Sen. Ben Allen

This measure would request that the Congress of the United States and the United States Environmental Protection Agency take all measures necessary to prevent further damage to California's citizens, wildlife, and natural resources by the dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane waste dumped in the waters near Santa Catalina Island.

This measure would proclaim the month of July 2021 as California Parks and Recreation Professionals Month to celebrate the accomplishments and resilience of parks and recreation professionals throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Existing law requires political advertisements to include specified disclosure statements that identify the name of the campaign committee paying for the advertisement and the top contributors, as defined, to that committee. Existing law requires a campaign committee that pays for the circulation of a state or local initiative, referendum, or recall petition to disclose its top contributors, as prescribed. Existing law establishes other requirements regarding the form, content, and presentation of initiative, referendum, and recall petitions. This bill would require an initiative, referendum, or recall petition to instruct voters to sign the petition only after viewing certain disclosures regarding the top contributors to the initiative, referendum, or recall, as specified. This bill would make additional changes to requirements regarding the form, content, and presentation of initiative, referendum, and recall petitions. This bill would revise the minimum contribution thresholds above which a contributor to a committee may be considered a top contributor, and would require certain political advertisements to identify the top contributors to the campaign committee paying for the advertisement without regard to any minimum contribution threshold. This bill would make additional changes to the disclosure requirements for political advertisements, including changes to the required form, content, and presentation of the disclosures depending on the medium in which the advertisement appears. Because political advertisements are regulated under the Political Reform Act of 1974, and a violation of the act is punishable as a misdemeanor, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program by expanding the definition of a crime. 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 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 establishes the Transportation Agency, which consists of various departments and state entities including the California Transportation Commission and the Department of Transportation. Under existing law, the agency is under the supervision of an executive officer known as the Secretary of Transportation, who is required to develop and report to the Governor on legislative, budgetary, and administrative programs to accomplish comprehensive, long-range, and coordinated planning and policy formulation in the matters of public interest related to the agency. This bill would require the secretary to establish an advisory committee, the California Council on the Future of Transportation, to provide the Governor and the Legislature with recommendations for changes in state policy to ensure that as autonomous vehicles are deployed, they enhance the state's efforts to increase road and transit safety, promote equity, and meet public health and environmental objectives. The bill would require the council to be chaired by the secretary and consist of 23 additional members, selected by the chair or designated, as specified. The bill would require the council to gather and consider public comment on issues and concerns related to autonomous vehicles and to submit, no later than January 1, 2024, a report to the Legislature with, among other things, recommendations for statewide policy changes and updates, and to continue to update the report, or submit a new report, of its recommendations biennially thereafter, or more frequently at the secretary's discretion. The bill would require the council to create subcommittees focused on specific topics and to form one subcommittee led by the Office of Planning and Research focused on furthering the state's environmental, public health, and energy objectives, as specified. The bill would require this subcommittee to submit policy recommendations to the council and the Legislature by January 1, 2024, and to make those recommendations publicly available. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2035.

Existing law requires the State Department of Education to incorporate age-appropriate materials relating to, among other things, genocide and the Holocaust into publications that provide examples of curriculum resources for teacher use, consistent with the subject frameworks on history and social science. Under existing law, the Legislature encourages the incorporation of survivor, rescuer, liberator, and witness oral testimony into the teaching of genocide and the Holocaust. This bill would establish a 15-member Governor's Council on Genocide and Holocaust Education to, among other things, establish best practices for, and promote implementation of, education on genocide, including the Holocaust, and submit an annual report to the Legislature, as specified. The bill would provide that the Governor, the Speaker of the Assembly, and the Senate Committee on Rules would each appoint 5 members of the council, who would be required to be individuals with particular interest in, or expertise on, genocide, including the Holocaust. The bill would make an appropriation by authorizing the department to use funds donated by private individuals or entities for the purpose of reimbursing members of the council for their actual and necessary expenses incurred in the performance of their official duties as members of the council. The bill would strongly encourage local educational agencies, as defined to include school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools, with pupils in grades 4 to 12, inclusive, to integrate the best practices into instruction on genocide, including the Holocaust, that meets existing academic content standards and the history-social science curriculum framework for these pupils. The bill would authorize the department to issue grants to local educational agencies for professional development, and would specify that the grant funds would either be appropriated through the annual Budget Act or another statute, or provided through donations to the department from private individuals or entities. To the extent that the bill would authorize the department to make grants with these donated funds, it would make an appropriation. The bill would require the department to conduct a study on the manner in which the instruction is offered to assess the impact of the instruction.

Existing law, Chapter 111 of the Statutes of 2020, moved the date of the statewide direct primary election in even-numbered years in which there is no presidential primary election from the first Tuesday after the first Monday in March to the first Tuesday after the first Monday in June. Existing law authorizes elections for certain local offices to be held on the day of the statewide direct primary election. This bill would extend any term of office set to expire in March or April 2022, where the next scheduled regular election for that office has been consolidated with the 2022 statewide primary election, until the certification of election results from the 2022 statewide primary election.

This measure would declare California to be in favor of the United States' ratification of the Basel Convention at the earliest opportunity and would request the Biden Administration to accomplish this ratification as a matter of urgency.

This measure would proclaim April 8, 2021, as California Holocaust Memorial Day, and would urge all Californians to observe this day of remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust in an appropriate manner.