Sen. Bob Huff

Existing law establishes the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is responsible for administering various programs and services for the benefit of veterans. This bill would require the Department of Veterans Affairs to develop outcome and related indicators for veterans, for the purpose of assessing the status of veterans in California, for monitoring the quality of programs intended to serve those veterans, and to guide decisionmaking on how to improve those services. This bill would require the department to report to the Senate and Assembly Committees on Veterans Affairs all of the outcome and related indicators developed by the department, recommendations on ways to establish a system for monitoring those indicators on a continual basis, and any regulatory or fiscal barriers that may hinder future progress on the development of a monitoring system, as provided. Under existing law, the information obtained in the administration of the Unemployment Insurance Law is for the exclusive use and information of the Director of Employment Development in the discharge of his or her duties and is not open to the public. However, existing law requires the director to permit the use of specified information for specified purposes, and allows the director to require reimbursement for direct costs incurred. Existing law provides that a person who knowingly accesses, uses, or discloses this confidential information without authorization is guilty of a misdemeanor. This bill would require the Director of Employment Development to permit the receipt of specified information to enable the Department of Veterans Affairs to develop outcome and related indicators for veterans. By providing this information to the Department of Veterans Affairs, this bill would expand the crime related to the unauthorized disclosure of this information, and 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. This bill would incorporate additional changes in Section 1095 of the Unemployment Insurance Code, proposed by AB 174 and SB 691 that would become operative only if this bill and either or both of those bills are chaptered and become effective January 1, 2013, and this bill is chaptered last.

(1) The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of, an environmental impact report (EIR) on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. This bill would, until January 1, 2017, exempt from CEQA the design, site acquisition, construction, operation, or maintenance of certain structures and equipment of the Los Angeles Regional Interoperable Communications System (LA-RICS) , consisting of a long-term evolution broadband mobile data system and a land mobile radio system, if certain criteria are met at the individual project site. Because a lead agency, which may include a local agency, is required to determine whether a project qualifies for this exemption, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute because of unique circumstances surrounding the implementation of the LA-RICS. (3) 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. (4) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Existing law prescribes various duties for the Department of General Services in connection with development and maintenance of the park around the State Capitol Building. This bill would authorize the Ronald Reagan Centennial Capitol Foundation, in consultation with the Department of General Services, to plan a statue of Ronald Reagan in the State Capitol Building Annex. The bill would require the Department of General Services and the Ronald Reagan Centennial Capitol Foundation to approve the design and any other aspect of the statue. The bill would require that the planning, construction, and maintenance of the statue be funded with private donations through the Ronald Reagan Centennial Capitol Foundation. The bill would prohibit construction of the statue until the Joint Committee on Rules has approved and adopted the plan for the statue, and the Joint Committee on Rules and the Department of Finance have determined that sufficient private funding is available to construct and maintain the statue.

(1) The Safe Drinking Water, Water Quality and Supply, Flood Control, River and Coastal Protection Bond Act of 2006, an initiative statute approved by the voters at the November 7, 2006, statewide general election, makes approximately $5.4 billion in bond funds available for safe drinking water, water quality and supply, flood control, natural resource protection, and park improvements. The bond act makes $60,000,000 available to the State Department of Public Health (department) for the purpose of loans and grants for projects to prevent or reduce contamination of groundwater that serves as a source of drinking water and requires the department to require repayment for costs that are subsequently recovered from parties responsible for the contamination. Existing law requires the department, in collaboration with the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) and the State Water Resources Control Board, to develop and adopt regulations governing the repayment of costs that are subsequently recovered from parties responsible for the contamination of groundwater. Existing law, the Carpenter-Presley-Tanner Hazardous Substance Account Act, creates in the General Fund the Site Remediation Account, and authorizes the money in that account to be expended by the DTSC, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for direct site remediation costs. This bill would require the department to adopt the implementing regulations as emergency regulations, pursuant to a specified procedure, and would require the emergency regulations to remain in effect for 180 days after the effective date of those emergency regulations, by which time the department would be required to adopt regulations. The bill would require the regulations to include a provision allowing the department to enter into an agreement with a grantee that recovers the funds that would authorize the expenditure of the recovered funds to implement ongoing treatment and remediation activities in accordance with the purposes for which funds may be granted pursuant to the bond act. The bill would establish the Groundwater Contamination Prevention Account in the State Treasury and would require the department to deposit in that account the funds recovered from responsible parties pursuant to the payment recovery provisions in the bond act. The bill would continuously appropriate funds in the account to the department for purposes of implementing the groundwater contamination cleanup and prevention provisions of the bond act, thereby making an appropriation. The bill would authorize the department to expend up to 3% of the recovered funds deposited in the Groundwater Contamination Prevention Account to pay for the department's oversight costs. The bill would authorize the department to enter into a memorandum of understanding with the DTSC to provide oversight activities or to transfer funds from the Groundwater Contamination Prevention Account to the Site Remediation Account. The bill would appropriate the transferred funds to the DTSC for purposes of implementing the department's agreement with a grantee. (2) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Existing law requires specified information to be provided to patients regarding their health care. Existing federal law requires a written report of the results of each mammography examination and requires a summary of that report to be sent to the patient within a specified time period. This bill, from April 1, 2013, until January 1, 2019, would require, under specified circumstances, a health facility at which a mammography examination is performed to include in the summary of the written report that is sent to the patient a prescribed notice on breast density.

This measure would acknowledge the 75th anniversary of the federal Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program and recognize, among others, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service for its leading role in restoring healthy populations of fish, wildlife, and other natural resources throughout the nation.

This measure would designate the interchange at Hazel Avenue and State Highway Route 50 in the County of Sacramento as the Senator Dave Cox Memorial Interchange. This measure would also request the Department of Transportation to determine the cost of appropriate signs showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering those costs, to erect those signs.

Existing law establishes a workers' compensation system, administered by the Administrative Director of the Division of Workers' Compensation, to compensate an employee for injuries sustained in the course of his or her employment. Existing law requires the administrative director, after public hearings, to adopt and revise periodically an official medical fee schedule to establish reasonable maximum fees paid for medical services, drugs and pharmacy services, health care facility fees, home health care, and all other treatment, care, services, and goods, other than physician services. Existing law separately requires reimbursement for certain implantable medical devices, hardware, and instrumentation, at the provider's documented paid cost, plus an additional 10%, plus sales tax, as specified. Under existing law, this reimbursement formula is operative only until the administrative director adopts a regulation specifying reimbursement for the designated items, as prescribed. This bill would delete the above-described reimbursement specifications relating to implantable medical devices, hardware, and instrumentation.