Existing law requests the Regents of the University of California to assemble a colloquium of scholars to draft a research proposal to analyze the economic benefits of slavery that accrued to owners and the businesses, including insurance companies and their subsidiaries, that received those benefits, and to make recommendations to the Legislature regarding those findings. Existing law requires the Insurance Commissioner to request and obtain information from insurers licensed and doing business in this state regarding any records of slaveholder insurance policies issued by any predecessor corporation during the slavery era. Existing law requires insurers to research and report to the commissioner on insurance policies that provided coverage for injury to, or death of, enslaved people. This bill would establish the Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans, with a Special Consideration for African Americans Who are Descendants of Persons Enslaved in the United States, consisting of 9 members, appointed as provided. The bill would require the Task Force to, among other things, identify, compile, and synthesize the relevant corpus of evidentiary documentation of the institution of slavery that existed within the United States and the colonies. The bill would require the Task Force to recommend, among other things, the form of compensation that should be awarded, the instrumentalities through which it should be awarded, and who should be eligible for this compensation. The bill would require the Task Force to submit a written report of its findings and recommendations to the Legislature. The bill would authorize reimbursement of the members' expenses only to the extent an appropriation therefor is made in the Budget Act. The bill would state that any state level reparations authorized under these provisions are not to be considered a replacement for any reparations enacted at the federal level. The bill would repeal these provisions on July 1, 2023.
Sponsored bills
(1) Existing federal law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) , enacts various health care market reforms. Existing law, the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975, 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 requires a group or individual health care service plan contract or health insurance policy issued, amended, renewed, or delivered on or after September 23, 2010, to comply with the requirements of the PPACA, and any rules or regulations issued under the PPACA, that require a group health plan and health insurance issuer offering group or individual health insurance coverage to, at a minimum, provide coverage for specified preventive services, and prohibits the plan or health insurance issuer from imposing any cost-sharing requirements for those preventive services. Existing law also prohibits a plan or health insurer offering group or individual coverage from imposing lifetime or annual limits on the dollar value of benefits for a participant, beneficiary, or insured. Existing law requires a plan and a health insurance issuer to comply with those provisions to the extent required by federal law. This bill would delete the requirement that a health care service plan or a health insurer comply with the requirement to cover preventive health services without cost sharing to the extent required by federal law, and would instead require a group or individual nongrandfathered health care service plan contract or health insurance policy to, at a minimum, provide coverage for specified preventive services without any cost-sharing requirements for those preventive services, thereby indefinitely extending those requirements. The bill would also delete the requirement that a health care service plan or a health insurer comply with the prohibition on lifetime or annual limits to the extent required by federal law, and would instead prohibit an individual or group health care service plan contract or health insurance policy from establishing lifetime or annual limits on the dollar value of any covered benefits for an enrollee or insured, whether provided in network or out of network, thereby indefinitely extending the prohibitions on lifetime or annual limits, except as specified. Because a willful violation of these provisions by a health care service plan would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) Existing law authorizes the State Registrar, a local registrar, or a county recorder to furnish a certified copy of a birth, death, marriage, or military service record to an authorized person, as defined, who submits a written, faxed, or digitized image request accompanied by a notarized statement sworn under penalty of perjury that the applicant is an authorized person. Existing law, until January 1, 2021, authorizes the official to accept an electronic request and an electronic acknowledgment if the request for a certified copy of a birth, death, or marriage record is made electronically and the electronic acknowledgment verifies the identity of the applicant using a multilayered remote identity proofing process. This bill would extend the above-described authorization for an electronic request and an electronic acknowledgment to January 1, 2022. By expanding the crime of perjury, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (3) Existing law requires the State Department of Health Care Services to license and regulate facilities that provide residential nonmedical services to adults who are recovering from problems related to alcohol, drug, or alcohol and drug misuse or abuse, and who need alcohol, drug, or alcohol and drug recovery treatment or detoxification services. Existing law also requires the department to implement a voluntary certification procedure for alcohol and other drug treatment recovery services. Existing law requires all programs certified and licensed by the department to disclose, among other things, ownership or control