Asm. Lorena Gonzalez

(1) Existing federal law provides for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) , known in California as CalFresh, under which supplemental nutrition assistance benefits allocated to the state by the federal government are distributed to eligible individuals by each county. Existing state law authorizes a county to deliver CalFresh benefits through the use of an electronic benefits transfer (EBT) system. Existing federal law authorizes counties to participate in the Restaurant Meals Program. This bill would require each public and private postsecondary educational institution that is located in a county that participates in the Restaurant Meals Program to apply to become an approved food vendor for the program, if the institution operates any qualifying food facilities on campus, or to provide contracting food vendors with specified information about the program. By imposing these requirements on community colleges, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services, if private nonprofit organizations are successful in raising money for CalFresh outreach activities and have secured a local governmental agency to serve as the contracting agency, upon request and subject to approval by the United States Department of Agriculture, to act as their state entity for the receipt of matching funds. This bill would additionally require the department to act as the state entity for the receipt of federal reimbursement for CalFresh outreach activities on behalf of state educational institutions or other state or local agencies, subject to certain conditions. (3) Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services to establish and administer the State Emergency Food Assistance Program, to provide food and funding for the provision of emergency food to food banks, as provided. Existing law creates the State Emergency Food Assistance Program Account within the Emergency Food Assistance Program Fund and requires that moneys in the account, upon appropriation by the Legislature, be used by the program for the purchase, storage, and transportation of food grown or produced in California and for the department's administrative costs. This bill would establish the Public Higher Education Pantry Assistance Program Account in the Emergency Food Assistance Program Fund, and would require that moneys in the account, upon appropriation by the Legislature, be allocated to the department for allocation to food banks that support on-campus pantry and hunger relief efforts serving low-income students, as specified. (4) This bill would incorporate changes to Section 18995 of the Welfare and Institutions Code proposed by both this bill and AB 1577, which would become operative only if both bills are enacted and become effective on or before January 1, 2017, and this bill is chaptered last. (5) 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 these statutory provisions.

Existing law, the Municipal Water District Law of 1911, provides for the formation of municipal water districts and grants to those districts specified powers. Existing law permits a district to acquire, control, distribute, store, spread, sink, treat, purify, recycle, recapture, and salvage any water for the beneficial use of the district, its inhabitants, or the owners of rights to water in the district. Existing law authorizes a district to sell water under its control, without preference, to cities, other public corporations and agencies, and persons, within the district for use within the district. Existing law authorizes a district to sell or otherwise dispose of water above that required by consumers within the district to any persons, public corporations or agencies, or other consumers. This bill, upon the request of an Indian tribe and the satisfaction of certain conditions, would require a district to provide service of water at substantially the same terms applicable to the customers of the district to an Indian tribe's lands that are not within a district, as prescribed, if the Indian tribe's lands meet certain requirements and the Indian tribe satisfies prescribed conditions. The bill would deem the service areas of a district and of any public agencies providing water to the district for all purposes to include an Indian tribe's land for a prescribed period of time if the district provides service of water to the Indian tribe's lands under these provisions. By imposing new duties on a municipal water district, this bill would create 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 sets wage, hour, meal break requirements, and other working conditions for employees and requires an employer to pay overtime wages as specified to an employee who works in excess of a workday or workweek, as defined, and imposes criminal penalties for the violation of these requirements. Existing law exempts agricultural employees from these requirements. Under existing law, the function of the Department of Industrial Relations is to, among other things, foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners of California, to improve their working conditions, and to advance their opportunities for profitable employment. This bill would remove the exemption for agricultural employees regarding hours, meal breaks, and other working conditions, including specified wage requirements, and would create a schedule that would phase in overtime requirements for agricultural workers, as defined, over the course of 4 years, from 2019 to 2022, inclusive. Beginning January 1, 2022, the bill would require any work performed by a person, employed in an agricultural occupation, in excess of 12 hours in one day to be compensated at the rate of no less than twice the employee's regular rate of pay. The bill would provide employers who employ 25 or fewer employees an additional 3 years to comply with the phasing in of these overtime requirements. The bill would authorize the Governor to delay the implementation of these overtime pay provisions if the Governor also suspends the implementation of a scheduled state minimum wage increase, as specified. The bill would require the Department of Industrial Relations to update a specified wage order for consistency with these provisions, as specified. The bill would create a state-mandated local program by including agricultural employees as a class of employees protected by criminal penalties under existing law. 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 federal law, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988, provides for the negotiation and execution of tribal-state gaming compacts for the purpose of authorizing certain types of gaming on Indian lands within a state. The California Constitution authorizes the Governor to negotiate and conclude compacts, subject to ratification by the Legislature. Existing law expressly ratifies a number of tribal-state gaming compacts, and amendments to tribal-state gaming compacts, between the State of California and specified Indian tribes. The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of, an environmental impact report on a project, as defined, that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment, as defined, or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. This bill would ratify the tribal-state gaming compact entered into between the State of California and the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Mission Indians, executed on August 4, 2016. The bill would provide that, in deference to tribal sovereignty, certain actions are not projects for the purposes of CEQA. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

This measure would urge the federal government to ensure that immigrant children are afforded due process under the law in removal proceedings by providing government-funded attorneys, trained in immigration law, to all indigent children seeking an immigration remedy. The measure would urge the federal government to first hear cases involving children that have legal counsel and to immediately halt cases brought against unrepresented immigrant children until lawyers are made available to represent them.

This measure would designate the interchange at Interstate 10 and Interstate 710 in the County of Los Angeles as the Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff Thomas H. Pohlman Memorial Interchange. The measure would request that the Department of Transportation determine the cost of appropriate signs showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering that cost, erect those signs.

This measure would recognize the week of October 16, 2016, to October 22, 2016, inclusive, as Digital Citizenship Week.

This measure would recognize August 25, 2016, and every August 25 thereafter, as California Young Parents Day and would urge all Californians to join in celebrating California Young Parents Day.

This measure would proclaim September 28, 2016, as Parent Advocacy Day.

This measure would proclaim October 23 to October 29, 2016, inclusive, as Red Ribbon Week, and would encourage all Californians to help build drug-free communities and participate in drug prevention activities.