Sen. Akilah Weber Pierson

Existing law requires the Secretary of Government Operations to develop a coordinated plan to, among other things, investigate the feasibility of, and obstacles to, developing standards and technologies for state departments to determine digital content provenance. For the purpose of informing that coordinated plan, existing law requires the secretary to evaluate, among other things, the impact of the proliferation of deepfakes, defined to mean audio or visual content that has been generated or manipulated by artificial intelligence that would falsely appear to be authentic or truthful and that features depictions of people appearing to say or do things they did not say or do without their consent, on state government, California-based businesses, and residents of the state. This bill, the Generative Artificial Intelligence Accountability Act, would, among other things, require the Department of Technology, under the guidance of the Government Operations Agency, the Office of Data and Innovation, and the Department of Human Resources, to update the report to the Governor, as required by Executive Order No. N-12-23, as prescribed. The bill would require the Office of Emergency Services to, as appropriate, perform a risk analysis of potential threats posed by the use of generative artificial intelligence to California's critical infrastructure, including those that could lead to mass casualty events and would require a high-level summary of the analysis be provided annually to the Legislature. This bill would also require a state agency or department that utilizes generative artificial intelligence to directly communicate with a person regarding government services and benefits to ensure that those communications include both (1) a disclaimer that indicates to the person that the communication was generated by generative artificial intelligence and (2) information, as specified, describing how the person may contact a human employee of the state agency or department.

Existing law establishes the licensure and regulation of health facilities by the State Department of Public Health, including, among others, general acute care hospitals. A violation of these provisions is a crime. Under existing law, a general acute care hospital is required to provide certain basic services, including medical, nursing, surgical, anesthesia, laboratory, radiology, pharmacy, and dietary services. Existing law authorizes a general acute care hospital to provide various special or supplemental services if certain conditions are met. Existing regulations define a supplemental service as an organized inpatient or outpatient service that is not required to be provided by law or regulation. Existing law requires a health facility to provide 90 days of public notice, with specified requirements, of the proposed closure or elimination of a supplemental service, such as maternity services. This bill would require an acute care hospital that operates a perinatal unit and expects challenges in the next 6 months that may result in a reduction or loss of perinatal services, to report specified information to the Department of Health Care Access and Information, including, but not limited to, the number of medical staff and employees working in the perinatal unit and the hospital's prior performance on financial metrics. The bill would require the Department of Health Care Access and Information to forward the provided information to the State Department of Health Care Services and the State Department of Public Health. The bill would require this information to be kept confidential to the extent permitted by law. The bill would require, within 3 months of receiving this notice from the hospital, the Department of Health Care Access and Information, in conjunction with the State Department of Public Health and the State Department of Health Care Services, to conduct a community impact assessment to identify the 3 closest hospitals operating a perinatal unit, their distance from the challenged facility, and whether those hospitals have any restrictions on their reproductive health services. The bill would require the Department of Health Care Access and Information to provide the community impact assessment to specified entities and would require these entities to keep the community impact assessment confidential. If the hospital plans to close its perinatal unit, the bill would require the hospital to provide public notice of the proposed closure, including the results of the community impact assessment, and other specified information on the hospital's internet website 90 days in advance of the closure. The bill would require the public to be permitted to comment on the closure for 60 days after the notice is given, and would require one noticed public hearing be conducted by the hospital. The bill would also require the hospital to accept written public comment. By creating a new crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. 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. 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.

Existing law, the Sherman Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Law, regulates the packaging, labeling, and advertising of drugs and devices and is administered by the State Department of Public Health. A violation of that law is a crime. Existing law authorizes the department to establish performance standards for devices designed to provide reasonable assurance of safe and effective performance and, where appropriate, requiring the use and prescribing the form and content of labeling for the proper installation, maintenance, operation, or use of the device. This bill would require, beginning January 1, 2027, a device that collects or analyzes information originating from a physiological source and is not subject to specified federal regulations, to have a legible disclosure on the product, the packaging, or within informational materials included with the packaging for the device, or within user instructions, that includes limitations known by the manufacturer on the effectiveness of the device for the device's intended population because of certain characteristics of the person using the device or of the person on which the device is being used, including, but not limited to, age, color, disability, ethnicity, gender, or race. By expanding the scope of a crime, 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Existing law prohibits the production, development, duplication, distribution, or possession, as specified, of matter, in specified formats, that depicts a person under 18 years of age engaging in or simulating sexual conduct, as defined. Existing law separately prohibits this conduct where it is done for consideration or where such matter is shared with a minor. Existing law provides an enhanced punishment when these offenses are committed using government property. This bill would expand the scope of certain of these provisions to include matter that is digitally altered or generated by the use of artificial intelligence, as such matter is defined. By expanding the scope of an existing crime, 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. This bill would become operative only if SB 1381 of the 2023–24 Regular Session is enacted and takes effect on or before January 1, 2025.