of, or financial interest in, a recovery residence, as defined. Existing law requires the department to conduct a site visit to investigate an allegation of an operating unlicensed alcoholism or drug abuse recovery or treatment facility and issue a notice to cease providing services under specified conditions. The bill would require the department to take action against an unlicensed facility that is disclosed as a recovery residence pursuant to these disclosure requirements. The bill would authorize the department to refer a substantiated complaint against a recovery residence to other enforcement entities as appropriate under state or federal law. The bill would make a technical change to refer to licensed facilities in these requirements. (4) Existing law, the California Organic Products Act of 2003, requires the Secretary of Food and Agriculture, county agricultural commissioners, and the Director of the State Department of Public Health to enforce state and federal laws governing the production, labeling, and marketing of organic products, as specified. Under existing law, all persons who handle or sell at retail organic products must keep accurate records that include specified information, which includes, if applicable, the registration numbers issued pursuant to state law, of all suppliers and other persons who sell, purchase, or otherwise transfer organic products, subject to specified exceptions. This bill would rename the act as the California Organic Food and Farming Act. The bill would remove the requirement that the registration numbers issued pursuant to state law be included in the required records. (5) Existing law establishes the Health Care Benefits Fund to support the University of California's implementation of the California Health Benefit Review Program. Existing law imposes an annual charge on health care service plans and health insurers, as specified, to be deposited into the fund. Under existing law, the fund and the program became inoperative on July 1, 2020, and are repealed as of January 1, 2021. This bill would extend the operation of the program and the fund, and would authorize the continued assessment of the annual charge on health care service plans and health insurers for that purpose. This bill would make these provisions inoperative on July 1, 2022, and would repeal them as of January 1, 2023. (6) Existing federal law establishes the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) , which provides specified services for older individuals at a PACE center so that they may continue living in the community. Federal law authorizes states to implement PACE as a Medicaid state option. Existing state law establishes the California Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE program) to provide community-based, risk-based, and capitated long-term care services as optional services under the state's Medi-Cal State Plan. Existing law generally requires an adult day health care center or home health agency to be licensed by the State Department of Public Health, which is required to obtain a criminal record clearance for specified individuals that own or are employed by the adult day health care center or home health agency. Under existing law, an adult day health care center or a home health agency that has been approved by the State Department of Health Care Services to exclusively serve PACE participants is exempt from licensure by the State Department of Public Health. This bill would require the State Department of Health Care Services to obtain a criminal record clearance for the administrator, program director, and fiscal officer of an adult day health care center before approving the center to exclusively serve PACE participants or individuals being assessed for the PACE program. To qualify for approval as a home health agency that exclusively serves PACE participants or individuals being assessed for the PACE program, the bill would require an owner or administrator of a home health agency to submit electronic fingerprint images to the Department of Justice for the furnishing of the person's criminal record to the State Department of Health Care Services. (7) 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. (8) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing federal law, known as Title IX, prohibits a person, on the basis of sex, from being excluded from participation in, being denied the benefits of, or being subject to discrimination, which includes sexual harassment, under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. A portion of the Donahoe Higher Education Act, known as the Equity in Higher Education Act, declares, among other things, that it is the policy of the State of California that all persons, regardless of their sex, should enjoy freedom from discrimination of any kind in the educational institutions of the state. Existing law provides that a party to a written complaint of prohibited discrimination at certain public postsecondary educational institutions may appeal the action to specified bodies. Existing law also requires that persons who have filed a complaint of prohibited discrimination be advised by the educational institution that civil law remedies may also be available to the complainant. This bill would require, no later than January 1, 2022, except as specified, a postsecondary institution that receives state financial assistance to comply with requirements relating to the protection of students from, and providing students with procedural protections relating to complaints of, sexual harassment. In particular, the bill would require the governing board or body of each of these institutions to (1) disseminate a notice of nondiscrimination to each employee, volunteer, and individual or entity contracted with the institution, (2) designate at least one employee of the institution to coordinate its efforts to comply with its responsibilities specified in this act, (3) adopt