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 those 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 5th amendment to the tribal-state gaming compact entered into between the State of California and the Picayune Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians of California, the tribal-state gaming compact between the State of California and the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe, and the first amendment to the tribal-state gaming compact entered into between the State of California and the Pechanga Band of Indians. The bill would provide that, in deference to tribal sovereignty, certain actions related to this amended compact are not projects for the purposes of CEQA. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
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Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations and gas corporations. Existing law finds and declares that the California Council on Science and Technology (CCST) was organized as a nonprofit corporation at the request of the Legislature for the specific purpose of offering expert advice to the state government on public policy issues significantly related to science and technology. Existing law requests the CCST, every 3 years, to assess the infrastructure project types, scale, and pace necessary to achieve the state's energy, climate change, and air quality goals, as specified. This bill would require the CCST to establish, on or before March 1, 2027, upon appropriation by the Legislature, a program to, upon request of the Legislature, analyze legislation that would establish a mandated requirement or program, as defined, or otherwise affect electrical corporation or gas corporation ratepayers, as specified. The bill would require the analysis to include, among other things, whether the legislation will increase electricity or natural gas utility rates, and if so, would require an assessment of specified financial impacts. The bill would require the CCST to develop and implement conflict-of-interest provisions to prohibit a person from participating in an analysis for which the person knows or has reasons to know that the person has a material financial interest. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2032.
Under the Political Reform Act of 1974, a person who files an original statement or report related to campaign financing, or a copy of the statement or report, after a deadline imposed by the act is liable in the amount of $10 per day after the deadline until the statement or report is filed, up to the cumulative amount stated in the late statement or report or $100, whichever is greater. For original statements or reports, existing law authorizes a filing officer to not impose this liability if the officer determines that the late filing was not willful and that enforcement of the liability will not further the purposes of the act, except in specified cases, including if a statement of economic interest, other than the statement of a candidate for specified state and local offices, is not filed within 30 days after the filing officer has sent specific written notice of the filing requirement. This bill would establish a limit on liability of $100 for the late filing of an original statement of economic interest. For any other original statement or report, the bill would limit liability for a late filing at an amount equal to the aggregate amount of any contributions, expenditures, and other amounts reported on the statement or report, or $100, whichever is greater. The bill would remove the provision imposing liability in the amount of $10 for the filing of a late copy of a statement or report. The bill would also remove the exception to liability if the statement of a candidate for specified state and local offices is not filed within 30 days after the filing officer has sent specific written notice of the filing requirement, thereby penalizing such a late filing in the same manner as the late filing of other statements of economic interest. The Political Reform Act of 1974, an initiative measure, provides that the Legislature may amend the act to further the act's purposes upon a 23 vote of each house of the Legislature and compliance with specified procedural requirements. This bill would declare that it furthers the purposes of the act.
Existing law generally designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency with the primary responsibility for the control of vehicular air pollution. Existing law requires the state board to develop and implement a Heavy-Duty Vehicle Inspection and Maintenance Program for nongasoline heavy-duty onroad motor vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating of more than 14,000 pounds. Existing law requires that the program include, among other things, test procedures for different motor vehicle model years and emissions control technologies that measure the effectiveness of the control of emissions of oxides of nitrogen and particulate matter. Existing law requires, as part of the program, the state board to develop a Heavy-Duty Vehicle Inspection and Maintenance Compliance Certificate. Existing law requires the state board to issue the certificate to the legal owner, registered owner, or designee of a vehicle that, at the discretion of the state board, meets the requirements of the program so that vehicle owners and operators may easily demonstrate proof of compliance for specified purposes. This bill would limit specified testing of all nongasoline heavy-duty onroad motor vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating of more than 14,000 pounds that are considered low use, as defined, that have an engine that is from the 2012 model year or older, and that are registered in this state, to not more frequently than annually. The bill would require the state board to adopt rules and regulations to implement this provision.
