Sen. Henry Stern

Maddy summarySenate Resolution 92 officially designates May 2024 as Lupus and Fibromyalgia Awareness Month in California. This legislative measure aims to increase public understanding of these conditions by highlighting their symptoms, diagnostic challenges, and prevalence among specific demographics. The resolution does not alter laws or funding but serves to encourage education and research into these chronic health issues.

Maddy summarySenate Resolution 94 officially designates June 1, 2024, as California Adopt-a-Pet Day to encourage pet adoptions across the state. This proclamation aims to help shelters find homes for 2,024 animals during a special event organized by animal welfare groups. The resolution does not change any laws or policies but serves as a formal declaration to support a one-day campaign. It is intended to raise awareness and facilitate adoptions without altering existing regulations or funding.

The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, until January 1, 2031, authorizes the State Air Resources Board to adopt a regulation establishing a system of market-based declining aggregate emissions limits for sources or categories of sources that emit greenhouse gases (market-based compliance mechanism) that meets certain requirements. Existing law establishes the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and requires all moneys, except for fines and penalties, collected by the state board from the auction or sales of allowance as a part of a market-based compliance mechanism to be deposited into the fund and requires the Legislature to appropriate moneys in the fund for the purpose of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the state, as provided. Existing law, the California Climate Crisis Act, declares that it is the policy of the state both to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible, but no later than 2045, and achieve and maintain net-negative greenhouse gas emissions thereafter, and to ensure that by 2045, statewide anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to at least 85% below the 1990 levels. This bill would enact the Polluters Pay Climate Cost Recovery Act of 2024 and would establish the Polluters Pay Climate Cost Recovery Program to be administered by the California Environmental Protection Agency to require fossil fuel polluters to pay their fair share of the damage caused by the sale of their products during the covered period, which the bill would define as the time period between the 2000 and 2020 calendar years, inclusive, to relieve a portion of the burden from climate harms that is borne by California taxpayers. The bill would require the agency, within 90 days of the effective date of the act, to determine and publish a list of responsible parties, which the bill would define as an entity with a majority ownership interest in a business engaged in extracting or refining fossil fuel that, during the covered period, did business in the state or otherwise had sufficient contact with the state and is determined by the agency to be responsible for more than 1,000,000,000 metric tons of covered fossil fuel emissions, as defined, in aggregate, globally during the covered period. This bill would require the agency, within one year of the effective date of the act, to conduct a climate cost study to, at a minimum, quantify the total damage amount, which the bill would define as all past and future climate harms and damages to the state through December 31, 2045. The bill would require the agency to update the climate cost study, not less frequently than every 2 years, through January 1, 2046. The bill would require the agency, within 60 days of the completion of the climate cost study, to determine and assess, as provided, a cost recovery demand for each responsible party listed, which represents the responsible party's proportionate share of the total damage amount that is fairly and reasonably attributable to the covered fossil fuel emissions of the responsible party. The bill would require responsible parties to pay their cost recovery demand, as provided. The bill would require the collected cost recovery demands to be deposited in the Polluters Pay Climate Fund, which the bill would create in the State Treasury. The bill would, upon appropriation by the Legislature, require moneys in the fund be expended for, among other things, qualifying expenditures, which the bill would define as expenditures for projects and programs to mitigate, adapt, or respond to the damages and costs caused to the state from climate change. The bill would require the agency to determine the initial implementation costs for the act, as provided, and would require the agency to assess an amount allocated equitably among responsible parties to cover those costs. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Existing law establishes the California School for the Deaf, Northern California, the California School for the Deaf, Southern California, known collectively as the California School for the Deaf, and the California School for the Blind, as the state special schools, under the administration of the State Department of Education. Existing law requires the Department of Human Resources to consider making salaries for teachers, specialists, and administrators of the state special schools competitive with the salaries of similarly qualified school teachers, specialists, and administrators who are employed by the encompassing school districts. This bill would instead require the department to establish salaries for school personnel, as defined, of the state special schools that are comparable with the salaries of similarly qualified school personnel who are employed by the encompassing school districts.

Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) and the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) , on or before December 15, 2022, and quarterly thereafter, to submit to the Legislature a joint Reliability Planning Assessment that, among other things, includes prospective information on existing and expected resources, including updates on the interconnection status for renewable projects and any delays in interconnection, and expected retirements for both system and local resources. Existing law requires the Energy Commission to report in the energy almanac on California energy resources that serve load in California. This bill would require that the assessment also include the status of utility transmission upgrades and electrical grid infrastructure capacity, PUC approvals of applications for certificates of public convenience and necessity and permits to construct utility and independent projects, and applications for permits for projects from the Energy Commission and the queue of projects from the Independent System Operator, include the expected completion dates for both system and local resources, and report on the use of fossil fuel by certain facilities constructed by, purchased by, or under contract with the Department of Water Resources, as specified. The bill would require the Energy Commission to quarterly publish on its internet website and update a tracking energy development dashboard that synthesizes and publishes the information included in the assessment and reported on California energy resources in the energy almanac. Existing law requires the Energy Commission, on a biennial basis, to adopt an integrated energy policy report containing an overview of major trends and issues facing the state. Existing law requires the report to include an assessment and forecast of system reliability and the need for resource additions, efficiency, and conservation that considers all aspects of energy industries and markets that are essential for the state economy, general welfare, public health and safety, energy diversity, and protection of the environment. This bill would require the Energy Commission to ensure that the demand forecasts in the integrated energy policy report and wind and solar energy generation profiles account for increased weather variability, interactive weather effects, and increased likelihood of heat events, including multiday events, due to climate change, and to use the demand forecasts and those energy generation profiles to inform its energy planning, as specified.

Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to establish and implement a system of complaint processing, known as the Uniform Complaint Procedures, for specified educational programs, and requires the State Department of Education to review those regulations pertaining to uniform complaint procedures for specified types of complaints, including those that allege unlawful discrimination, harassment, intimidation, or bullying against any protected group, as provided. Existing law requires the department to, on or before March 31, 2019, commence rulemaking proceedings to revise those regulations, as necessary, to conform to specified provisions. This bill would require the department to establish the Office of Civil Rights within the department to (1) receive and investigate these complaints reported pursuant to the uniform complaint procedures that allege unlawful discrimination, harassment, intimidation, or bullying, as specified, (2) assume the department's duties as it pertains to these complaints, as provided, (3) develop procedures to optimize complaint reporting and response, (4) report to the department on the frequency of incidents of unlawful discrimination, harassment, intimidation, and bullying at school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools, (5) advise the department on the office's investigations, and (6) provide other recommendations to the department, as specified. The bill would also require this office to receive and investigate complaints relating to access to a high-quality education, instruction, instructional materials, and other matters as determined independently by the department or the State Board of Education.

Existing law establishes various online privacy rights for minors, including prohibiting the operator of an internet website, online service, online application, or mobile application from marketing or advertising specified types of products or services to a minor, and requires an operator to permit a registered user who is a minor to remove content or information posted. This bill, beginning July 1, 2025, would require large social media platform providers, as defined, to create, maintain, and make available to specified third-party safety software providers a set of third-party-accessible application programming interfaces to allow a third-party safety software provider, upon authorization by a child or a parent or legal guardian of a child, to manage a child's online interactions, content, and account settings and initiate secure transfers of the child's user data for these purposes, as provided. The bill would prohibit the third-party safety software provider from disclosing user data unless specified exceptions apply, and would authorize the child or the parent or legal guardian, as applicable, to revoke the authorization with the third-party safety software provider or disable the account with the large social media provider. The bill would require the third-party safety software provider to register with the Attorney General's office as a condition of accessing an application programming interface from a large social media platform provider and would require the Attorney General to affirm that the third-party safety software provider meets specified requirements, including that it is solely engaged in the business of internet safety. The bill would also require a large social media platform to register with the Attorney General's office within 30 days of meeting specified requirements, including that it enables a child to share images, text, or video through the internet with other users of the service, as provided, and has more than 100,000,000 monthly global active users or generates more than $1,000,000,000 in gross revenue per year, as provided. The bill would authorize the Attorney General to deregister or issue a civil penalty not to exceed $5,000 per violation to a third-party safety software provider if specified conditions occur. The bill would require the Attorney General to post both registration lists on its internet website, and to establish processes to deregister third-party safety software providers and large social media platform providers if certain criteria is met. The bill would provide that a large social media platform provider is not liable for damages arising out of the transfer of user data to a third-party safety software provider in accordance with these provisions if the large social media platform provider has in good faith complied with specified requirements. The bill would require the Department of Technology, before July 1, 2025, to issue guidance for large social media providers and third-party software providers regarding the implementation and maintenance of technical standards to protect user data, as specified, and would require the Department of Technology to biennially update that guidance. This bill would require a third-party safety software provider receiving any data pursuant to these provisions to at least annually enlist a qualified independent auditing firm to audit its privacy, security, and legal compliance, as provided. The bill would require the auditor to provide the audit findings, including a summary of those findings, directly to the Attorney General and the third-party safety software provider. The bill would authorize the Attorney General to deregister, suspend, or issue a civil penalty to a third-party safety software provider based on an auditor's findings of willful or grossly negligent conduct or a third-party safety software provider's negligent failure to respond to an unusual finding, as specified. The California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 authorizes the Legislature to amend the act to further the purposes and intent of the act by a majority vote of both houses of the Legislature, as specified. This bill would declare that its provisions further the purposes and intent of the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.

Maddy summaryThis Senate Resolution formally recognizes May as Maternal and Mental Health Awareness Month in California to highlight critical issues facing women and birthing people. The document draws attention to disparities in reproductive care, noting that many women lack access to hospitals with obstetrics services and that costs for fertility treatments remain a significant barrier. It also emphasizes the high prevalence of untreated mental health conditions among new mothers, particularly within communities of color and those with lower incomes. While the resolution does not create new laws, it serves to raise public awareness about the need for equitable access to both physical and mental health services during the reproductive years.

Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission with regulatory jurisdiction over public utilities, including electrical and gas corporations. Existing law authorizes the commission to fix the rates and charges for public utilities and requires those rates and charges to be just and reasonable. This bill would prohibit, except as provided, an electrical or gas corporation from recording various expenses associated with political influence activities, as defined, or with advertising, as defined, to accounts that contain expenses that the electrical or gas corporation recovers from ratepayers. The bill also would require an electrical or gas corporation, for each business unit of the corporation that performs work associated with political influence activities or advertising, to annually file with the commission a report containing specified information. The bill would require the commission to make the report publicly available. The bill would require the commission to assess a civil penalty against an electrical or gas corporation that violates the prohibition described above, or that fails or neglects to comply with any part or provision of any order, decision, decree, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission related to implementing the prohibition, as provided. The bill would require 34 of the moneys collected pursuant to any settlement or penalties collected by the commission for a violation of the prohibition to be deposited into the Zero-Emission Equity Fund, which the bill would establish in the State Treasury. The bill would authorize the moneys in the Zero-Emission Equity Fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to be allocated for purposes of assisting low-income households in transitioning to zero-emission appliances to mitigate air quality and public health impacts of using combustion appliances. The bill would require the balance of the moneys collected, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to be used by the commission to increase resources for enforcing the bill's requirements. Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. Because the above provisions would be part of the act and a violation of a commission action implementing this bill's requirements 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.