The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency charged with monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases. The act authorizes the state board to include the use of market-based compliance mechanisms. Existing law requires all moneys, except for fines and penalties, collected by the state board as part of a market-based compliance mechanism to be deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and to be available upon appropriation. Existing law requires the Department of Finance to annually submit a report to the appropriate committees of the Legislature on the status of the projects funded with moneys in the fund. This bill would require the department to include additional data in that annual report, as specified.
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The Cal Grant Program establishes the Cal Grant A and B Entitlement Awards, the California Community College Transfer Entitlement Awards, the Competitive Cal Grant A and B Awards, the Cal Grant C Awards, and the Cal Grant T Awards under the administration of the Student Aid Commission, and establishes eligibility requirements for awards under these programs for participating students attending qualifying institutions. This bill would require, commencing with the 2017–18 academic year, each Cal Grant participating institution, as a condition for its voluntary participation in the Cal Grant Program, to certify to the commission in the institution's participation agreement for the Cal Grant Program that the institution shall not subject an applicant, student, or employee of the institution to discrimination on the basis of, among other things, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression, and that the institution shall not have, apply for, or receive a waiver by the United States Department of Education from nondiscrimination requirements for the receipt of federal funds, except as provided. The bill would provide that an institution that is ineligible for participation in the Cal Grant Program under these provisions is still eligible for renewal Cal Grant awards for recipients who were enrolled in the ineligible institution during the academic year immediately preceding the academic year for which the institution is ineligible and who choose to renew their Cal Grant awards to attend the ineligible institution, to the same extent as if the recipients attended an eligible institution.
Existing law creates the California Environmental Protection Agency, consisting of various boards, offices, and departments, including the State Air Resources Board and the Department of Toxic Substances Control. The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency charged with monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases. The act authorizes the state board to include the use of market-based compliance mechanisms. Existing law requires all moneys, except for fines and penalties, collected by the state board as part of a market-based compliance mechanism to be deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and to be available upon appropriation. Existing law requires the California Environmental Protection Agency to identify disadvantaged communities and requires the Department of Finance, in consultation with the state board and any other relevant state agency, to develop, as specified, a 3-year investment plan for the moneys deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. This bill would establish the Green Assistance Program within the California Environmental Protection Agency to, among other things, assist small businesses and small nonprofit organizations in applying for moneys from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. This bill would also establish the California Green Business Program within the California Environmental Protection Agency to provide support and assistance to green business certification programs operated by local governments that certify small- and medium-sized businesses that voluntarily adopt environmentally preferable business practices, including, but not limited to, increased energy efficiency, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, water conservation, and waste reduction, as specified. The bill would delete an existing authorization for the Department of Toxic Substances Control to create a similar program. The bill would appropriate an unspecified amount annually to each program from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.
Existing law requires various state agencies to administer programs relating to water supply, water quality, and flood management in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The bill would prohibit the construction of a peripheral canal, as defined, unless expressly authorized by an initiative voted on by the voters of California on or after January 1, 2017, and would require the Legislative Analyst's Office to complete a prescribed economic feasibility analysis prior to a vote authorizing the construction of a peripheral canal.
Existing law establishes the Labor and Workforce Development Agency overseen by the Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development and provides that the agency consists of, among other entities, the California Workforce Investment Board, the Employment Development Department, and the Employment Training Panel. The California Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act establishes the California Workforce Development Board as the body responsible for assisting the Governor in the development, oversight, and continuous improvement of California's workforce investment system and the alignment of the education and workforce investment systems to the needs of the 21st century economy and workforce. That act requires the establishment of a local workforce development board in each local workforce development area of the state to, among other things, carry out analyses of the economic conditions in the local region. This bill would enact the Removing Barriers to Employment Act, which would establish the Breaking Barriers to Employment Initiative within the Labor and Workforce Development Agency. The bill would require the initiative to be led by the Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development and authorizes the secretary to assign all or part of the administration of the initiative to one or more entities within the agency's oversight, or to authorize another state agency, under specified conditions, to administer a portion of the initiative. The bill would specify that the purpose of the initiative is to create a grant program to assist individuals who have multiple barriers to employment to receive the remedial education and work readiness skills that will help those individuals to successfully participate in training, apprenticeship, or employment opportunities that enhance skill development that will lead to self-sufficiency and economic stability, and would set forth the goals of the initiative. The bill would require the secretary to develop criteria for the selection of grant recipients, as specified, and would require the secretary, by January 1, 2018, and annually thereafter, to post a report on the agency's Internet Web site that provides a status report on the implementation of the initiative and aggregates information provided by grant recipients. The bill would authorize the secretary, when implementing the initiative, to fund a project that uses a model that was previously funded as a pilot project under certain programs if specified criteria are met. The bill would make the funding of the initiative subject to an appropriation by the Legislature for that purpose and would make implementation of the initiative contingent on the secretary notifying the Department of Finance that sufficient moneys have been appropriated.
