Sen. Catherine Blakespear

Existing law establishes the Department of Motor Vehicles, tasked with issuance and renewal of licenses to drivers. Existing law requires the department to prescribe and provide suitable forms of applications, certificates of ownership, registration cards, driver's licenses, and all other forms that are deemed necessary. This bill would, by January 1, 2026, require the department, in consultation with relevant stakeholders, to develop a Blue Envelope Program. Under the program, the bill would require the blue envelope to contain specified information for requesters with a condition or disability, as specified. The bill would also authorize others, including a parent or legal guardian of a passenger with a disability, to request a blue envelope.

Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Existing law authorizes the commission to adopt new, or expand existing, fixed charges, as defined, for the purpose of collecting a reasonable portion of the fixed costs of providing electrical service to residential customers. Under existing law, the commission may authorize fixed charges for any rate schedule applicable to a residential customer account. Existing law requires the commission, no later than July 1, 2024, to authorize a fixed charge for default residential rates. Existing law requires these fixed charges to be established on an income-graduated basis, with no fewer than 3 income thresholds, so that low-income ratepayers in each baseline territory would realize a lower average monthly bill without making any changes in usage. This bill would prohibit modifications to the amount of the income-graduated fixed charge from exceeding changes in inflation, as provided. The bill would make the provisions authorizing the income-graduated fixed charge inoperative on July 1, 2028. The bill, commencing July 1, 2028, would instead permit the commission to authorize fixed charges that, as of January 1, 2015, do not exceed $5 per residential customer account per month for low-income customers enrolled in the California Alternate Rates for Energy (CARE) program and that do not exceed $10 per residential customer account per month for customers not enrolled in the CARE program. The bill would authorize these maximum allowable fixed charges to be adjusted by no more than the annual percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for the prior calendar year, beginning January 1, 2016. The bill would require the commission to adopt any modification to an existing fixed charge for the collection of a reasonable portion of the fixed costs of providing electrical service to residential customers in a stand-alone proceeding. The bill would prohibit a fixed charge from resulting in an increase to an electrical corporation's revenue requirement. The bill would require the commission, on or before July 1, 2027, but no sooner than 2 years after the adoption of the income-graduated fixed charge, to submit a public report to the relevant policy committees of both houses of the Legislature on the electrical corporations' implementation of the income-graduated fixed charge and other cost-saving options, as specified. 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 provisions of this bill would be a part of the act and therefore a violation of the bill's requirements or of a commission action implementing its 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.

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.

The California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989, administered by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, generally regulates the disposal, management, and recycling of solid waste, as defined. Existing law authorizes each county, city, district, or other local governmental agency to determine aspects of solid waste handling that are of local concern and whether the services are to be provided by means of nonexclusive franchise, contract, license, permit, or otherwise. The act requires a city, county, or city and county, or regional agency formed under the act, to develop a source reduction and recycling element of an integrated waste management plan containing specified components. The act requires those jurisdictions to divert 50% of the solid waste subject to the element, except as specified, through source reduction, recycling, and composting activities. This bill would prohibit an exclusive franchise, contract, license, or permit to provide services for diversion from exceeding the services required to be performed and actually performed under the exclusive authorization. The bill would require a person who provides services for diversion by means other than a franchise, contract, license, or permit, to comply with applicable law, as specified. The bill would, if certain programs are not offered through a local ordinance or a local jurisdiction's franchise agreement, authorize other persons to collect, transport, and process undiscarded organic material from nonresidential customers, as specified. The bill would include findings that changes proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities.

Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations and gas corporations. Existing law requires the commission to require every residential unit in an apartment house or similar multiunit residential structure, condominium, or mobilehome park issued a building permit on or after July 1, 1982, with certain exceptions, to be individually metered for electrical and gas service. This bill would add an exception from the requirement that every residential unit be individually metered for electrical service for a multifamily site, as defined, that includes deployment of an electrical generation and energy storage facility and that meets specified requirements, including, among other things, that deployment of the electrical generation and energy storage facility is capable of providing backup electricity to the multifamily site using renewable energy resources, that the owner of the multifamily site does not increase rent in association with the costs of the deployment's components or lease agreement, that each tenant's electricity costs are less than what the effective fully bundled rate would have been if billed by the relevant load-serving entity, and that the owner bills the nonresidential meters and residential tenants for electricity usage directly, as measured by private submeters installed by the owner for each individual unit at the site, as specified. The bill would require the commission to authorize the use of a master meter in any building owned or operated by a local government, institution of higher education, private school, or religious institution. 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 bill's provisions would be part of the act and a violation of a commission action implementing the 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.

This measure would declare that the Legislature honors the life and legacy of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and proclaims March 15, 2024, as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Day, a day of remembrance and education to ensure that all Californians always honor and remember a vibrant guardian of equality for all.

This measure would encourage the state and local municipalities to develop and fund high-volume spay and neuter clinics across the state to provide sterilization services, and would encourage other actions relating to pets, including actions to control animal breeding and encourage spaying and neutering, as specified.

Existing law, the End of Life Option Act, until January 1, 2031, authorizes an adult who meets certain qualifications, including, among other things, being a resident of the State of California, and who has been determined by their attending physician to be suffering from a terminal disease, as defined, to make a request for an aid-in-dying drug for the purpose of ending their life. Existing law establishes the procedures for making these requests, including that 2 oral requests be made a minimum of 48 hours apart and that a specified form to request an aid-in-dying drug be submitted, under specified circumstances. Existing law requires specified information to be documented in the individual's medical record, including, among other things, all oral and written requests for an aid-in-dying drug. Existing law prescribes specified forms that attending and consulting physicians are required to submit to the State Department of Public Health and authorizes the Medical Board of California to update these forms. This bill would replace the term "terminal disease" for purposes of the act with "grievous and irremediable medical condition," defined as a medical condition that (1) is a serious and incurable illness or disease, (2) has placed the individual in a state of irreversible decline in capability and the individual's suffering is palpable without prospect of improvement, (3) is causing the individual to endure physical suffering due to the illness, disease, or state of decline that is intolerable to the individual and cannot be relieved in a manner the individual deems acceptable, and there is no proven treatment for the individual's situation that the individual has not attempted or is willing to attempt due to the nature or side effects of the treatment, and (4) after taking into account all of the individual's medical circumstances, it is reasonably foreseeable that the condition will become the individual's natural cause of death, as specified. The bill would, for purposes of the act, include a diagnosis of dementia as a grievous and irremediable medical condition, if the individual meets specified capacity requirements. The bill would specify that a sole diagnosis of a mental disorder is not a grievous and irremediable medical condition. The bill would also expand the definition of "mental health specialist" to include neurologists. The bill would additionally authorize the self-administration of an aid-in-dying drug through intravenous injection. The bill would repeal the January 1, 2031, expiration date of the act, thereby imposing a state-mandated local program by extending the operation of crimes for specified violations of the act. The bill would make certain technical, nonsubstantive changes to these provisions. The bill would delete the prescribed forms described above and instead require the Medical Board of California to develop and update an attending physician compliance form, a consulting physician form, and an attending physician followup form that meet certain requirements and include specified information. 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.