(1) Existing law establishes the Feed Inspection Advisory Board in state government and generally requires it to serve in an advisory capacity to the Secretary of Food and Agriculture with respect to the operation of the law governing commercial feed. Existing law authorizes the advisory board to establish or designate one or more other entities to administer all or part of the law governing commercial feed and requires the secretary to adopt regulations and procedures to be used by the entity or entities. Existing law specifies the entity or entities that may be established or designated by the advisory board for this purpose including state accredited or certified chemistry laboratories. This bill would expand the types of entities that may be established or designated for this purpose to include any state accredited, certified, or licensed laboratories. (2) The California Seed Law regulates seed sold in California, and requires the Secretary of Food and Agriculture to maintain a properly equipped laboratory for examining and testing seeds. This bill would instead authorize the secretary to maintain a properly equipped laboratory for examining and testing seeds for the purpose of enforcing the germination and purity standards established by the California Seed Law. The bill would authorize the secretary to approve laboratories to conduct germination and purity examinations and testing of seeds that meet specified requirements.
Sponsored bills
Existing law requires that all license fees from satellite wagering that are deposited in the Fair and Exposition Fund be deposited in a separate account in the fund for specified purposes, including for health and safety repair projects at fairs, which includes fire and life safety improvement projects, California Code of Regulations compliance projects, and long-term deferred maintenance projects. Under existing law, all revenues transferred to this account are continuously appropriated from that account to the Department of Food and Agriculture, for allocation by the Secretary of Food and Agriculture, at the secretary's discretion, for those specified purposes. This bill would instead require that funds appropriated or designated for California fairs and expositions be first deposited in a separate account in the Fair and Exposition Fund designated by the bill as the Special Trust Account for the Rebuilding and Renewal of Fairs, and continuously appropriated from that account to the Department of Food and Agriculture, for allocation by the Secretary of Food and Agriculture. The bill would delete a provision requiring certain allocations from the fund be made with the concurrence of the Joint Committee on Fairs Allocation and Classification. The bill would specify that, with the concurrence of the Director of Finance, moneys from the fund could be additionally used for constructing or acquiring capital improvements at fairgrounds and for emergency services projects. The bill would also specify that these moneys could be used for expenses incurred in developing and operating revenue generating projects at fairgrounds, as specified. The bill would provide for the allocation of funds in excess of $11,000,000 that are deposited in the separate account in any fiscal year. Because the bill would add a new source of funds to a continuously appropriated fund, as well as add to the purposes for which moneys deposited in that fund may be expended, the bill would make an appropriation.
Existing law authorizes the Employment Development Department (department) to administer the federal-state unemployment insurance program and provides for the payment of unemployment compensation benefits to eligible individuals who are unemployed through no fault of their own. Existing law establishes procedures for the filing, determination, and payment of benefit claims, and those benefits are payable from the Unemployment Fund. Existing law requires the department to promptly pay benefits if it finds the claimant is eligible and to promptly deny benefits if it finds the claimant is ineligible for benefits. Existing law requires the department to consider facts submitted by an employer in making this determination and also provides for the department to audit claims, as specified. This bill would, beginning July 1, 2021, require the department, as part of its process for determining eligibility for unemployment insurance benefits, cross-check all claimant information with state and county correctional facility inmate data in an effort to detect fraudulent applications. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law establishes the Employment Development Department, administered by the Director of Employment Development, within the Labor and Workforce Development Agency and sets forth its powers and duties related to the administration of the state unemployment and disability compensation programs. This bill would require the department to establish, upon appropriation by the Legislature, an advisory committee to advise the department on matters within the department's jurisdiction, including, but not limited to, unemployment insurance. The bill would require the committee to include members representing a diverse spectrum of private and public employers and employees impacted by programs overseen by the department, as provided. The bill would require the committee to hold open and public meetings in compliance with the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act at least once a quarter. The bill would require, commencing on January 1, 2023, the committee to prepare and publicly publish an annual report describing its activities, including, but not limited to, recommendations made by the advisory committee and the department's response to those recommendations. The bill would also make related findings and declarations.
Existing law establishes the Education Code and sets forth general provisions, rules of construction, and definitions that govern its construction. This bill, for purposes of the Education Code, would define "frontier school district" to mean a school district that meets certain attendance or population criteria.