rules and procedures for the prevention of sexual harassment, (4) adopt and publish on its internet website grievance procedures providing for the prompt and equitable resolution of sexual harassment complaints, (5) publish on the institution's internet website the name, title, and contact information for the Title IX coordinator or other employee designated to coordinate the institution's efforts to comply with and carry out the responsibilities specified in this act and any individual official with the authority to investigate complaints or to institute corrective measures, as specified, (6) include specified training to each employee engaged in the grievance procedure, (7) include annual training for residential life student and nonstudent staff for the trauma-informed handling of reports regarding incidents of sexual harassment or violence at an institution with on-campus housing, (8) notify employees of the obligation to report sexual harassment to appropriate school officials, and (9) provide training to all employees on the identification of sexual harassment. The bill would authorize enforcement of these provisions through a civil action brought pursuant to existing law, as specified. By imposing new duties on community college districts, 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, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
(1) The Trial Jury Selection and Management Act requires all persons be selected for jury service at random and from sources inclusive of a representative cross section of the population of the area served by the court. The act specifies that the list of registered voters and list of licensed drivers and identification cardholders who are resident within the area served by the court are appropriate source lists for the selection of jurors, and further specifies that these 2 source lists, when substantially purged of duplicate names, are considered inclusive of a representative cross section of the population. This bill would deem the list of resident state tax filers as an appropriate source list for selection of jurors, and beginning on January 1, 2022, would deem the list of resident state tax filers, when substantially purged of duplicate names, to be considered inclusive of a representative cross section of the population, along with the two source lists described above. This bill would require the Franchise Tax Board to annually furnish the jury commissioner of each county with a list of resident state tax filers for their county in consultation with the Judicial Council. The bill would also require the Franchise Tax Board to revise the California resident income tax return to include a space for the taxpayer's address of their principal residence and their county of principal residence. (2) Existing law generally makes it a misdemeanor for specified persons, including, among others, officers or employees of the state or its political subdivisions, to disclose information set forth or disclosed in returns, reports, or documents required to be filed under the franchise and income tax laws. This bill would expressly state that this misdemeanor is applicable to jury commissioners who disclose that information.
Existing law establishes 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 law establishes a schedule of benefits under the Medi-Cal program and provides for various services, including behavioral and mental health services that are rendered by Medi-Cal enrolled providers. This bill would require the department, by July 1, 2022, subject to any necessary federal waivers or approvals, to establish statewide requirements for counties or their representatives to use in developing certification programs for the certification of peer support specialists, who are individuals who self-identify as having lived experience with the process of recovery from mental illness, substance use disorder, or both. The bill would authorize a county, or an agency that represents a county, to develop a peer support specialist certification program and certification fee schedule, both of which would be subject to department approval. The bill would require the department to seek any federal waivers it deems necessary to establish a demonstration or pilot project for the provision of peer support services in a county that agrees to participate in and fund the project, as specified.
Existing law, the Student Loan Servicing Act, prohibits a person from engaging in the business of servicing a student loan in California without first obtaining a license. Existing law commits the administration of these provisions to the Commissioner of Business Oversight and grants the commissioner various powers in this regard, including the authority to conduct investigations of applicants and licensees. The act requires an applicant for a license to submit audited financial statements prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and acceptable to the commissioner that indicate a net worth of at least $250,000 and requires a licensee to maintain a minimum net worth of $250,000. Existing law, the Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, regulates the collection of consumer debts by debt collectors, as defined. Under existing law, a debt collector who violates the act is liable to a debtor for actual damages resulting from the violation, and is subject to additional civil penalties for any willful or knowing violation of the act, and other specified remedies. This bill would authorize the commissioner to allow a licensee that is a wholly owned subsidiary of a public holding company required to comply with the requirements of the Securities and Exchange Commission to satisfy the requirement to submit audited financial statements with an application for a license and to maintain a minimum net worth of $250,000 by submitting the annual consolidated audited financial statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as