Existing law licenses and regulates tissue banks and generally makes a violation of the requirements applicable to tissue banks a crime. This bill would specify that a general acute care hospital is not required to have a license to operate a tissue bank to store or distribute pasteurized donor human milk that was obtained from a tissue bank licensed by the State Department of Public Health. The bill would exempt from licensing requirements a hospital storing or distributing human milk obtained from a licensed tissue bank. The bill would require hospitals that collect, process, store, or distribute human milk in any other circumstance to obtain a tissue bank license. To the extent that the bill would expand the class of hospitals subject to tissue bank licensing requirements, thereby expanding a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law, the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975, requires the Department of Managed Health Care to license and regulate health care service plans and makes a willful violation of the act a crime. Other existing law requires the Department of Insurance to regulate health insurers. Existing law requires health care service plans and health insurers, as specified, to provide certain health benefits and services, including, among others, maternity hospital stays, inpatient hospital and ambulatory maternity services, and maternal mental health programs. Existing law generally requires a health care service plan or health insurance policy to provide an enrollee or insured with basic health care services, as specified. This bill would include, in the above-described basic health care services, medically necessary pasteurized donor human milk obtained from a tissue bank licensed by the State Department of Public Health. Because a violation of the bill's provisions by a health care service plan 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.

Existing law requires a person who is incarcerated in state prison or confined in a local detention facility, or a state or local juvenile facility, and who menstruates or experiences uterine or vaginal bleeding to, upon request, have access to, be allowed to use, and continue to use materials necessary for personal hygiene with regard to their menstrual cycle and reproductive system, including, but not limited to, sanitary pads and tampons. This bill would require the person to have ready access to these menstrual products without having to request them. By imposing additional duties on local detention facilities, 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.

Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of various professions and vocations by regulatory boards and entities within the Department of Consumer Affairs, including athlete agents. Existing law generally prohibits a person from practicing those professions and vocations unless the person is licensed by the appropriate regulatory board or otherwise meets prescribed requirements. This bill would prohibit a person from holding themselves out to be an athletic trainer or from using specified titles or terms to imply or suggest that the person is an athletic trainer unless they meet prescribed requirements, including that the person is certified by the Board of Certification for the Athletic Trainer, as specified. The bill would prohibit a person from holding themselves out to be an athletic trainer or use any of the specified titles if certain conditions are true, including that the person has an athletic trainer license or registration in another state that was disciplined or is otherwise restricted, as specified. If an employee's title is changed to comply with these provisions, the bill would prohibit the loss of the employee's employment status as a result of the title change, including, but not limited to, demotion, reclassification, or the loss of any other status or compensation related to the position.

