Existing law authorizes the Public Utilities Commission to fix the rates and charges for public utilities, including electrical corporations and gas corporations, and requires those rates and charges to be just and reasonable. Under existing law, a regulated public utility is prohibited from using ratepayer funds for advocacy-related activities that are political or do not otherwise benefit ratepayers. This bill would prohibit, except as provided, each electrical corporation or gas corporation from recording to accounts that contain expenses that the electrical corporation or gas corporation recovers from ratepayers, or otherwise recovering from ratepayers, direct or indirect costs of opposing the municipalization of electrical or gas service, as specified. The bill would require the commission to monitor and investigate compliance and noncompliance with the prohibition. Existing law authorizes the commission, each commissioner, and each officer and person employed by the commission to inspect the accounts, books, papers, and documents of any public utility. This bill would specify that the Public Advocate's Office of the Public Utilities Commission has the same authority to discover information and review the accounts of a public utility as the commission. 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 above-described provisions would be part of the act and a violation of a commission action implementing the bill's requirements would be 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.
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Existing law requires the Department of Technology to conduct, in coordination with other interagency bodies as it deems appropriate, a comprehensive inventory of all high-risk automated decision systems (ADS) that have been proposed for use, development, or procurement by, or are being used, developed, or procured by, any state agency. Existing law establishes the Labor and Workforce Development Agency, which is composed of various departments responsible for protecting and promoting the rights and interests of workers in California, including the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, led by the Labor Commissioner, within the Department of Industrial Relations. This bill would require an employer to provide a written notice that an ADS, for the purpose of making employment-related decisions, not including hiring, is in use at the workplace to all workers that will foreseeably be directly affected by the ADS, as specified. The bill would require the employer to maintain an updated list of all ADS currently in use. The bill would require an employer to notify, as provided, a job applicant that the employer utilizes an ADS when making hiring decisions, if the employer will use the ADS in making decisions for that position. The bill would prohibit an employer from using an ADS that does certain functions and would limit the purposes and manner in which an ADS may be used to make decisions. The bill would authorize a worker to request, and require an employer to provide, a copy of the most recent 12 months of the worker's own data primarily used by an ADS to make a discipline, termination, or deactivation decision, as specified. The bill would require an employer that primarily relied on an ADS to make a discipline, termination, or deactivation decision to provide the affected worker with a written notice, as specified. This bill would prohibit an employer from discharging, threatening to discharge, demoting, suspending, or in any manner discriminating or retaliating against any worker for taking certain actions asserting their rights under the bill. The bill would require the Labor Commissioner to enforce the bill's provisions, as specified, and would authorize a public prosecutor to bring a civil action. The bill would set forth specified types of relief that a plaintiff may seek and specified penalties that an employer that violates these provisions is subject to, including a $500 civil penalty. The bill would also provide that an employer who complies with the requirements related to notice in this bill is not required to comply with any substantially similar provisions under any other state law, except as specified. The bill would not apply to parties covered by a valid collective bargaining agreement if the agreement contains specified information, including an explicit waiver of the bill's provisions. The bill would declare that its provisions do not prohibit any employer from complying with regulatory or contractual requirements in the provision of products or services to the federal government, as defined. This bill would declare that its provisions are severable.
Existing law designates the State Water Resources Control Board as the agency responsible for administering specific programs related to drinking water, including, among others, the California Safe Drinking Water Act and the Emerging Contaminants for Small or Disadvantaged Communities Funding Program. This bill, which would become operative upon an appropriation by the Legislature, would enact a perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) mitigation program. As part of that program, the bill would create the PFAS Mitigation Fund in the State Treasury and would authorize certain moneys in the fund to be expended by the state board, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for specified purposes. The bill would authorize the state board to seek out nonstate, federal, and private funds designated for PFAS remediation and treatment and deposit the funds into the PFAS Mitigation Fund. The bill would continuously appropriate these funds to the state board for specified purposes. The bill would authorize the state board to establish accounts within the PFAS Mitigation Fund. The bill would authorize the state board to expend moneys from the fund in the form of a grant, loan, or contract, or to provide assistance services to water suppliers and sewer system providers, as those terms are defined, for multiple purposes, including, among other things, to cover or reduce the costs for water suppliers associated with treating drinking water to meet the applicable state and federal maximum PFAS contaminant levels. The bill would require a water supplier or sewer system provider to include a clear and definite purpose for how the funds will be used to provide public benefits to their community related to safe drinking water, recycled water, stormwater, or treated wastewater in order to be eligible to receive funds. The bill would require the state board to adopt guidelines to implement these provisions, as provided.
