Asm. Randy Voepel

This measure would declare the month of May 2019 as Foster Care Month.

This measure would recognize June 19, 2019, as Juneteenth and would urge the people of California to join in celebrating Juneteenth as a day to honor and reflect on the significant role that African Americans have played in the history of the United States and how they have enriched society through their steadfast commitment to promoting unity and equality.

This measure would declare June 6, 2019, as Secure Your Load Day in California.

The federal Nutria Eradication and Control Act of 2003 authorizes the Secretary of the Interior, subject to the availability of appropriations, to provide financial assistance to the State of Maryland and the State of Louisiana for a program to implement measures to eradicate or control nutria and restore marshland damaged by nutria. Under the federal act, the federal share of the costs of the program is prohibited from exceeding 75% of the total costs of the program. This measure would urge the United States Congress to reauthorize and specifically add California to the Nutria Eradication and Control Act of 2003 and to authorize an appropriation of $4,000,000 to help the state implement a nutria eradication program.

Existing law authorizes the Adjutant General to establish support programs, including morale, welfare, recreational, training, and educational programs, for the benefit of the Military Department. Existing law authorizes the Adjutant General and the Military Department to solicit and accept funds or other donations, to be deposited into the California Military Department Support Fund. This bill would name the support programs established by the Adjutant General the California Military Department Foundation. The bill would authorize the Adjutant General and the Military Department to enter into agreements with specified entities, including nonprofit and military or veteran foundations, to conduct California Military Department Support Fund activities, and to accept in-kind donations.

This measure would designate the portion of Interstate 505 between the Interstate 80 interchange and the Vaca Valley Parkway in the County of Solano as the CHP Officer Kirk Griess Memorial Highway. The measure would request the Department of Transportation to determine the cost of appropriate signs showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering that cost, to erect those signs.

Existing law requires each school district or county superintendent of schools maintaining kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, and, commencing with the 2019–20 school year, each charter school, to provide for each needy pupil one nutritionally adequate free or reduced-price meal during each schoolday. Existing law sets the reimbursement rates for free or reduced-price meals served to needy pupils at specified amounts. This bill would establish within the State Department of Education the California School Plant-Based Food and Beverage Program. The bill would authorize a local educational agency, as defined, to apply for funding, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for reimbursement of up to $0.20 per meal for meals that include a plant-based food option, as defined, or up to $0.10 per meal for meals that include a plant-based milk option, as defined, or both. The bill would require the department to make additional one-time payments of up to $1,000, as specified, on a first-come-first-served basis to local educational agencies that receive meal reimbursement pursuant to the bill's provisions. The bill would also require the department, upon a one-time appropriation by the Legislature, to provide grants of up to $100,000 to local educational agencies for additional purposes relating to the program. The bill would authorize the department to accept funding from private sources for the purpose of providing reimbursements or grants pursuant to these provisions. The bill would require the department to adopt regulations to implement the program, establish guidelines for the evaluation of the program, report evaluation results to the Legislature, and conduct outreach.

Under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) , it is an unlawful employment practice for an employer, unless based upon a bona fide occupational qualification or applicable security regulations established by the United States or the State of California, to refuse to hire or employ a person or to refuse to select a person for a training program leading to employment, or to bar or discharge a person from employment or a training program leading to employment, or to discriminate against a person in compensation or in terms, conditions, or privileges of employment because of the race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, sexual orientation, or military and veteran status of that person. FEHA provides that nothing in that act relating to discrimination on account of sex affects the right of an employer to use veteran status as a factor in employee selection or to give special consideration to Vietnam-era veterans. This bill would enact the Voluntary Veterans' Preference Employment Policy Act to authorize a private employer to establish and maintain a written veterans' preference employment policy, to be applied uniformly to hiring decisions, to give a voluntary preference for hiring or retaining a veteran over another qualified applicant or employee. The bill would provide that the granting of a veterans' preference pursuant to the bill, in and of itself, shall be deemed not to violate any local or state equal employment opportunity law or regulation, including, but not limited to, the antidiscrimination provisions of FEHA. The bill would revise the existing veteran status provision in FEHA to remove references to discrimination on account of sex and to Vietnam-era veterans, and would, instead, provide that nothing in that act relating to discrimination affects the right of an employer to use veteran status as a factor in hiring decisions if the employer maintains a veterans' preference employment policy established in accordance with the Voluntary Veterans' Preference Employment Policy Act. The bill would prohibit a veterans' preference employment policy from being established or applied for the purpose of discriminating against an employment applicant on the basis of a protected classification, as specified. The bill would make the Voluntary Veterans' Preference Employment Policy Act contingent upon the United States Department of Defense rescinding a specified policy prohibiting transgender individuals from serving in the United States Armed Forces, as provided.

This measure would recognize the month of June 2019 as Alzheimer's and Brain Awareness Month and Friday, June 21, 2019, as The Longest Day, and would urge all Californians to commemorate the month of June 2019 as Alzheimer's and Brain Awareness Month.