Existing law, the Nursing Practice Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of nurses by the Board of Registered Nursing in the Department of Consumer Affairs. Existing law requires a licensee under the act to apply for renewal of their license every 2 years and allows an inactive license to be reactivated, as specified. This bill would authorize the board to reduce as prescribed the renewal fee for a licensee who meets certain age and practice qualifications.
The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law, in conformity with federal income tax law, generally define "gross income" as income from whatever source derived, except as specifically excluded, and provide various exclusions from gross income. Existing law, in conformity with the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) , and its subsequent amendments in the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act and the Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act of 2020, among other things, excludes any amounts of covered loans forgiven under the CARES Act from gross income for purposes of the Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law. Existing law reduces the amount of any credit or deduction otherwise allowed under the Personal Income Tax and the Corporation Tax Law for any amount paid or incurred by the taxpayer upon which this exclusion is based by the amount of the exclusion allowed. 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. Existing federal law, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, prohibits reductions in tax deductions, denials of basis adjustments, and reductions in tax attributes for federal income tax purposes based on the exclusion from gross income provided in the federal CARES Act and its subsequent amendments. This bill would adopt specified provisions of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, prohibiting any reduction in tax deductions, denials of basis adjustments, and reductions in tax attributes based on the exclusion from gross income provided for any loan amount forgiven in modified conformity with the federal CARES Act and its subsequent amendments. This bill would provide findings to comply with the additional information requirement for any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure. This bill would also make findings and declarations related to a gift of public funds. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
(1) The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency responsible for monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases. Existing law authorizes the state board to include the use of market-based compliance mechanisms. Existing law requires all moneys, except for fines and penalties, collected by the state board from a market-based compliance mechanism to be deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and to be available upon appropriation by the Legislature. Existing law continuously appropriates 35% of the annual proceeds of the fund for transit, affordable housing, and sustainable communities programs and 25% of the annual proceeds of the fund for certain components of a specified high-speed rail project. This bill would continuously appropriate $480,000,000 and $20,000,000 to the Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention and the California Conservation Corps, respectively, for fire prevention activities, as provided. (2) The Z'berg-Nejedly Forest Practice Act of 1973 prohibits a person from conducting timber operations unless a timber harvesting plan prepared by a registered professional forester has been submitted to, and approved by, the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Existing law, until January 1, 2022, authorizes the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection to exempt from the requirements of that act a person engaged in forest management whose activities are limited to the cutting or removal of trees on the person's property that eliminates the vertical continuity of vegetative fuels and the horizontal continuity of tree crowns for the purpose of reducing flammable materials and maintaining a fuelbreak for a distance of not more than 300 feet on each side from an approved and legally permitted habitable structure, when that cutting or removal is conducted in compliance with certain requirements. This bill would extend the state board's authorization to provide for the above exemption indefinitely. The bill would extend the distance of the fuelbreak to not more than 500 feet. (3) The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. This bill would exempt from the requirements of CEQA projects or activities related to forest health and fuel reduction that involve thinning overgrown brushes or trees 10 inches or less in diameter by mechanical thinning, pile burning, prescribed fire, and grazing. Because a lead agency would be required to determine the applicability of this exemption, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (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.
