Existing law, the Ortiz-Pacheco-Poochigian-Vasconcellos Cal Grant Program, establishes the Cal Grant A and B Entitlement awards, the California Community College Transfer Cal Grant Entitlement awards, the Competitive Cal Grant A and B awards, the Cal Grant C awards, and the Cal Grant T awards under the administration of the Student Aid Commission, and establishes eligibility requirements for awards under these programs for participating students attending qualifying institutions. Existing law limits the number of Competitive Cal Grant A and B awards that may be granted in an academic year to 22,500. This bill would require the commission to calculate a target for awards to be paid in an award year as specified, estimate a take rate for awards by dividing the total number of awards paid by the total number of offers made during the 3 award years immediately preceding that award year, and estimate the number of award offers that the commission may make to achieve the target for awards to be paid, as specified. The bill would also authorize the commission to exceed the 22,500 award limit in an academic year when the number of acceptances exceeds 22,500, under specified conditions.
Sponsored bills
Existing law establishes the Department of Food and Agriculture, which is tasked with, among other things, promoting and protecting the agricultural industry of the state, and seeking to enhance, protect, and perpetuate the ability of the private sector to produce food and fiber in a way that benefits the general welfare and economy of the state. Existing law also establishes the California Healthy Food Financing Initiative for the purpose of promoting healthy food access in the state. This bill would create the Office of Farm to Fork within the department, and would require the office, to the extent that resources are available, to work with various entities, including, among others, the agricultural industry and other organizations involved in promoting food access, to increase the amount of agricultural products available to underserved communities and schools in the state. The bill would require the office to, among other things, identify urban and rural communities that lack access to healthy food, and to coordinate with local, state, and federal agencies to promote and increase awareness of programs that promote greater food access. The bill would create the Farm to Fork Account in the Department of Food and Agriculture Fund that would consist of money made available from federal, state, industry, and other sources, and would continuously appropriate the money deposited in the account without regard to fiscal years to carry out the purposes of the Office of Farm to Fork. By creating a continuously appropriated fund, the bill would make an appropriation. The bill, until January 1, 2020, would also require the department, in any year in which funds are received into or expended from the Farm to Fork Account, to submit to the Legislature an overview of the account's income and expenditures.
Existing law, the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) , enacts various reforms to the health insurance market. Among other things, PPACA requires a nongrandfathered group health plan and a health insurance issuer offering group or individual insurance coverage to provide coverage, without imposing cost-sharing requirements, for certain preventive services, including those preventive care and screenings for women provided in specified guidelines. PPACA requires those plans and issuers to provide coverage without cost sharing for all federal Food and Drug Administration approved contraceptive methods, sterilization procedures, and patient education and counseling for all women with reproductive capacity, as prescribed by a provider, except as specified. 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 also provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Department of Insurance. Existing law requires a health care service plan contract or health insurance policy that provides coverage for outpatient prescription drug benefits to provide coverage for a variety of federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved prescription contraceptive methods designated by the plan or insurer, except as specified. Existing law authorizes a religious employer, as defined, to request a contract or policy without coverage of FDA-approved contraceptive methods that are contrary to the employer's religious tenets and, if so requested, requires a contract or policy to be provided without that coverage. Existing law requires an individual or small group health care service plan contract or health insurance policy issued, amended, or renewed on or after January 1, 2014, to cover essential health benefits, which are defined to include the health benefits covered by particular benchmark plans. Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which qualified low-income individuals receive specified health care services, including family planning services, subject to certain utilization controls. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid Program provisions. Under existing law, one of the methods by which Medi-Cal services are provided is pursuant to contracts with various types of managed care plans. This bill would require a health care service plan contract or health insurance policy issued, amended, or renewed on or after January 1, 2016, to provide coverage for women for all prescribed and FDA-approved female contraceptive drugs, devices, and products, as well as voluntary sterilization procedures, contraceptive education and counseling, and related followup services. The bill would prohibit a nongrandfathered plan contract or health insurance policy from imposing any cost-sharing requirements or other restrictions or delays with respect to this coverage, as specified. The bill would include Medi-Cal managed plans, as specified, in the definition of a health care service plan for purposes of these provisions. The bill would retain the provision authorizing a religious employer to request a contract or policy without coverage of FDA-approved contraceptive methods that are contrary to the employer's religious tenets. Because a willful violation of the bill's requirements by a health care service plan would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require utilization controls for family planning services for Medi-Cal managed care plans to be subject to the cost-sharing requirements described above. 