The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency charged with monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases. The state board is required to approve a statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit equivalent to the statewide greenhouse gas emissions level in 1990 to be achieved by 2020 and to ensure that statewide greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to at least 40% below the 1990 level by 2030. The act requires the state board to prepare and approve a scoping plan for achieving the maximum technologically feasible and cost-effective reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, and to update the plan not less than every 5 years. Under the act, a violation of a rule, regulation, order, emission limitation, emission reduction measure, or other measure adopted by the state board under the act is a crime. This bill would require the state board to ensure that statewide greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to at least 40% and up to 80% below the 1990 level by 2030. By expanding the scope of a crime, this bill would imposed a state-mandated local program. The bill would adopt a state policy to lead a global effort to restore oceanic and atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gas emissions to preindustrial levels as soon as possible to secure a safe climate for all, and to restore community health and reverse the impacts from the damage and injustice climate change is causing to the people, the economy, and the environment of California. The bill would require the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency, in coordination with the Secretary for Environmental Protection and the State Air Resources Board, and concurrent with the scoping plan, to develop a climate restoration plan that specifies carbon removal targets, before 2035, as necessary to facilitate achievement of those goals. Existing law establishes the Integrated Climate Adaptation and Resiliency Program, administered by the Office of Planning and Research, to coordinate regional and local efforts with state climate adaptation strategies to adapt to the impacts of climate change, as specified. This bill would require the office, in collaboration with various state entities, to develop criteria to ensure that public expenditures for projects that address climate change resilience protect the most vulnerable communities first, rectify intersectional and systemic inequities, and enhance low-income and vulnerable communities' labor standards, workers' rights, career pathways, and community benefits. 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.
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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 health care services, including federally qualified health center (FQHC) services and rural health clinic (RHC) services. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions. FQHC and RHC services are reimbursed, to the extent that federal financial participation is obtained, to providers on a per-visit basis, and a "visit" is defined as a face-to-face encounter between a patient of an FQHC or RHC and specified health care professionals. Existing law prohibits a requirement of in-person contact between a health care provider and a Medi-Cal patient when the service may be provided by telehealth, and, for purposes of telehealth, prohibits the department from limiting the type of setting where Medi-Cal services are provided. This bill would make electronic consultation services reimbursable under the Medi-Cal program for enrolled providers, including FQHCs or RHCs. The bill would require the department to seek federal waivers and approvals to implement this provision, and would condition the implementation of the bill's provisions on the department obtaining necessary federal approval of federal matching funds. The bill would make related findings and declarations.
Existing law, the Planning and Zoning Law, requires a city or county to adopt a general plan for land use development within its boundaries that includes, among other things, a housing element. That law requires the planning agency of a city or county to provide, by April 1 of each year, an annual report to, among other entities, the Department of Housing and Community Development that includes, among other specified information, the number of applications submitted, the location and total number of developments approved, the number of building permits issued, and the number of units constructed pursuant to a specific streamlined, ministerial approval process. This bill would, commencing January 1, 2024, require a planning agency to include in that annual report specified information on costs, standards, and applications for proposed housing development projects and specified information on housing development projects within the jurisdiction. Existing law requires an applicant for a housing development project, as defined, to be deemed to have submitted a preliminary application upon providing all of specified information about the proposed project to the city, county, or city and county from which approval for the project is being sought and upon payment of the permit processing fee. This bill would, commencing January 1, 2024, require a planning agency to include in the annual report described above the number of times in which a preliminary application for a housing development project expired pursuant to specified procedures. Existing law, known as the Density Bonus Law, requires a city or county to provide a developer that proposes a housing development in the city or county with a density bonus and other incentives or concessions for the production of lower income housing units, or for the donation of land within the development, if the developer agrees to, among other things, construct a specified percentage of units for very low, low-, or moderate-income households or qualifying residents, including lower income students. This bill would require the planning agency to include in the annual report described above the number of units in a student housing development for lower income students for which the developer was granted a density bonus. By adding to the duties of local planning officials with respect to preparing and submitting the above-described annual report to the Department of Housing and Community Development, this bill would impose 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 establishes the California Conservation Corps in the Natural Resources Agency and requires the corps to implement and administer the conservation corps program. Existing law authorizes the Director of the California Conservation Corps to establish the Education and Employment Reentry Program within the corps to develop, partner with, and create opportunities for certain forestry corps program objectives, collaborate with the Employment Development Department to provide access to workforce services, collaborate with nongovernmental organizations dedicated to providing access to counseling, mentorship, supportive housing, health care, and educational opportunities, and employ collaborations and partnerships available to the corps, as specified. This bill would require the director, upon appropriation and on or before December 31, 2023, upon appropriation and on or before December 31, 2023, in partnership with the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, to establish a forestry training center in northern California to provide enhanced training, education, work experience, and job readiness for entry-level forestry and vegetation management jobs. The bill would require the training center to include counseling, mentorship, supportive housing, health care, and educational services and authorize the training center to provide training modules on specified activities. The bill would require the director to enroll at the training center formerly incarcerated individuals and to prioritize enrollment for those formerly incarcerated individuals who have either successfully served on a California Conservation Camp program crew and were recommended by the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection and the Secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, as provided, or successfully served on a hand crew at the county level and were recommended for participation by county probation and county fire departments. The bill would provide that successful completion of a training program at the training center constitutes qualifying experience for an entry-level forestry or vegetation management position at a state agency. Existing law requires the corps to report by December 31 of each year the total number of corpsmembers in the cohort who permanently separated from the corps, as provided. Existing law requires the report to include specified information. This bill would require the report, commencing December 31, 2023, and annually thereafter, to contain specified information regarding formerly incarcerated individuals enrolled in corps programs or centers, as provided. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for northern California.
Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, and under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services, including substance use disorder services that are delivered through the Drug Medi-Cal Treatment Program and the Drug Medi-Cal organized delivery system, subject to utilization controls. For purposes of the Drug Medi-Cal Treatment Program, existing law prescribes the maximum allowable rates for services, including individual and group rates for extensive counseling for outpatient drug-free treatment. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions. This bill would expand substance use disorder services to include contingency management services as an optional benefit under the Drug Medi-Cal organized delivery system, as specified, subject to utilization controls. The bill would require counties that administer the Drug Medi-Cal organized delivery system to submit a plan to the department that demonstrates readiness to implement contingency management services that are provided to eligible Medi-Cal beneficiaries through electronic or in-person means and to consult with stakeholders for purposes of developing that plan. The bill would require the department to review and approve the plan. The bill would require the department to issue guidance on the use of contingency management services for Medi-Cal beneficiaries who access substance use disorder services under the Drug Medi-Cal organized delivery system. The bill would provide that contingency management services are not a rebate, refund, commission preference, patronage dividend, discount, or any other gratuitous consideration. The bill would authorize the department to establish limits on the number and value of incentives available to Medi-Cal beneficiaries who receive contingency management services, and to implement these provisions by various means, including provider bulletin, without taking regulatory action. The bill would condition the implementation of these provisions to the extent permitted by federal law, the availability of federal financial participation, and the department securing federal approval. The bill would require the department to determine maximum allowable rates for contingency management services, as specified.
Existing law imposes various taxes, including personal income and excise taxes. The California Constitution requires a 23 vote of both houses of the Legislature for the passage of any change in statute that results in any taxpayer paying a higher tax. The California Constitution generally prohibits the total annual appropriations subject to limitation of the state and each local government from exceeding the appropriations limit of the entity of government for the prior fiscal year, adjusted for the change in the cost of living and the change in population, and prescribes procedures for making adjustments to the appropriations limit. This measure would impose an excise tax, payroll taxes, and a State Personal Income CalCare Tax at specified rates to fund comprehensive universal single-payer health care coverage and a health care cost control system for the benefit of every resident of the state, as well as reserves deemed necessary to ensure payment, to be established in statute. The measure would authorize the Legislature, upon an economic analysis determining insufficient amounts to fund these purposes, to increase any or all of these tax rates by a statute passed by majority vote of both houses of the Legislature. This measure would establish the CalCare Trust Fund in the State Treasury and would deposit these tax revenues in the fund for the purpose of funding this health care coverage, cost control system, and reserves, and would authorize the Legislature to appropriate these funds by a statute passed by a majority vote of the membership of both houses. The measure would exclude appropriations of revenues from the CalCare Trust Fund from the limitation on appropriations and from consideration for purposes of educational funding mandated by the California Constitution. This measure would prohibit the above-described provisions from becoming operative until the later operative date of a statute that establishes comprehensive universal single-payer health care coverage, a health care cost control system, and necessary reserves, and a statute that establishes the administration, collection, and enforcement of the excise tax, payroll taxes, and a State Personal Income CalCare Tax imposed by the measure.