(1) Existing law requires, no later than January 1, 2030, owners of all acute care inpatient hospitals to either demolish, replace, or change to nonacute care use all hospital buildings not in substantial compliance with specified seismic safety standards or to seismically retrofit all acute care inpatient hospital buildings so that they are in substantial compliance with those seismic safety standards. Existing law requires the Department of Health Care Access and Information to issue a written notice upon compliance with those requirements. This bill would authorize a Distressed Hospital Loan Program recipient, a small hospital, a rural hospital, a critical access hospital, or a health care district hospital, as defined, and except as specified, to seek approval from the Department of Health Care Access and Information for a delay to the January 1, 2030, compliance deadline described above by up to 3 years. The bill would require hospitals seeking a delay to submit a seismic compliance plan, as specified, and, if necessary, a Nonstructural Performance Category-5 evaluation report. The bill would also require the hospital and department to identify least 2 major milestones relating to the seismic compliance plan that will be used as the basis for determining whether a hospital is making adequate progress toward meeting the subject hospital's seismic compliance deadline. The bill would subject the submitted seismic compliance plans to departmental review for reasonableness and require the hospital seeking the delay to submit any documentation requested by the department to assist its review. The bill would require the department to approve or deny a seismic compliance plan and any delay to the seismic compliance deadline within 120 days. The bill would also authorize the department to additionally delay the deadline for compliance by 2 years, up to a maximum of January 1, 2035, as necessary, for hospitals that continue to experience financial distress or that need to deal with contractor, labor, or material delays, acts of God, governmental entitlements, or other circumstances beyond the hospital's control. The bill would require hospitals eligible to delay compliance under these provisions to comply with the seismic safety standards described above by no later than January 1, 2035. The bill would impose a fine of $5,000 per calendar day for a hospital's failure to comply with a revised construction schedule or to meet any major milestone established by the department until the requirements or milestones, respectively, are met. The bill would also prohibit these hospitals from being issued a building permit for any building in the facility except those required for seismic compliance, maintenance, and emergency repairs until the milestone is met and the hospital is adequately progressing toward meeting the subject hospitals seismic compliance, as determined by the department. The bill would require the department to implement the above-described provisions by regulation, as specified. The bill would require the department to support a hospital requesting a delay under the above-described provisions to explore the opportunities under the Small and Rural Hospital Relief Program to assist with seismic compliance and to annually post a list of hospitals that have been granted a delay on its internet website, as specified. (2) Existing law establishes the Small and Rural Hospital Relief Program for the purpose of funding seismic safety compliance with respect to small hospitals, rural hospitals, and critical access hospitals in the state. Existing law requires the department to provide grants to small, rural, and critical access hospital applicants that meet certain criteria, including that seismic safety compliance, as defined, imposes a financial burden on the applicant that may result in hospital closure. Existing law also creates the Small and Rural Hospital Relief Fund and continuously appropriates the moneys in the fund for purposes of administering and funding the grant program. This bill would require the department to expand eligibility for grants for single- and 2-story general acute care hospitals located in remote or rural areas with fewer than 80 general acute care beds and general acute care hospital revenue of $75 million or less. The bill would require grants under the program to provide general acute care hospitals with funds to secure an SPC-4D assessment for purposes of planning for, and estimating the costs of, compliance with certain seismic safety standards, as specified. The bill would authorize specified general acute care hospitals to apply for a grant for purposes of complying with those seismic safety standards. If state funds are appropriated to the Small and Rural Hospital Relief Fund in the future for the purpose of complying with the seismic safety standards described in paragraph (1) , the bill would require a hospital that qualifies for assessment grants under the program to submit specified financial information relating to, among other things, the accuracy of the hospital's SPC-4D cost estimates to the department before being awarded state funds.

Existing law requires the State Department of Education to develop and maintain nutrition guidelines for school lunches and breakfasts, and for all food and beverages sold on public school campuses. Existing law requires those nutrition guidelines to be consistent with the requirements for a nutritionally adequate breakfast and a nutritionally adequate lunch. Existing law defines a nutritionally adequate breakfast and a nutritionally adequate lunch for these purposes to mean those that qualify for reimbursement under the most current meal pattern for the federal School Breakfast Program and the federal National School Lunch Program, respectively. Existing law requires a school district, county superintendent of schools, or charter school maintaining kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, to make available a nutritionally adequate breakfast and a nutritionally adequate lunch, free of charge, during each schoolday to any pupil who requests a meal without consideration of the pupil's eligibility for a federally funded free or reduced-price meal. Existing law authorizes a school operated and maintained by a school district or county office of education, from the midnight before to 30 minutes after the end of the official schoolday, to sell food and beverages other than meals reimbursed by specified federal nutrition programs, only if the food or beverages meet dietary guidelines, as specified, depending on grade level. This bill, beginning December 31, 2027, would prohibit a school district, county superintendent of schools, or charter school maintaining kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, from offering a nutritionally adequate breakfast or lunch containing specified substances, including, among others, red 40 and yellow 5 and would prohibit a school operated and maintained by a school district or county office of education from selling food or beverages, except for food items sold as part of a school fundraising event, containing those specified substances, as provided. To the extent this bill would impose additional requirements on public schools, 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 establishes the State Department of Public Health to implement and administer various programs relating to public health. The department administers the California Overdose Surveillance Dashboard that provides data on state- and local-level drug-related overdose outcomes for California, including, among other data, the number of deaths related to fentanyl overdoses. Existing law requires the department to update the dashboard to reflect additional information, as specified. This bill would require the department to use best efforts to utilize all of its relevant data regarding overdoses in the state to monitor and identify current trends of fentanyl-related deaths of children 0 to 5 years of age, inclusive. The bill would require the department to develop guidance and spread awareness of the trends to protect and prevent children from fentanyl exposure. The bill would require the department, on or before January 1, 2026, to annually distribute its findings and guidance to local health departments, county boards of supervisors, and the Legislature. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2029.