Existing law establishes the State Department of Public Health to implement various programs throughout the state relating to public health. The department administers the California Wastewater Surveillance Dashboard that provides an overview of data from testing wastewater for SARS-CoV-2 virus in California. The data in the dashboard is generated by those participating in the department's California Surveillance of Wastewaters (Cal-SuWers) network, including the Cal-SuWers program, WastewaterSCAN, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Wastewater Surveillance System, wastewater utilities, and academic, laboratory, and other state and federal partners. This bill would require the department, in consultation with participating wastewater treatment facilities, local health departments, and other subject matter experts, to maintain the Cal-SuWers network to test, as appropriate for public health use, for pathogens, toxins, or other public health indicators in wastewater. The bill would require participation in the Cal-SuWers network from local health departments and wastewater treatment facilities to be voluntary. The bill would authorize the department to coordinate with health care providers, local health departments, and emergency response agencies to ensure wastewater surveillance data is used for early intervention, outbreak response, epidemiological investigations, and public health planning. The bill would authorize the department to communicate to the general public, through a publicly accessible internet website, as specified, to provide transparency and public awareness of wastewater-based disease monitoring. The bill would authorize the department to utilize external funding sources, in addition to the department's existing, noncontinuously appropriated funding sources, to implement these provisions. The bill would make related findings and declarations.
This measure would, among other things, reaffirm California's commitment to universal human rights and call for the end to the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and the immediate release of all hostages.
Existing law establishes the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement within the Department of Industrial Relations. Existing law authorizes the division, which is headed by the Labor Commissioner, to enforce the Labor Code and all labor laws of the state, the enforcement of which is not specifically vested in any other officer, board, or commission. This bill would generally regulate the use of workplace surveillance tools and an employer's use of worker data. The bill would, among other things, require an employer, at least 30 days before introducing a workplace surveillance tool, to provide a worker who will be affected a written notice that includes, among other things, a description of the worker data to be collected, the intended purpose of the workplace surveillance tool, and how this form of worker surveillance is necessary to meet that purpose. The bill would define "employer" to include public employers, as specified. The bill would prohibit an employer from transferring, selling, disclosing, or licensing worker data to a vendor, unless the vendor is under contract to analyze or interpret the worker data and the contract includes certain terms. The bill would prohibit an employer from using certain workplace surveillance tools, including a workplace surveillance tool that incorporates facial, gait, or emotion recognition technology, except as specified. The bill would also prohibit an employer from using a workplace surveillance tool to infer specified categories of information about a worker, including, among others, their immigration status, veteran status, ancestral history, religious or political beliefs, disability status, criminal record, or credit history. The bill would require the Labor Commissioner to enforce the bill's provisions, would authorize an employee to bring a civil action for specified remedies for a violation of the bill's provisions, and would authorize a public prosecutor to enforce the provisions. The bill would subject an employer who violates the bill's provisions to a civil penalty of $500 for each violation. The bill would define various terms for purposes of its provisions.
Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) , in consultation with the Public Utilities Commission, local publicly owned electric utilities, and interested members of the public, to establish eligibility criteria for solar energy systems receiving ratepayer-funded incentives, as specified. Existing law requires the Energy Commission to adopt guidelines for solar energy systems receiving ratepayer-funded incentives, as provided. This bill would authorize the Energy Commission to establish distributed energy resource equipment lists with rating standards for equipment and components for solar energy systems, distributed energy storage systems, and electric vehicle service equipment, as specified. The bill would define various terms for these purposes. The bill would require the Energy Commission to also adopt guidelines for the distributed energy resource equipment lists, as provided.