specified. This bill would impose new requirements on a student loan servicer, defined as any person engaged in the business of servicing student loans in the state. These requirements would include the timely posting, processing, and crediting of student loan payments within certain timeframes, applying overpayments consistent with the best financial interest of a student loan borrower, as defined, applying partial payments to minimize late fees and negative credit reporting, maintaining records, timely processing of paperwork, and diligently overseeing service providers. The bill would require a student loan servicer to provide specialized training for customer service personnel that advises military borrowers, borrowers in public service, borrowers with disabilities, and older borrowers. The bill would prohibit a student loan servicer from engaging in unfair or deceptive practices, or abusive acts or practices in connection with the servicing of a student loan, as specified. The bill would authorize a consumer who suffers damages as a result of a person's failure to comply with these provisions as well as all applicable federal laws relating to student loan servicing to bring an action for actual damages, injunctive relief, restitution, punitive damages, attorney's fees, and other relief, including treble damages in certain circumstances. The bill would require a consumer to give specified notice to a person before bringing an action for damages against that person for a violation of the bill's provisions and would provide that person an opportunity to cure the alleged violation, as specified. The bill would prohibit an attempt to cure a violation by a person who receives a notice of that violation from being admissible in court against that person but would authorize the attempt to cure to be admitted as evidence by that person, as specified. The bill would define terms for purposes of its provisions. The bill would require, beginning on July 1, 2021, the commissioner, as specified, to designate a Student Loan Ombudsman to work within the department and to hire additional staff, as needed to implement these provisions. The bill would require the Student Loan Ombudsman to receive and review complaints, to refer complaints to an appropriate unit within the department that would be authorized to investigate the complaint, and to refer complaints regarding servicers not subject to licensing under the Student Loan Servicing Act to the Department of Justice, which would be permitted to investigate those complaints. The bill would require complaints regarding any private postsecondary educational institution licensed by the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education to be referred to the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education's Office of Student Assistance and Relief. The bill would require the Student Loan Ombudsman to confer with the Department of Justice and the Office of Student Assistance and Relief regarding the student loan servicing complaints, the proper referral processes for those complaints, and the reporting requirements imposed by the bill. The bill would require the Student Loan Ombudsman not later than 18 months after the operative date of the bill, and no less than once yearly thereafter, to submit a report to the appropriate committees of the Legislature regarding the implementation of these provisions, the types of complaints received, and other data and analysis on student loan issues. The bill would also, beginning July 1, 2021, authorize the Commissioner of Business Oversight to monitor for risks to consumers in the provision of student loan servicing and would authorize the commissioner to gather information regarding the organization, business conduct, and activities of student loan services. The bill would authorize the commissioner to gather and compile information from student loan servicers and to develop and publicize metrics based on the data collected. Among other actions, the bill would authorize the commissioner to require student loan servicers to file, under oath or otherwise, annual or special reports or answers in writing to specific questions. By expanding the crime of perjury, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would include related legislative findings and would make conforming and nonsubstantive changes to provisions in the Student Loan Servicing Act. 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.
(1) Existing law, the Nursing Practice Act, establishes the Board of Registered Nursing within the Department of Consumer Affairs for the licensure and regulation of the practice of nursing. A violation of the act is a crime. Existing law requires the board to issue a certificate to practice nurse-midwifery to a person who, among other qualifications, meets educational standards established by the board or the equivalent of those educational standards. Existing law authorizes a certified nurse-midwife, under the supervision of a licensed physician and surgeon, to attend cases of normal childbirth and to provide prenatal, intrapartum, and postpartum care, including family-planning care, for the mother, and immediate care for the newborn. Existing law defines the practice of nurse-midwifery as the furthering or undertaking by a certified person, under the supervision of licensed physician and surgeon who has current practice or training in obstetrics, to assist a woman in childbirth so long as progress meets criteria accepted as normal. Existing law requires all complications to be referred to a physician immediately. Existing law excludes the assisting of childbirth by any artificial, forcible, or mechanical means, and the performance of any version from the definition of the practice of nurse-midwifery. This bill would delete the above-described provisions defining the practice of nurse-midwifery, would delete the condition that a certified nurse-midwife practice under the