Existing law establishes an archery season for the taking of deer with bow and arrow. Existing law generally prohibits a person taking or attempting to take deer during that archery season from carrying, or having under their immediate control, a firearm of any kind, except for an active or honorably retired peace officer, as specified. This bill would repeal that prohibition.
Existing law establishes in the Natural Resources Agency the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL-FIRE) and makes CAL-FIRE responsible for, among other things, fire protection and prevention, as provided. Existing law establishes the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection in CAL-FIRE to represent the state's interest in the acquisition and management of state forests and requires the board to maintain an adequate forest policy. Former Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr., issued a proclamation of a state of emergency on October 30, 2015, that required CAL-FIRE, the Natural Resources Agency, the Department of Transportation, and the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) , among other things, to identify areas of the state that represent high hazard zones for wildfire and falling trees, known as Tier 1 and Tier 2 high hazard zones. Existing law creates the Timber Regulation and Forest Restoration Fund (Timber Fund) in the State Treasury and imposes an assessment on the purchase of a lumber product or an engineered wood product for storage, use, or other consumption in this state, at the rate of 1% of the sales price, for deposit into the Timber Fund. Existing law requires that moneys deposited in the Timber Fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, only be expended for specified purposes, including, among other things, as a loan to the Department of Fish and Wildlife for activities to address environmental damage occurring on forest lands resulting from marijuana cultivation. Existing law specifies the funding priorities of the Timber Fund. Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. The California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program requires every electrical corporation to file with the PUC a standard tariff for electricity generated by an electric generation facility, as defined, that qualifies for the tariff, is owned and operated by a retail customer of the electrical corporation, and is located within the service territory of, and developed to sell electricity to, the electrical corporation. This bill would, upon appropriation by the Legislature, make moneys from the Timber Fund or from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund available to the state board to establish and implement the Forest Organic Residue Energy and Safety Transformation (FOREST) program in order to maintain and expand biomass power generation in the state, to revitalize idle facilities for biomass power generation, and to support biomass power generation facilities by creating additional capacity for power generation or feedstock utilization in strategically located regions of the state. The bill would make a facility's electrical generation eligible for reimbursement at an incentive rate determined by the state board if, among other things, the facility uses forest biomass waste, as defined, to generate electricity and the electricity is sold to specified retail sellers. The bill would require, among other things, that no less than 60% of the feedstock used by a facility originate from Tier 1 and Tier 2 high hazard zones, as defined, and would require the facility to be located in specified counties or meet specified emission limits. The bill would create an application process for an operator of a facility to seek this reimbursement that also requires the operator to demonstrate the facility is certified by the Energy Commission as an eligible renewable energy resource for purposes of the California Renewable Portfolio Standards Program, as provided, and would require the state board to adopt regulations to implement the FOREST program, as provided. This bill would establish the FOREST and Wildfire Prevention Fund (FOREST Fund) in the State Treasury, and would make moneys in the FOREST Fund available, upon appropriation, to the Natural Resources Agency for the FOREST program, as specified. The bill would repeal the authorization to loan moneys in the Timber Fund for addressing marijuana cultivation damage, as described above, and would instead, in the same funding priority, authorize the Timber Fund to be expended to support the FOREST Fund and FOREST program, as specified. The bill would also specify certain procedures regarding the funding priorities of the Timber Fund so that each purpose identified in a higher priority is funded before a lower priority, as specified. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Sections 4629.6 and 4629.8 of the Public Resources Code proposed by AB 2494 to be operative only if this bill and AB 2494 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.
This measure would designate a specified portion of State Route 99 in the County of Butte as the Congressman Doug LaMalfa Memorial Highway. 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 sufficient to cover the cost, to erect those signs.
