Existing law, the California Financing Law, prohibits a person, as defined, from engaging in the business of a finance lender or broker without obtaining a license from the commissioner. The law prohibits a licensee who makes a loan of a bona fide principal amount of less than $10,000 from receiving charges that exceed specified limits based on the amount of the principal, including, for a loan of a bona fide principal amount of $2,500 but less than $10,000, a rate not exceeding an annual simple interest rate of 36 percent per annum plus the Federal Funds Rate. Existing law, the Money Transmission Act, prohibits a person from engaging in the business of money transmission in this state, or advertising, soliciting, or holding itself out as providing money transmission in this state, unless the person is licensed or exempt from licensure, as specified. A person that intentionally makes a false statement, misrepresentation, or false certification in a record filed or required to be maintained under the act or that intentionally makes a false entry or omits a material entry in a record is guilty of a felony. Existing law, the California Deferred Deposit Transaction Law, prohibits a person from offering, originating, or making a deferred deposit transaction, arranging a deferred deposit transaction for a deferred deposit originator, acting as an agent for a deferred deposit originator, or assisting a deferred deposit originator in the origination of a deferred deposit transaction without first obtaining a license from the commissioner and complying with the law. A person, including a partner or officer of an entity that is a licensee, who willfully violates any provision of the law or who willfully violates any rule or order adopted pursuant to the law is liable for a fine of not more than $10,000, or by imprisonment in a county jail for not more than one year, or by both that fine and imprisonment. This bill would prohibit a licensee under the Money Transmission Act or the California Deferred Deposit Transaction Law from arranging a loan, referring, directly or indirectly, a person to a provider of a loan, or distributing or sharing marketing materials or any similar information with a person related to a provider of a loan if that loan contains charges that exceed the limits described above in the California Financing Law. By expanding the scope of the crimes described above with respect to the Money Transmission Act and the California Deferred Deposit Transaction Law, 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.
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Existing law requires specified categories of law enforcement officers to meet training standards pursuant to courses of training certified by the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training. Existing law requires the commission to implement a course or courses of instruction for the training of law enforcement officers in California in the handling of domestic violence complaints and also to develop guidelines for law enforcement response to domestic violence. Existing law authorizes an immediate family member of a person or a law enforcement officer to request a court to issue a gun violence restraining order that would prohibit a person from, among other things, purchasing or possessing a firearm or ammunition, as specified. This bill would require the commission to develop and implement, on or before January 1, 2022, a course of training for those law enforcement officers regarding gun violence restraining orders. The bill would require the course to be incorporated into the course or courses of basic training for law enforcement officers on or before January 1, 2022, and would require the course or courses to include specified topics, including the process of filing a petition for a gun violence restraining order and situational training to assist officers in identifying when a gun violence restraining order is appropriate. The bill would authorize law enforcement officers and administrators to participate in supplementary training that includes these topics.
Existing law requires every local publicly owned electric and gas utility that provides the energy for space heating for low-income customers to also provide home weatherization services for those customers if a significant need for those services exists in the utility's service territory, in consideration of both the cost-effectiveness of the services and the public policy of reducing financial hardships facing low-income households. This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to this requirement.
Existing law requires the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection to identify areas in the state as very high fire hazard severity zones pursuant to a specified criteria. Existing law requires a local agency, as defined, to designate very high fire hazard severity zones, as specfied. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation relating to housing in wildfire prone areas.
Existing law requires the Secretary for Environmental Protection to develop and adopt information technology standards by which public agencies and the regulated community may use computers and other information technology to comply with environmental data reporting requirements, and to establish a standardized electronic format and protocol for the exchange of electronic data for the purpose of meeting the environmental data reporting requirements of specified laws. This bill would make nonsubstantive revisions to legislative findings and declarations relative to the purposes of the above-described law.
Existing law prohibits the traumatic infliction of corporal injury upon a spouse or cohabitant, former spouse of cohabitant, and other specified persons. Existing law requires a peace officer responding to specified incidents involving domestic violence to make a custodial arrest when probable cause exists. Existing law authorizes a peace officer to request an emergency protective order in these cases, and for a judicial officer to approve the issuance of such an order, on an ex parte basis. Existing law authorizes a person to petition for, and a judicial officer, after notice and hearing, to issue, a domestic violence prevention order. Existing law also authorizes a judicial officer to issue a protective order as part of a judgment entered in a proceeding for dissolution of marriage, nullity of marriage, or legal separation. Existing law requires these orders to be entered into the Domestic Violence Restraining Order System, an electronic database that can be accessed by law enforcement officers through the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System. This bill would express the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation creating a program for the issuance of domestic violence restraining order Hope Cards, which provide protected persons with an easy to carry summary of a valid protective order that can be shown to police in case of a violation.
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 persons receive health care benefits. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions. Existing federal law authorizes, at the option of the state, preventive services, as defined, to be provided by practitioners other than physicians or other licensed practitioners. This bill would require the department to establish, commencing July 1, 2021, a full-spectrum doula care pilot program to operate for 3 years for pregnant and postpartum Medi-Cal beneficiaries residing in 14 counties, including the Counties of Alameda, Sacramento, San Diego, and Solano, that experience the highest burden of birth disparities in the state, and would provide that any Medi-Cal beneficiary who is pregnant as of July 1, 2021, and residing in a pilot program county, is entitled to doula care. The bill would require the department to develop multiple payment and billing options for doula care, and to ensure specified payment and billing practices, including that any doula and community-based doula group participating in the pilot program be guaranteed payment within 30 days of submitting any claim for reimbursement. The bill would require the department to establish a centralized registry listing any doula who is available to take on new clients in each county participating in the pilot program, and would provide several requirements for the registry, such as the information on the registry being accessible by various means, including the internet website. The bill would require each Medi-Cal managed care health plan in any county participating in the pilot program to provide information in its materials, and specified notices, on identified topics related to doula care, including reproductive and sexual health, and to inform pregnant and postpartum enrollees at prenatal and postpartum appointments about doula care, such as the availability of doula care and how to obtain a doula. The bill would require the department to convene a doula advisory board that would be responsible for deciding on a list of core competencies, such as the capacity to employ different strategies for providing emotional support, education, and resources during the perinatal period, required for doulas who are authorized by the department to be reimbursed under the Medi-Cal program. The bill would require a doula to provide documentation that they have met the core competencies specified by the board as a prerequisite to be reimbursed under the Medi-Cal program. The bill would require the department to work with outside entities, such as foundations, to make trainings available at no cost that meet the core competencies to people who are from communities experiencing the highest burden of birth disparities in the state. The bill would require the department to allocate funding and resources for data collection, reporting, and analysis for purposes of conducting an evaluation of the pilot program, to ensure that an evaluation of the pilot program begins no later than July 1, 2023, and that it be completed by January 1, 2024, to submit a report to the appropriate policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature, and to include the board and relevant stakeholders, including practicing doulas, in the department's evaluation design. The bill would authorize the department to consider the feasibility of a statewide doula benefit for Medi-Cal beneficiaries during the perinatal period if, after the first 3 years of the pilot program, the pilot program is achieving improved birth outcomes for people using doulas and their babies, and to terminate the pilot program if the pilot program is not achieving those outcomes during that period. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2026.
This measure would proclaim January 23, 2020, as Maternal Health Awareness Day, to draw attention to the efforts that have improved maternal health in California and to highlight the need for continued improvement of maternal health for all women.