Sen. Jim Nielsen

This measure would proclaim February 28, 2010, as Rare Disease Day.

This measure would establish, until January 1, 2014, the California Task Force on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education for the purpose of promoting the improvement of mathematics, science, engineering, and technology education across the state. The task force would consist of Members of the Legislature and experts appointed by the Speaker of the Assembly and the Senate Committee on Rules. The task force would conduct its business on a volunteer basis, be able to accept private funds, and would submit an annual report on its work to the Legislature.

This measure would request that the Congress and the President of the United States enact the Medicare Secondary Payer Enhancement Act of 2010.

This measure would proclaim May 12, 2010, as California Lab Day.

This measure would designate the 2nd week of October 2010, and annually thereafter, as Disability History Week, and would encourage public and private institutions of higher education, state and local agencies, nonprofit and community-based organizations, and private businesses and corporations to observe Disability History Week by dedicating appropriate classroom instructional time or by coordinating all-inclusive activities to be conducted during that week to afford opportunities for students and the general public to learn more about the disability community and to celebrate and honor its role in contemporary American society.

This measure would declare the Legislature's support for the observance of "Spirit of '45 Day" on the second Sunday in August to commemorate the anniversary of the end of World War II on August 14, 1945.

This measure would recognize each 2nd week of February hereafter as African American Mental Health Awareness Week.

Existing law provides that the supervision, management, and control of state prisons, and the responsibility for the care, custody, treatment, training, discipline, and employment of persons confined therein are vested in the Secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. This bill would require the department, in cooperation with the University of California, Office of the President, and in consultation with the Federal Receiver for the California Prison Health Care Receivership Corporation, to engage in a study to assess and evaluate the concept of involving the University of California system in the delivery of inmate health care, with the good of significantly reducing costs to taxpayers while more efficiently providing a constitutional level of health care to inmates. The study would be required to contain specified elements. The department would be required to complete the study and report to the Legislature by September 1, 2011.

Existing law designates specified days as having special significance, and specifies how the days of special significance should be observed in public elementary and secondary schools and educational institutions. This bill would repeal and recast these provisions. This bill would express findings and declarations of the Legislature relating to Ronald Reagan. This bill would designate February 6 of each year as Ronald Reagan Day, and would encourage public schools and educational institutions to engage in exercises remembering the life of Ronald Reagan, as specified. Existing law requires the Governor to proclaim various days in honor of a person, status, or an event. This bill would require the Governor to annually proclaim February 6 as Ronald Reagan Day.

Existing law includes as an implement of husbandry, among other things, any vehicle that is operated upon a highway only for the purpose of transporting agricultural products and is in no event operated along a highway for a total distance greater than one mile from the point of origin of the trip. This bill would add an all-terrain vehicle used in agricultural operations as an implement of husbandry.