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 requires the State Department of Public Health to establish a program for the development, provision, and evaluation of genetic disease testing. Existing law establishes the continuously appropriated Genetic Disease Testing Fund (GDTF) , consisting of fees paid for newborn screening tests and states the intent of the Legislature that all costs of the genetic disease testing program be fully supported by fees paid for newborn screening tests, which are deposited in the GDTF. Existing law also authorizes moneys in the GDTF to be used for the expansion of the Genetic Disease Branch Screening Information System to include cystic fibrosis, biotinidase, and severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) and exempts the expansion of contracts for this purpose from certain provisions of the Public Contract Code, the Government Code, and the State Administrative Manual, as specified. This bill would require the department to expand statewide screening of newborns to include screening for adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD) as soon as ALD is adopted by the federal Recommended Uniform Screening Panel (RUSP) . By expanding the purposes for which moneys from the fund may be expended, this bill would make an appropriation.
Under existing law, the State Department of Public Health licenses and regulates health facilities, including hospice facilities, and the provision of hospice services. Existing law establishes the Medical Practice Act, which provides for the regulation and licensure of physicians and surgeons by the Medical Board of California. When a health care provider, as defined, makes a diagnosis that a patient has a terminal illness, existing law requires the health care provider to provide the patient, upon the patient's request, with comprehensive information and counseling regarding legal end-of-life options, as specified, and provide for the referral or transfer of a patient, as provided, if the patient's health care provider does not wish to comply with the patient's request for information on end-of-life options. This bill would apply these provisions to another person authorized to make health care decisions, as defined, for a patient with a terminal illness diagnosis. The bill would additionally require the health care provider to notify, except as specified, the patient or, when applicable, the other person authorized to make health care decisions, when the health care provider makes a diagnosis that a patient has a terminal illness, of the patient's and the other authorized person's right to comprehensive information and counseling regarding legal end-of-life care options.
(1) Existing law, the Medical Waste Management Act, regulates the disposal of medical waste, including requiring specified biohazard materials to be disposed of in biohazard bags and requiring specified treatment for medical waste. Transportation, storage, treatment, or disposal of medical waste in a manner not authorized by the act is a crime. Existing law defines specified terms for purposes of the Medical Waste Management Act, including "biohazard bag," "medical waste management plan," "sharps container," "tracking document," and "treatment." Under existing law, health care professionals who generate medical waste are generally required to have medical waste transported by a registered hazardous waste transporter. This bill would require the State Department of Public Health to submit a report to the Legislature by no later than January 1, 2016, describing the interaction of federal and state law for the transport of regulated medical waste and would require the department to convene a stakeholder group for that purpose. The bill would authorize the department to update standards related to the transportation of medical waste during transport through a guidance document, as specified. The bill would authorize the department to temporarily waive the transportation requirements of this bill while a federal preemption determination is pending, as specified. The bill would provide that during this period of temporary waiver, or if federal preemption is found, the federal requirements would be deemed to be the law of this state and enforceable by the department. The bill would also redefine specified terms for purposes of the act, including those above, and add definitions of new terms, including shipping document and chemotherapeutic agent. The bill would include all subsets of waste in the definition of treatment. The bill would also authorize the color coding of biohazard bags, as specified. (2) Existing law authorizes a local agency to adopt a medical waste management program to, among other things, issue medical waste registrations and permits and inspect medical waste generators and treatment facilities, and requires the local agency, if it elects to do so, to notify the department. Under existing law, if the local agency chooses not to adopt a medical waste management program or if the department withdraws its designation, then the department is the enforcement agency. Existing law requires the department to impose and cause to be collected an annual medical waste generator fee, as specified. Existing law authorizes the department to contract with a medical waste transporter or provider of medical waste mail-back systems for the collection of these fees and authorizes the collecting body to recover not more than 5% of the fees as administrative costs. This bill would remove the ability of the department to use medical waste mail-back systems for the collection of these fees and would authorize medical waste transporters that collect these fees to recover up to 7.5% as administrative costs. (3) Under the act, medical waste generators, including large quantity generators and small quantity generators, are subject to various requirements