supervision of a physician and surgeon, and would instead authorize a certified nurse-midwife to attend cases of low-risk pregnancy, as defined, and childbirth and to provide prenatal, intrapartum, and postpartum care, including family-planning services, interconception care, and immediate care of the newborn, consistent with standards adopted by a specified professional organization, or its successor, as approved by the board. The bill would authorize a certified nurse-midwife to practice with a physician and surgeon under mutually agreed-upon policies and protocols that delineate the parameters for consultation, collaboration, referral, and transfer of a patient's care, signed by both the certified nurse-midwife and a physician and surgeon to provide a patient with specified services. The bill, except as specified, would require the patient to be transferred to the care of a physician and surgeon to provide those services if the nurse-midwife does not have those mutually agreed-upon policies and protocols in place, and would authorize the return of that patient to the care of the nurse-midwife after the physician and surgeon has determined that the condition or circumstance that required, or would require, the transfer is resolved. The bill would authorize a certified nurse-midwife to continue to attend the birth of the newborn and participate in physical care, counseling, guidance, teaching, and support, if a physician and surgeon assumes care of the patient, as indicated by the mutually agreed-upon policies and protocols. The bill would authorize a certified nurse-midwife, after referring a patient to a physician and surgeon, to continue care of a patient the patient during a reasonable interval between the referral and the initial appointment with the physician and surgeon. The bill would authorize a certified nurse-midwife to attend pregnancy and childbirth in an out-of-hospital setting if consistent with the above-described provisions. Under the bill, a certified nurse-midwife would not be authorized to assist childbirth by vacuum or forceps extraction, or to perform any external cephalic version. The bill would require a certified nurse-midwife to refer all emergencies to a physician and surgeon immediately, and would authorize a certified nurse-midwife to provide emergency care until the assistance of a physician and surgeon is obtained. This bill would require a certified nurse-midwife who is not under the supervision of a physician and surgeon to provide oral and written disclosure to a patient and obtain a patient's written consent, as specified. By expanding the scope of a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) Existing law authorizes the board to appoint a committee of qualified physicians and nurses, including, but not limited to, obstetricians and nurse-midwives, to develop the necessary standards relating to educational requirements, ratios of nurse-midwives to supervising physicians, and associated matters. Existing law, additionally, authorizes the committee to include family physicians. This bill, instead, would require the board to appoint a committee of qualified physicians and surgeons and nurses called the Nurse-Midwifery Advisory Committee. The bill would require the committee to consist of 4 qualified nurse-midwives, 2 qualified physicians and surgeons, including, but not limited to, obstetricians or family physicians, and one public member. The bill would delete the provision including ratios of nurse-midwives to supervising physicians and associated matters in the standards developed by the committee, and would instead require the committee to make recommendations to the board on all matters related to midwifery practice, education, appropriate standard of care, and other matters as specified by the board. The bill would require the committee to provide recommendations or guidance on care when the board is considering disciplinary action against a certified nurse-midwife. The bill would authorize the committee to continue to make the recommendations if the board, despite good faith efforts, is unable to solicit and appoint to the committee 4 qualified nurse-midwives, 2 qualified physicians and surgeons, including, but not limited to, obstetricians or family physicians, and one public member. (3) Existing law authorizes a certified nurse-midwife to furnish drugs or devices, including controlled substances, in specified circumstances, including if drugs or devices are furnished or ordered incidentally to the provision of care in specified settings, including certain licensed health care facilities, birth centers, and maternity hospitals provided that the furnishing or ordering of drugs or devices occur under physician and surgeon supervision. Existing law requires the drugs or devices to be furnished in accordance with standardized procedures or protocols, and defines standardized procedure to mean a document, including protocols, developed and approved by specified persons, including a facility administrator. Existing law requires Schedule II or III controlled substances furnished or ordered by a certified nurse-midwife to be furnished or ordered in accordance with a patient-specific protocol approved by the treating or supervising physician and surgeon. Existing law requires a certified nurse-midwife who is authorized to furnish or issue a drug order for a controlled substance to register with the United States Drug Enforcement Administration. This bill would delete the condition that the furnishing or ordering of drugs or devices occur under physician and surgeon supervision, and would authorize a certified nurse-midwife to furnish drugs or devices incidentally to the provision of care and services allowed by a certificate to practice nurse-midwifery as provided by the bill and when care is rendered in an out-of-hospital setting, as specified. The bill would limit the requirement that the furnishing or ordering of drugs or devices