person has been convicted of, or has been adjudicated by a military tribunal as having committed an offense that would have been a felony if committed in this state. The bill would also disqualify any person who has been certified as a peace officer by the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training and has had that certification revoked by the commission. (2) Existing law establishes the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training to set minimum standards for the recruitment and training of peace officers and to develop training courses and curriculum. Existing law authorizes the commission to establish a professional certificate program that awards basic, intermediate, advanced, supervisory, management, and executive certificates on the basis of a combination of training, education, experience, and other prerequisites, for the purpose of fostering the professionalization, education, and experience necessary to adequately accomplish the general police service duties performed by peace officers. Existing law authorizes the commission to cancel a certificate that was awarded in error or obtained through misrepresentation or fraud, but otherwise prohibits the commission from canceling a certificate that has properly been issued. This bill would require the commission to create a certification program for specified peace officers. The bill would make all records related to the revocation of a peace officer's certification public. This bill would require a peace officer's certificate to be suspended, revoked, or canceled when the person is ineligible to be a peace officer or when the person has been subject to a sustained termination for serious misconduct, as defined, on or after January 1, 2022. The bill would make each law enforcement agency responsible for investigation, findings, and actions by the agency on allegations of serious misconduct and would give the commission access to the agency files. The bill would require the commission to be notified of and to review a peace officer's file after 3 allegations of serious misconduct within 5 years. The bill would establish the Peace Officer Standards Accountability Advisory Board, as specified, to make recommendations on the decertification of peace officers to the commission. The bill would require every law enforcement agency to notify the commission when a peace officer employed by that agency separates from employment. When a peace officer resigns or retires with a pending complaint, charge, or investigation of serious misconduct, the bill would require the law enforcement agency to complete the investigation into the serious misconduct within 90 days and report to the commission whether the complaint of serious misconduct was sustained, not sustained, unfounded, frivolous, or exonerated. The bill would require the commission to refer the files of peace officers whose termination for serious misconduct was sustained to the board to make a recommendation regarding the status of the officer's certificate and would require the commission to accept that recommendation or set forth the analysis and reasons for reaching a different result in writing. (3) Existing law requires law enforcement agencies to consider specified best practices when establishing policies and procedures for downloading and storing data from body-worn cameras, including, among other things, prohibiting the unauthorized use, duplication, or distribution of the data, and establishing storage periods for evidentiary and nonevidentiary data, as defined. This bill would make those requirements applicable to data obtained from unmanned aircraft systems. By imposing new requirements on local agencies, 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, 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 authorizes a health care service plan or health insurer to contract with a provider for alternative rates of payment and authorizes a plan or insurer to seek reimbursement from a provider who has been overpaid for services. This bill would authorize the Director of the Department of Managed Health Care or the Insurance Commissioner to require a health care service plan or health insurer to provide specified payments and support to a provider during and at least 60 days after the end of a declared state of emergency or other circumstance if two conditions occur, as specified. The bill would require that, when determining the appropriate amount and type of support to be provided by the health care service plan or health insurer, the director or commissioner take specified factors into consideration, including whether the plan or insurer's providers have received support from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Because a willful violation of the bill's requirements relative to health care service plans 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.

The Early Childhood Development Act of 2020 sets forth legislative findings and declarations regarding the need for an integrated early childhood learning and care system to promote high-quality, affordable learning to comprehensively and effectively serve children and families and to address societal inequities and disproportionalities. This bill would make additional legislative findings and declarations regarding childcare supportive services. This bill would require the State Department of Social Services to report on various topics related to early childhood supports in light of the COVID-19 pandemic by October 1, 2021. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.