relating to registration, record retention, and transportation of medical waste. This bill would revise the registration procedures and the record requirements for large quantity and small quantity generators. The bill would require large and small quantity generators that operate treatment equipment to receive annual training to operate the equipment. The bill would exempt from regulation as a hazardous waste hauler a small quantity generator or large quantity generator that meets specified requirements, including retaining specified documentation and complying with certain federal requirements relating to a materials of trade exception. The bill would make technical, conforming, and clarifying changes relating to these provisions. Existing law prohibits a large quantity generator from generating medical waste unless the large quantity generator is registered with the enforcement agency and requires small quantity generators to register with the local enforcement agency. This bill would authorize a registered large quantity or small quantity medical waste generator to generate medical waste at a temporary event, including vaccination clinics, and would require the large quantity or small quantity generator to notify the enforcement agency of its participation at such an event at least 72 hours before the event, except as provided. (4) Existing law requires that all medical waste be hauled by either a registered hazardous waste hauler or by a person with an approved limited-quantity exemption granted pursuant to specified provisions of law. Existing law also specifies treatment methods and processes that medical waste treatment facilities are required to use, including requiring heat sensitive tape to show that materials went through a heat process, and requires a medical waste treatment facility to be permitted by the department. This bill would make various changes to the provisions relating to medical waste haulers, including removing provisions that conflict with the United States Department of Transportation regulation of those entities, authorizing a registered trauma scene waste practitioner, as specified, to haul medical waste, and making changes to the information medical waste haulers are required to provide to the department annually. This bill would also make various changes to the provisions relating to medical waste treatment facilities, including specifying the decontamination methods for a closure plan, lowering the time period for which records are maintained from 3 to 2 years, and authorizing the use of electronic information for operating records and shipping and tracking documents. (5) Existing law exempts from specified provisions of the act, a person who is authorized to collect solid waste and who unknowingly transports medical waste to a solid waste facility, incidental to the collection of solid waste. This bill would exempt those persons from the entire act, with regard to that waste, and would require the solid waste transporter to contact the originating generator of the medical waste to respond to the facility to provide ultimate proper disposal of the medical waste. (6) Existing law requires that animals that die of infectious diseases be treated as medical waste, as specified, if, in the opinion of the attending veterinarian or local health officer, the carcass presents a danger of infection to humans. This bill would require the carcasses of animals that have died of infectious diseases or that have been euthanized because of suspected exposure to infectious disease to be treated with a treatment technology approved by the department if, in the opinion of the attending veterinarian or local health officer, the carcass presents a danger of infection to humans. By expanding the definition of a crime, 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.
(1) Existing law defines "bikeway" for certain purposes to mean all facilities that provide primarily for bicycle travel. Existing law categorizes bikeways into 3 classes of facilities. This bill would additionally categorize cycle tracks or separated bikeways, as specified, as Class IV bikeways. (2) Existing law requires the Department of Transportation, in cooperation with county and city governments, to establish and update minimum safety design criteria for the planning and construction of bikeways, and requires the department to establish uniform specifications and symbols regarding bicycle travel and bicycle traffic related matters. Existing law requires all city, county, regional, and other local agencies responsible for the development or operation of bikeways or roadways where bicycle travel is permitted to utilize all of those minimum safety design criteria and uniform specifications and symbols. This bill would revise these provisions to require the department, in cooperation with local agencies and in consultation with the existing advisory committee of the department dedicated to improve access for persons with disabilities, to establish minimum safety design criteria for each type of bikeway with consideration for the safety of vulnerable populations, as specified, and would require the department to publish the new criteria by January 1, 2016. The bill would authorize a local agency to utilize other minimum safety criteria that meet specified conditions if adopted by resolution at a public meeting, as specified. (3) Existing law requires the Department of Transportation to establish, by June 30, 2013, procedures for cities, counties, and local agencies to be granted exceptions from the requirement to use design criteria and uniform specifications for purposes of research, experimentation, testing, evaluation, or verification. Existing law requires the department, by November 1, 2014, to report to the transportation policy committees of both houses of the Legislature the steps that the department has taken to implement those requirements, including, but not limited to, information regarding requests received and granted by the department from July 1, 2013, to June 30, 2014, inclusive, for those exceptions, and the reasons the department rejected any requests for those exceptions. This bill would repeal those requirements.