Existing law establishes the Office of Small Business Advocate within the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development for the purpose of advocating for the causes of small business and to provide small businesses with the information they need to survive in the marketplace. This bill, the Keep California Working Act, would establish the Keep California Working Grant Program. The act would require the Small Business Advocate to administer the program and award grants, as specified, to small businesses and nonprofit entities that meet specified criteria, including that the entity has experienced economic hardship resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. The act would specify that grant money awarded pursuant to the program may be used only for specified purposes, including payroll costs, health care benefits, paid sick, medical, or family leave, and insurance premiums. The act would appropriate $2.6 billion dollars to the Office of Small Business Advocate for those purposes. The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law, in conformity with federal income tax law, generally define "gross income" as income from whatever source derived, except as specifically excluded, and provide various exclusions from gross income. This bill would exclude from gross income, for state income tax purposes, the amount of a grant awarded pursuant to the Keep California Working Grant Program. Existing law requires a bill authorizing a new tax expenditure to contain, among other things, specific goals, purposes, and objectives that the tax expenditure will achieve, detailed performance indicators, and data collection requirements. The bill also would include additional information required for a bill authorizing a new tax expenditure. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
(1) Existing law prohibits a person from using or operating, or assisting in using or operating, a boat, aircraft, net, trap, line, or other appliance to take fish for commercial purposes unless the person holds a commercial fishing license issued by the Department of Fish and Wildlife. Existing law generally requires any person who engages in any business for profit involving fish to have a commercial fish business license issued by the department, and requires specialty licenses for specified classes of fish business. Existing law requires all fish taken or otherwise dealt with under the law to be exhibited upon demand to any person authorized by the department to enforce any law relating to the protection and conservation of fish. A violation of the Fish and Game Code or a regulation adopted pursuant to the code is a crime. This bill would require a person who holds a commercial fishing license or a commercial fish business license, upon request of an authorized agent or employee of the department, to immediately relinquish, at no charge, fish or parts of fish caught or landed in California to the department for the purpose of collecting a biological sample. Because a violation of this provision would be a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) Existing law requires the Ocean Protection Council to make a grant, upon appropriation of funding by the Legislature, for the development and administration of a Dungeness crab task force. Under existing law, the task force is comprised of 21 voting members and 6 nonvoting members, with the voting members representing various fishing and crab processing interests. Existing law requires the task force, among other things, to make recommendations on various topics and requires these recommendations to be forwarded to the Joint Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture, the Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the Fish and Game Commission upon an affirmative vote of at least 23 of the task force members. Existing law also authorizes a proposed recommendation of the Dungeness crab task force regarding a modification to the Dungeness crab trap limit program to be transmitted to the Director of Fish and Wildlife and the Legislature if the recommendation receives an affirmative vote of at least 15 of the non-ex officio members of the Dungeness crab task force. This bill would revise the vote threshold for these purposes by requiring an affirmative vote of at least 23 of the voting members of the task force to forward or transmit a recommendation. (3) Existing law prohibits a person from using a vessel to take, possess, or land Dungeness crab for commercial purposes using Dungeness crab traps without a Dungeness crab vessel permit. Existing law prohibits the transfer of a Dungeness crab vessel permit except under certain circumstances. Existing law authorizes, upon written approval of the Department of Fish and Wildlife, the owner of a vessel to whom a Dungeness crab vessel permit has been issued to retain that permit upon the sale of that permitted vessel for the purpose of transferring the permit to another vessel to be purchased by that individual within one year of the time of sale of the vessel for which the permit was originally issued if certain requirements are satisfied. This bill would delete the requirement that the vessel to which the permit will be transferred be purchased by that individual within one year of the time of sale of the vessel for which the permit was originally issued, and would provide that if the permit is not transferred to a new vessel within one year of the sale of the permitted vessel, the permit shall become void by operation of law. Existing law authorizes, in the event of loss or destruction of a vessel for which a Dungeness crab vessel permit was issued, or serious damage that renders the vessel inoperable, and upon written approval of the department, the owner of the vessel to whom the permit was issued to retain the permit and to transfer the permit to another equivalent vessel during the period of 2 years after the loss or damage of the vessel for which the permit was originally issued. Existing law provides that, if the permit is not permanently transferred to another vessel owned by the person to whom the vessel permit was originally issued within 2 years of the loss or damage, the permit shall become void by operation of law. This bill would delete the requirement that the vessel to which the permit will be transferred be owned by the person to whom the vessel permit was originally issued. (4) Existing law prohibits a person from taking, possessing onboard, or landing Dungeness crab for commercial purposes from a vessel in any ocean waters for 30 days after the opening of those waters for the commercial Dungeness crab fishing season if the opening of the season for those waters has been delayed and the same vessel was used to take, possess onboard, or land Dungeness crab