Existing law establishes various grant and loan programs for research, including, among others, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, California Firefighter Cancer Prevention and Research Program, and the Public Interest Research, Development, and Demonstration Program. This bill would establish the California Institute for Scientific Research within the Government Operations Agency. The bill would create the California Institute for Scientific Research Fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, and require the moneys in the fund to be used by the Government Operations Agency to award grants and make loans to public or private research companies, universities, institutes, and organizations for scientific research and development, in specific areas of research, including, but not limited to, biomedical, behavioral, and climate research. This bill would create the California Institute for Scientific Research Council, as specified. The bill would require the council to, among other things, develop the strategic objectives and priorities of the institute and determine the research projects that will be funded by the California Institute for Scientific Research Fund, as specified. The bill would require a majority vote by the appointed members for the council for the approval of funding for any research project or proposal presented for funding. The bill would authorize the council to establish one or more scientific peer review panels consisting of experts in specified fields of research for the purposes of reviewing and prioritizing proposals on the basis of the track record of the investigators, scientific merit of the proposal, and potential benefit to the health and well-being of the population, natural resources, and environment of the state. This bill would require all research and development funded by the California Institute for Scientific Research Fund to be conducted under established standards of open scientific exchange, peer review, and public oversight. The bill would require the funds to be awarded on the basis of the research priorities established for the institute by the council and the scientific merit of the proposed research, as determined by an open, competitive, scientific peer review process that ensures objectivity, consistency, and high quality. Existing law, the California Affordable Drug Manufacturing Act of 2020, requires the California Health and Human Services Agency (CHHSA) or its departments to enter into partnerships to, among other things, address shortages in the market for generic prescription drugs and increase patient access to affordable drugs. The act also requires CHHSA to enter into partnerships resulting in the production, procurement, or distribution of generic prescription drugs, in accordance with specified conditions and procedures. The state has launched the CalRx Initiative, a program that in part serves to implement the act. This bill would require CHHSA, notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the above-described act, to enter into partnerships or contracts resulting in the development, production, procurement, or distribution of vaccines, by any entity that is authorized to do so under federal or state law, with the intent that these drugs be made widely available to public and private purchasers, providers, suppliers, and pharmacies. Under the bill, this requirement would be implemented through the CalRx Initiative and subject to an appropriation.
Existing law requires each school district, county superintendent of schools, and charter school to make available a nutritionally adequate breakfast, as defined, and a nutritionally adequate lunch, as defined, 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, as provided. Existing law defines "schoolday" for these purposes to mean any day that pupils in kindergarten or grades 1 to 12, inclusive, are present at a schoolsite for purposes of instruction or educational activities, including, among other things, pupil attendance at summer school, including incoming kindergarten pupils, as provided. This bill would, contingent upon an appropriation for its purposes and to the extent authorized by federal law, require the State Department of Education to establish a process for state reimbursement, adjusted annually for inflation, for federal summer meal program operators, as defined, for meals served to guardians of eligible pupils receiving a meal pursuant to a summer meal program, as provided. The bill would require the department to develop related guidance, as specified, and, if necessary, to apply for a waiver of federal law to secure federal reimbursement for these meals. The bill would require the department to distribute information about the federal Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer for Children Program to guardians whose children are eligible for specified summer food programs. The bill would require a guardian of an eligible pupil to be present at the summer meal program site in order for the summer meal program operator to receive state-funded reimbursement for that meal, unless noncongregate rules are in place. The bill would require summer meal program operators receiving state-funded reimbursement to report to the department the number of meals served to guardians by meal site no later than 30 days after the end of summer meal site operations.
Existing law establishes in the California Environmental Protection Agency the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, which administers various solid waste management and recycling programs. This bill would require the department to draft and submit a report to the Legislature, on or before January 1, 2028, relating to the in-state collection, recycling, reuse, and stockpiling for domestic consumption of precious metals, critical minerals, as defined, and other similar valuable materials as reasonably decided by the department, contained within products in the state, as specified. The bill would require the department to provide opportunities for public input and to perform outreach to potentially interested parties, as specified. The bill also would authorize the department to make recommendations to promote a circular economy for precious metals, critical minerals, and other similar valuable materials within products, including, but not limited to, best practices for product design to optimize the ability to recycle precious metals, critical minerals, and other similar valuable materials at the product's end of life.