In order to establish a record by which an adoptee can prove the facts of a foreign adoption, existing law requires a state resident who has finalized an intercountry adoption in a foreign country to file a petition to readopt within the earlier of 60 days of the adoptee's entry into the United States or the adoptee's 16th birthday. If the adoptive parent fails to file the petition within the prescribed timeframe or to provide a copy of the petition to each adoption agency that provided adoption services to the adoptive parent, existing law requires the adoption agency that facilitated the adoption to file the petition within 90 days of the child's entry into the United States and to provide a file-marked copy of the petition to the adoptive parent and any other adoption agency that provided services to the adoptive parent, as specified. Existing law requires the petition to include, among other things, a report from at least one postplacement home visit by an intercountry adoption agency or a contractor of that agency licensed to provide intercountry adoption services in the state. Existing law requires the clerk of the court to submit an order granting the petition to the State Registrar, as specified, and requires the State Registrar to issue a delayed registration of birth upon receipt of the order. This bill would authorize an adoptee of any age to file a petition on their own behalf if both the adoptive parent or parents and the adoption agency that facilitated the adoption failed to file a petition to readopt pursuant to the above-described provisions. The bill would, notwithstanding the documentation requirements described above, authorize a court to grant a petition for readoption that does not include those documents if (1) the petitioner establishes, by a preponderance of the evidence, that they are the adoptee, (2) the petitioner proves, by a preponderance of the evidence, that one or more of the required documents cannot be obtained due to the passage of time or other circumstances beyond the petitioner's control, and (3) the petitioner is able to establish, by a preponderance of the evidence, the fundamental facts necessary for the court to make the findings required to grant the petition. The bill would authorize evidence presented to the court for these purposes to include both documentary and nondocumentary evidence, including, among other things, testimony, declarations, court records, agency records, correspondence, and other corroborating sources of information the court deems sufficient. Existing law requires the court to notify all appropriate authorities if it finds that the child may be a subject of human trafficking or may be within the jurisdiction of the juvenile court as a dependent child, as specified. This bill would also expand the notice requirements described above to include any adoptee who may be, or may have been, a subject of human trafficking.
Existing law establishes a motor vehicle inspection and maintenance (smog check) program that is administered by the Department of Consumer Affairs. The smog check program requires inspection of motor vehicles upon initial registration, biennially upon renewal of registration, upon transfer of ownership, and in certain other circumstances. Existing law requires all motor vehicles to biennially obtain a certificate of compliance or noncompliance, as provided. Existing law exempts specified vehicles from obtaining the certificate of compliance or noncompliance, including, among others, all motor vehicles manufactured before the 1976 model year. Existing law also exempts from a specified portion of the smog test, both biennially and at transfer, a collector motor vehicle that is insured as a collector motor vehicle, is at least 35 model years old, complies with the exhaust emissions standards for that motor vehicle's class and model year as prescribed by the department, and passes a functional inspection of the fuel cap and a visual inspection for liquid fuel leaks. Existing law defines collector motor vehicle for this purpose to mean a motor vehicle owned by a collector, as defined, used primarily in shows, parades, charitable functions, and historical exhibitions for display, maintenance, preservation, and not used primarily for transportation. This bill would expand the definition of a collector motor vehicle to include a motor vehicle that is at least 35 model years old and complies with certain regulations that are required to be adopted by the Bureau of Automotive Repair, as specified. The bill would, beginning January 1, 2028, exempt specified collector motor vehicles manufactured before the 1981 model year from the requirement to obtain a certificate of compliance or noncompliance upon initial registration, biennially upon renewal of registration, or upon transfer of ownership. The bill would extend the applicability of this exemption by one model year each year until the final extension takes effect on and after January 1, 2033, that would exempt specified collector motor vehicles manufactured before the 1986 model year from the requirement to obtain the certificate of compliance or noncompliance. The bill would be known, and may be cited, as Jay Leno's Law.
Maddy summarySenate Resolution 137 formally declares October 2026 as National Chiropractic Health Month in California. The resolution highlights chiropractic care as a drug-free option for treating musculoskeletal conditions and notes that the profession is regulated by the State Board of Chiropractic Examiners, which operates without using state general fund money. It also directs the Secretary of the Senate to send copies of the resolution to the California Chiropractic Association and the bill's author.