by a certified nurse-midwife be in accordance with the standardized procedures or protocols to the furnishing or ordering of drugs or devices for services that do not fall within the scope of services specified by the bill and Schedule IV or V controlled substances by a nurse-midwife for any condition. The bill would require Schedule II or III controlled substances furnished or ordered by a certified nurse-midwife for any condition to be furnished or ordered in accordance with a patient-specific protocol approved by a physician and surgeon. The bill would revise the definition of standardized procedure to mean a document, including protocols, developed in collaboration with, and approved by, a physician and surgeon and the certified nurse-midwife. The bill would require a certified nurse-midwife who is authorized to furnish or issue a drug order for a controlled substance to additionally register with the Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Enforcement System (CURES) . The bill would authorize a certified nurse-midwife to procure supplies and devices, obtain and administer diagnostic tests, obtain and administer nonscheduled drugs consistent with the provision of services that fall within the scope of services specified by the bill, order laboratory and diagnostic testing, and receive reports, as specified. The bill would make it a misdemeanor for a certified nurse-midwife to refer a person for specified laboratory and diagnostic testing, home infusion therapy, and imaging goods or services if the certified nurse-midwife or their immediate family member has a financial interest with the person receiving a referral. By expanding the scope of a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (4) Existing law authorizes a certified nurse-midwife to perform and repair episiotomies and repair lacerations of the perineum in specified health care facilities only if specified conditions are met, including that the protocols and procedures ensure that all complications are referred to a physician and surgeon immediately, and that immediate care of patients who are in need of care beyond the scope of practice of the certified nurse-midwife, or emergency care for times when the supervising physician and surgeon is not on the premises. This bill would delete those conditions, and instead would require a certified nurse-midwife performing and repairing lacerations of the perineum to ensure that all complications are referred to a physician and surgeon immediately, and that immediate care of patients who are in need of care beyond the scope of practice of the certified nurse-midwife, or emergency care when a physician and surgeon is not on the premises. (5) Existing law requires each live birth to be registered with the local registrar of births and deaths for the district in which the birth occurred within 10 days following the date of the event. Existing law makes the professionally licensed midwife in attendance at a live birth that occurs outside of a hospital or outside of a state-licensed alternative birth center responsible for entering the information on the birth certificate, securing the required signatures, and for registering the certificate with the local registrar. This bill instead would make the professionally licensed midwife or the certified nurse-midwife in attendance responsible for those duties. The bill would additionally require the information collected to include the planned place of birth and whether it was a hospital, freestanding birthing center, home delivery, clinic or physician's office, or other specified place. (6) 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. (7) Existing law, for live births that occur outside of a hospital or outside of a state-licensed alternative birth center, requires the physician in attendance at the birth or, in the absence of a physician, the professionally licensed nurse-midwife in attendance at the birth or, in the absence of a physician or midwife, either one of the parents to be responsible for entering the information on the certificate of live birth, securing the required signatures, and registering the birth. This bill would add specified reporting and data collection requirements for certified nurse-midwives to the Nursing Practice Act. The bill, for all maternal or neonatal transfers to the hospital setting during labor or the immediate postpartum period when the place of birth intended at the onset of labor was an out-of-hospital setting with a certified nurse-midwife as birth care provider, would require the certified nurse-midwife to report certain data to the State Department of Public Health within 90 days of the transfer or death, as specified. If a maternal, fetal, or neonatal death occurred in an out-of-hospital setting during labor or the immediate postpartum period, the bill would require the nurse-midwife to report specified data to the department within 90 days of the death, as specified. The bill would require the department to specify the final form of the data submission. By expanding the scope of a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require, no later than 412 years after these provisions are operative, and annually thereafter, the department to submit a report to the Legislature of the aggregate information, including, but not limited to, birth outcomes of patients under the care of a certified nurse-midwife, collected pursuant to these provisions. The bill would require the department to treat the information and data gathered for the creation of the report to the Legislature as confidential records and prohibit the disclosure of any patient or certified nurse-midwife information to any law enforcement or regulatory agency for any purpose, including, but not limited to, investigations for licensing, certification, or regulatory purposes. The bill would require information collected by the department pursuant to these provisions, not otherwise subject