for commercial purposes, from ocean waters outside of the delayed waters, before the opening of the delayed waters for the season. This law is commonly referred to as "fair start." Existing law specifies the circumstances in which a delay has occurred for the purposes of the fair start law. Existing law requires the Department of Fish and Wildlife, on or before November 1, 2020, to adopt regulations establishing criteria and protocols to evaluate and respond to potential risk of marine life entanglement, as prescribed. Upon the effective date of these regulations, existing law authorizes the Director of Fish and Wildlife to restrict the take of Dungeness crab pursuant to the criteria and protocols. This bill would specify that a delay in the opening of waters implemented pursuant to these criteria and protocols or a delay in the opening of waters in Oregon or Washington by a closure to prevent a risk of marine life entanglement constitutes a delay for purposes of the fair start law. (5) Existing law authorizes crab traps to be set and baited 64 hours prior to the opening date of the Dungeness crab season in Fish and Game Districts 6, 7, 8, and 9. Existing law also authorizes crab traps to be set and baited in advance of that opening date in those districts if no other attempt is made to take or possess Dungeness crab in those districts. Existing law also provides, except in Fish and Game Districts 6, 7, 8, and 9, that crab traps may be set and baited 18 hours in advance of the opening date of the Dungeness crab season if no other attempt is made to take or possess Dungeness crab. This bill would instead authorize crab traps to be set and baited 64 hours before the opening date of the Dungeness crab season regardless of the Fish and Game District. The bill would also make conforming changes. (6) Existing state law, the Sherman Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Law, makes it unlawful to manufacture, sell, deliver, hold, or offer for sale adulterated food. Existing law prescribes when a food is adulterated, including if it bears or contains any poisonous or deleterious substance that may render it injurious to the health of a person or other animal that may consume it. Existing law makes a violation of the Sherman Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Law or a regulation adopted pursuant to that law a misdemeanor. Existing law authorizes the Director of Fish and Wildlife to order the closure of any waters or otherwise restrict the taking in state waters of any species of fish if the Director of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, in consultation with the State Public Health Officer, determines that the species or subspecies of fish is likely to pose a human health risk from high levels of toxic substances. Existing law requires the Director of Fish and Wildlife, upon receiving notification from the Director of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment that a human health risk no longer exists and a request to reopen those waters, to reopen those waters in a manner that promotes a fair and orderly fishery. A violation of the Fish and Game Code or a regulation adopted pursuant to the code is a crime. This bill would authorize a fishing vessel to transit closed waters in possession of species where take is otherwise restricted pursuant to those provisions if the vessel adheres to electronic monitoring requirements specified by the Department of Fish and Wildlife. The bill would require the State Department of Public Health to issue an order authorizing the evisceration, as defined, of Dungeness crab or rock crab if the domoic acid for Dungeness crab or rock crab exceeds the allowable levels for viscera in certain areas when specified criteria exist. The bill would require the State Department of Public Health to only authorize the evisceration of Dungeness crab or rock crab by a licensed processor, as defined, that also has a Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point plan approved by the State Department of Public Health for handling and preparing eviscerated crab. The bill would require the State Department of Public Health to collect from a processor a fee of $350 for the cost of reviewing the processor's Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point plan for handling and preparing eviscerated crab, to be deposited in the Food Safety Fund for expenditure by the State Department of Public Health, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for the costs of reviewing the plans. The bill would also require the State Department of Public Health to establish labeling requirements for eviscerated crab, as specified, and to require the processor to maintain written recall procedures. Because a violation of these provisions would be a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the State Department of Public Health to consult with the Dungeness crab task force or a successor task force or committee to establish the criteria for the manufacture, sale, delivery, holding, or offering for sale of Dungeness crab or rock crab caught in areas subject to an evisceration order by the State Department of Public Health. The bill would require the State Department of Public Health to publish notice of the proposed criteria, as specified, and make the criteria effective by operation of law as regulations 90 days after the notice is published. Because a violation of these regulations would be a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would authorize the Director of Fish and Wildlife, in accordance with specified requirements, to open waters that are otherwise restricted for the commercial take of Dungeness crab or rock crab during a time period when the State Department of Public Health authorizes the manufacture, sale, delivery, holding, or offering for sale of eviscerated Dungeness crab or rock crab pursuant to the above-described provisions. The bill would require the holder of a Dungeness crab vessel permit or rock crab permit to submit to electronic monitoring of the vessel while engaged in the take of Dungeness crab or rock crab, as specified. The bill would authorize a person who takes Dungeness crab or rock crab to sell or provide the Dungeness crab or rock crab only to a processor licensed and approved by the State Department of Public Health, as specified. The bill would require the Director of Fish and Wildlife, when evisceration procedures established pursuant to the bill are no longer in effect, to lift related restrictions in a manner that promotes a fair and orderly fishery. Because a violation of these provisions would be a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (7) 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. (8) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.