Existing law makes every person who willfully resists, delays, or obstructs any public officer, peace officer, or an emergency medical technician, as defined, in the discharge or attempt to discharge any duty of the office or employment, when no other punishment is prescribed, guilty of a misdemeanor. Existing law also authorizes specified peace officers to close an area where a menace to the public health or safety is created by a calamity and to close the immediate area surrounding any emergency field command post or other command post activated for the purpose of abating a calamity, riot, or other civil disturbance, as specified. Existing law makes any unauthorized person who willfully and knowingly enters those areas and who remains in the area after receiving notice to evacuate or leave guilty of a misdemeanor. Existing law exempts a duly authorized representative of any news service, newspaper, or radio or television station or network from the provisions prohibiting entry into the closed areas, as specified. This bill would, if peace officers close the immediate area surrounding any emergency field command post or any other command post, or establish a police line, or rolling closure at a demonstration, march, protest, or rally where individuals are engaged primarily in constitutionally protected activity, as described, require that a duly authorized representative of any news service, online news service, newspaper, or radio or television station or network, as described, be allowed to enter those closed areas and would prohibit a peace officer or other law enforcement officer from intentionally assaulting, interfering with, or obstructing a duly authorized representative who is gathering, receiving, or processing information for communication to the public. The bill would also prohibit a duly authorized representative who is in a closed area and gathering, receiving, or processing information from being cited for the failure to disperse, a violation of a curfew, or a violation of other, specified law. The bill would require that if a representative is detained by a peace officer or other law enforcement officer, the representative be permitted to contact a supervisory officer immediately for the purpose of challenging the detention. The bill would not impose criminal liability. The bill would state the Legislature's intention to achieve parity in the access and protections in these circumstances as those established pursuant to a specified law.
Existing law, the Unruh Civil Rights Act, specifies that all persons within the jurisdiction of the state are free and equal, and no matter their sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, citizenship, primary language, or immigration status, are entitled to the full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities, privileges, or services in all business establishments of every kind. This bill would require a retail department store that is physically located in California that has a total of 500 or more employees across all California retail department store locations that sells childcare items or toys to maintain a gender neutral section or area, to be labeled at the discretion of the retailer, in which a reasonable selection of the items and toys for children that it sells shall be displayed, regardless of whether they have been traditionally marketed for either girls or for boys. Beginning on January 1, 2024, the bill would make a retail department store that fails to comply with these provisions liable for a civil penalty not to exceed $250 for a first violation or $500 for a subsequent violation, as provided.
Existing law, the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975 (Knox-Keene) , 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 provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Department of Insurance. Existing law authorizes a health insurer to require step therapy if there is more than one drug that is appropriate for the treatment of a medical condition, and authorizes a health care service plan to utilize step therapy consistent with Knox-Keene. Under existing law, if a health care service plan, health insurer, or contracted physician group fails to respond to a completed prior authorization request from a prescribing provider within a specified timeframe, the prior authorization request is deemed to have been granted. This bill would clarify that a health care service plan that provides coverage for prescription drugs may require step therapy, as defined, if there is more than one drug that is clinically appropriate for the treatment of a medical condition. The bill would require a health care service plan or health insurer to expeditiously grant a step therapy exception request if the health care provider submits justification and supporting clinical documentation, as specified, supporting the provider's determination that the required prescription drug is inconsistent with good professional practice for provision of medically necessary covered services to the enrollee or insured, based on specified criteria. The bill would authorize a health care provider or prescribing provider to appeal a denial of an exception request for coverage of a nonformulary drug, prior authorization request, or step therapy exception request consistent with the health care service plan's or health insurer's current utilization management processes. The bill would authorize an enrollee or insured, or their designee or guardian, to appeal a denial of an exception request for coverage of a nonformulary drug, prior authorization request, or step therapy exception request, as specified. The bill would require a prior authorization or step therapy exception request to be deemed approved for the duration of the prescription, including refills, if a health care service plan, health insurer, or contracted physician group fails to send an approval or denial within a specified timeframe. Commencing January 1, 2022, the bill would require a contract between a health care service plan or health insurer and a utilization review organization that performs utilization review or utilization management functions on behalf of health care service plans or health insurers, or between a health care service plan and another contracted entity, to include terms that require the utilization review organization or other contracted entity to comply with specified provisions relating to step therapy determinations and procedures. Because a willful violation of the bill's requirements relative to health care service plans would be a crime, the bill would impose 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.
The Sex Equity in Education Act states the policy of the state that elementary and secondary school classes and courses, including nonacademic and elective classes and courses, be conducted without regard to the sex of the pupil enrolled in these classes or courses. Under existing law, the sex discrimination provisions of the act do not apply to any program or activity of the American Legion undertaken in connection with the organization or operation of any Boys State conference, Boys Nation conference, Girls State conference, or Girls Nation conference, or to any program or activity of any secondary educational institution specifically for the promotion of any of those conferences or for the selection of pupils to attend those conferences if the conferences comply with other nondiscriminatory provisions of state and federal law. This bill, commencing January 1, 2023, would exempt from the act's sex discrimination provisions, and other specified provisions, any gender-segregated programs or activities of the American Legion or the American Legion Auxiliary related to their respective yearly Girls State and Boys State conferences and any promotion of, or selection of pupils for, any of those conferences by secondary educational institutions if the conferences comply with certain conditions, including providing substantially similar access to government officials and facilities, providing substantially similar programming, except as specified, providing an equal number of participation opportunities, and, for pupils who do not identify as either male or female, or with their assigned birth gender, allowing those pupils to participate in either conference.