to current confidentiality requirements, to be treated as confidential records and made available only as provided. Under the bill, a violation of these provisions would subject the certified nurse-midwife to disciplinary or administrative action by the Board of Registered Nursing. This bill would make the operation of the provisions described in paragraph (7) contingent upon appropriation by the Legislature, as specified. (8) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 650.01 of the Business and Professions Code proposed by AB 890 to be operative only if this bill and AB 890 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. (9) 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 California Constitution generally limits the maximum rate of ad valorem tax on real property to 1% of the full cash value of the property and defines "full cash value" for these purposes as the appraised value of real property when purchased, newly constructed, or a change in ownership has occurred after the 1975 assessment. Pursuant to constitutional authorization, existing property tax law excludes from the definition of "newly constructed" for these purposes the construction or addition of any active solar energy system, as defined, through the 2023–24 fiscal year. Under existing property tax law, this exclusion remains in effect only until there is a subsequent change in ownership, but an active solar energy system that qualifies for the exclusion before January 1, 2025, will continue to receive the exclusion until there is a subsequent change in ownership. Existing law defines and sets forth parameters for determining a change in ownership for real property. The California Constitution authorizes the Legislature to provide for property taxation of all forms of tangible personal property, shares of capital stock, evidences of indebtedness, and any legal or equitable interest not otherwise exempt. The California Constitution also authorizes the Legislature to classify, by a 23 vote of each house, such personal property for differential taxation or for exemption. This bill would provide that for purposes of the provisions of the California Constitution described above, real property includes improvements, but not personal property. The bill would provide that a nonresidential active solar energy system, as defined, is personal property, not an improvement. The bill would, as provided, exempt a nonresidential active solar energy system constructed or installed prior to January 1, 2025, from taxation until there is a subsequent change in ownership of the nonresidential active solar energy system. The bill would also exempt those nonresidential active solar energy systems from taxation on and after January 1, 2025, until there is a subsequent change in ownership. The bill would provide that change in ownership of a nonresidential active solar energy system occurs if it would have met the parameters for a change in ownership applicable to real property had the system been considered real property instead of personal property. The bill would make its provisions operative on the date that an initiative measure relating to the definition of "full cash value" for commercial and industrial real property, adding a specified section to the California Constitution at the November 3, 2020, statewide general election, becomes effective. The bill would provide that its provisions relating to nonresidential active solar energy systems shall remain inoperative until, and be repealed on, January 1, 2021, if a majority of voters do not approve the initiative. The bill would make conforming changes and make related findings and declarations. By adding to the duties of county assessors when assessing commercial and industrial real property, 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, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above. Existing law requires the state to reimburse local agencies annually for certain property tax revenues lost as a result of any exemption or classification of property for purposes of ad valorem property taxation. This bill would provide that, notwithstanding those provisions, no appropriation is made and the state shall not reimburse local agencies for property tax revenues lost by them pursuant to the bill. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
Existing provisions of the California Constitution establish the University of California as a public trust under the administration of the Regents of the University of California. The California Constitution grants to the regents all the powers necessary or convenient for the effective administration of this public trust. Pursuant to the California Constitution, there are 7 ex officio members of the regents and 18 appointive members appointed by the Governor and approved by the Senate, a majority of the membership concurring. This measure would enact the University of California Equal Employment Opportunity Standards Act, which would, effective January 1, 2021, except as specified, require the regents to ensure that all contract workers, as defined, who are paid to perform support services for students, faculty, patients, or the general public at any campus, dining hall, medical center, clinic, research facility, laboratory, or other university location, are at all times subject to and afforded the same equal employment opportunity standards, as defined, as university employees performing similar services. The measure would authorize the regents, or any campus or other entity of the University of California, to contract for, or otherwise arrange to use, contract labor, as defined, to perform support services only under specified conditions, only if authorized to do so by statute, and only to the extent necessary to address one or more of prescribed needs. The measure would authorize the Legislature to enact statutes to further the purposes of, and to aid the enforcement of, this measure.