Existing law authorizes the compensation of victims and derivative victims of specified types of crimes by the California Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board from the Restitution Fund, a continuously appropriated fund, for specified losses suffered as a result of those crimes. Existing law sets forth eligibility requirements and specified limits on the amount of compensation the board may award. Existing law requires the board to deny an application if the board finds that the victim or derivative victim failed to cooperate reasonably with a law enforcement agency in the apprehension and conviction of a criminal committing the crime. However, existing law specifies that an application for compensation cannot be denied pursuant to that provision solely on the basis of specified behavior by the victim, such as failure to make a police report. This bill would prohibit denial of an application for compensation under the above circumstances with respect to a claim based on sexual assault, as defined, committed by military personnel against military personnel, solely because the sexual assault was not reported to a superior officer or law enforcement at the time of the crime. The bill would set forth types of evidence of sexual assault the board would be required to consider in these cases, for purposes of determining if a claim qualifies for compensation. The bill would require both the perpetrator, as defined, and the victim to be active duty military personnel at the time the sexual assault occurred for these provisions to apply. By expanding the authorization for the use of moneys in the continuously appropriated Restitution Fund, this bill would make an appropriation.
Existing law establishes the California Community Colleges, under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, as one of the segments of public postsecondary education in this state. Members of the board are required to be selected from outstanding lay citizens of California who have a strong interest in the further development and improvement of community colleges. This bill would specify that members of the board, to the greatest extent possible, should be inclusive and representative of the many demographic groups found in California, and that the board should reflect diversity of race and gender, and include, among others, disabled persons and veterans. The bill would also provide that each member of the board should bring his or her own best thinking and personal views to the board's discussion, as specified.
Existing law establishes the Division of Occupational Safety and Health in the Department of Industrial Relations to enforce employment safety laws. Existing law authorizes the division to conduct hearings, inspections, and investigations regarding alleged violations of employment safety laws and to issue a citation for a violation of those laws, including violations that regulations adopted by the division classify as serious, repeat, or willful violations. Existing law authorizes the division to propose appropriate modifications concerning the characterization of violations and corresponding modifications to civil penalties for violations. Existing law requires the division, if a serious violation is not abated at the time of the initial or subsequent inspection, to require the employer to submit a signed statement under penalty of perjury that he or she has complied with the abatement terms within the period fixed for abatement of the violation. Existing law establishes the Occupational Safety and Health Appeals Board in the department, and prescribes procedures for the appeals board to hear and decide appeals of a citation. Regulations adopted by the appeals board generally stay the abatement period of a citation until the conclusion of the appeal. This bill would prohibit the division from granting, for serious violations, a proposed modification to civil penalties for abatement or credit for abatement unless the employer has abated the violation, as specified, or has submitted a statement to the division in accordance with existing law, and would additionally require supporting evidence with the statement where necessary. The bill would authorize the division to grant such a modification only if the violation has been abated, as specified, or the signed statement and supporting evidence is received within 10 working days after the end of the period fixed for abatement. The bill would generally prohibit the stay or suspension of a requirement to abate the hazards affirmed by the decision or order during the pendency before the appeals board of a petition for reconsideration of a citation for a violation that is classified as a serious violation, repeat serious violation, or willful serious violation. The bill would authorize the appeals board to stay or suspend an abatement, upon petition by the employer, only if the employer demonstrates that a stay or suspension will not adversely affect the health and safety of employees.