The End of Life Option Act, as enacted in the 2015–16 2nd Extraordinary Session of the Legislature, authorizes, until January 1, 2026, an adult who meets certain qualifications, and who has been determined by his or her attending physician to be suffering from a terminal disease, as defined, to make a request for a drug prescribed pursuant to the act for the purpose of ending his or her life through self-administration of the drug. The act establishes certain procedures for making a request, prohibits certain agreements or policies from being conditioned upon or affected by a request, and provides immunity from civil or criminal liability, with exceptions, to persons present when the qualified individual self-administers the drug or to persons preparing the drug. The act provides that action taken in accordance with the act shall not constitute, among other things, suicide or homicide. The act requires physicians to submit specified forms and information to the State Department of Public Health after writing a prescription for an aid-in-dying drug and after the death of an individual who requested an aid-in-dying drug. The act authorizes the Medical Board of California to update those forms. The act requires the State Department of Public Health to publish the forms on its Internet Web site, collect and review certain information, annually create a statistical report of the information collected, as specified, and post that report on its Internet Web site. This bill would require the department, on or before January 1, 2017, to post a toll-free telephone number on its Internet Web site for the purpose of receiving and responding to inquiries in multiple languages regarding the End of Life Option Act, as specified.
Under existing law, the State Department of Public Health licenses and regulates health facilities, as defined. A violation of these provisions is a crime. Existing law, the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act, provides for the involuntary commitment and treatment of persons with specified mental disorders for the protection of the persons so committed. Under the act, when a person, as a result of a mental health disorder, is a danger to others, or to himself or herself, or gravely disabled, he or she may, upon probable cause, be taken into custody by a peace officer, a member of the attending staff of an evaluation facility, designated members of a mobile crisis team, or another designated professional person, and placed in a facility designated by the county and approved by the State Department of Social Services as a facility for 72-hour treatment and evaluation. On or before July 1, 2017, this bill would require the department to establish and administer a pilot program to create an Internet Web site-based electronic registry, known as the acute psychiatric bed registry, in specified counties, to collect, aggregate, and display specified information regarding the availability of acute psychiatric beds in psychiatric health facilities, as defined, to facilitate the identification and designation of health facilities for the temporary detention and treatment of individuals who meet specified criteria for temporary detention. The bill would require a psychiatric health facility to, on or before July 1, 2017, designate an employee to submit to the registry notification that an acute psychiatric bed has become available at the psychiatric health facility and to serve as the contact person to respond to requests for information related to data reported to the registry, as provided. The bill would require the department to submit specified reports to the Legislature regarding the registry and to make these reports available to the public and on its Internet Web site. This bill would provide that a violation of its provisions is not a crime. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2022.
This measure would commend Muslim Americans for their economic, political, and cultural impact on California and the United States. This measure would call upon Members of the United States Congress to respect the First Amendment, and to speak out against and reject efforts to monitor mosques, efforts to police and profile Muslim Americans, and efforts to prohibit Muslims from immigrating to the United States, and to speak out against and reject any efforts to pursue an immigration policy based on religion.
This measure would declare the month of April 2016 as Financial Aid and Literacy Month, with the theme of "Prosperity Through Education," to raise public awareness about the continuing need for increased financial literacy.
This measure would recognize May 2016 as National Mental Health Awareness Month in California to enhance public awareness of mental illness.