The California Constitution establishes the Public Utilities Commission and authorizes the commission to exercise ratemaking and rulemaking authority over all public utilities, as defined, subject to control by the Legislature. The Public Utilities Act authorizes the commission to supervise and regulate every public utility, including electrical corporations, and to do all things that are necessary and convenient in the exercise of that power and jurisdiction. Existing law authorizes the commission to fix the rates and charges for every public utility and requires that those rates and charges be just and reasonable. Existing law authorizes the commission, in a proceeding on an application by an electrical corporation to recover costs and expenses arising from a catastrophic wildfire occurring on or after January 1, 2019, to allow cost recovery if the costs and expenses are just and reasonable, after consideration of the conduct of the utility, including consideration of specified factors. Existing law establishes the Wildfire Fund to pay eligible claims arising from a covered wildfire, as provided. Existing law requires the commission to initiate a rulemaking proceeding to consider using its existing authority to require certain electrical corporations to collect a nonbypassable charge from its ratepayers to support the Wildfire Fund, and requires the commission to direct those electrical corporations to collect that charge if the commission determines that the imposition of the charge is just and reasonable and that it is an appropriate exercise of its authority, as specified. This bill would enact the Wildfire Prevention and Community Resilience Act of 2020 and would require the Natural Resources Agency, in consultation with the commission, to adopt an interim expenditure plan and an expenditure plan that are focused on reducing wildfire risk on the ground and in communities through activities such as defensible space implementation, home hardening, improved public safety, including expenditures to add trained emergency medical technicians to the workforce, and other authorized activities, as well as to prepare residents for wildfires through public education and outreach, as provided. The bill would establish the Wildfire Prevention and Community Resilience Fund and, upon appropriation by the Legislature, would require moneys in the fund be used for the implementation of those plans. The bill would require the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency, upon the adoption of the interim plan, to notify the State Controller of the adoption. The bill would require, within 30 days of the notification, the transfer of $500,000,000 from the Surplus Money Investment Fund to the Wildfire Prevention and Community Resilience Fund, and would appropriate the money to the Natural Resources Agency for the implementation of the interim expenditure plan. The bill would provide for the repayment of the moneys transferred from the Wildfire Prevention and Community Resilience Fund to the Surplus Money Investment Fund, as provided. The bill would require the commission to require large electrical corporations, as defined, to collect, on and after a specified time, a nonbypassable charge from their ratepayers, as provided, to finance the bonds issued for the support of the Wildfire Prevention and Community Resilience Fund, as described below. Existing law, until January 1, 2003, authorizes the Department of Water Resources to enter into contracts for the purchase of electric power. Existing law authorizes the department to sell power to retail end use customers and local publicly owned electric utilities under certain circumstances. Existing law authorizes the department to issue revenue bonds and entitles the department to recover, as a revenue requirement, amounts necessary to enable it to finance the bonds and purchase electric power pursuant to these provisions. Existing law authorizes the department to issue Wildfire Fund bonds on and after either the date on which the department legally defeases all of its remaining bonds under the provisions described above or the date on which it pays those obligations in full at maturity, whichever is earlier, to support the Wildfire Fund. Existing law entitles the department to recover, as a revenue requirement, amounts necessary to enable it to finance the bonds in support of the Wildfire Fund. Existing law requires those bond proceeds and revenues received by the department to be deposited in the Department of Water Resources Charge Fund. Existing law continuously appropriates the moneys in the Department of Water Resources Charge Fund to the department for specified purposes, including transfers to the Wildfire Fund and repayment of the bonds issued in support of the Wildfire Fund. This bill would authorize the department to issue bonds, in an aggregate amount of up to $3,000,000,000, the repayment of which, including interest, commences on the date on which the department has paid in full, at maturity, or legally defeases any outstanding bonds issued for the support of the Wildfire Fund or on January 1, 2036, whichever is later, to support the Wildfire Prevention and Community Resilience Fund. The bill would entitle the department to recover, as a revenue requirement, amounts necessary to enable it to finance the bonds in support of the Wildfire Prevention and Community Resilience Fund. The bill would require those bond proceeds and revenues received by the department to be deposited in the Department of Water Resources Charge Fund. The bill would continuously appropriate the moneys in the Department of Water Resources Charge Fund to the department for specified purposes, including transfers to the Wildfire Prevention and Community Resilience Fund and repayment of the bonds issued for the support of the Wildfire Prevention and Community Resilience Fund. 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 certain of the above provisions would be codified in the act and would require action by the commission, a violation of which would be a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 3289 of the Public Utilities Code proposed by SB 350 to be operative only if this bill and SB 350 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. 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 declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.