(1) Existing law authorizes a board to suspend or revoke a license on various grounds, including, but not limited to, conviction of a crime, if the crime is substantially related to the qualifications, functions, or duties of the business or profession for which the license was issued. Existing law requires applicants to certain boards to provide a full set of fingerprints for the purpose of conducting criminal history record checks. This bill would make the fingerprinting requirement applicable to the Board for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, and Geologists. The bill would also make technical, nonsubstantive changes to those provisions to correct references to the names of various boards and would correct references to the name of a specified fund. (2) Existing law authorizes the Department of Consumer Affairs to enter into a contract with a vendor for the licensing and enforcement BreEZe system no sooner than 30 days after written notification to certain committees of the Legislature. Existing law requires the amount of contract funds for the system to be consistent with costs approved by the office of the State Chief Information Officer, based on information provided by the department in a specified manner. Existing law provides that this cost provision is applicable to all Budget Act items for the department that have an appropriation for the BreEZe system. This bill would authorize the Department of Finance to augment the budgets of those boards, bureaus, commissions, committees, programs, and divisions of the Department of Consumer Affairs for expenditure of non-General Fund moneys to pay BreEZe project costs, as specified, thereby making an appropriation. (3) Existing law, the Physical Therapy Practice Act, creates the Physical Therapy Board of California and makes it responsible for the licensure and regulation of physical therapists. Existing law authorizes the board to discipline licensees, including the suspension and revocation of licenses. Existing law regulating professional corporations provides that certain healing arts practitioners may be shareholders, officers, directors, or professional employees of a professional corporation, subject to certain limitations. A violation of these provisions by a licensee constitutes unprofessional conduct under the act. This bill would, until January 1, 2013, prohibit the board from taking disciplinary action against a licensee providing physical therapy services as a professional employee of a medical corporation, podiatric medical corporation, or chiropractic corporation. (4) Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of various businesses and professions by boards within the Department of Consumer Affairs, including the California Board of Accountancy, the California Architects Board, the Landscape Architects Technical Committee, the Professional Fiduciaries Bureau, the Board for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, and Geologists, the Contractors' State License Board, the State Board of Guide Dogs for the Blind, and the State Athletic Commission. Existing law requires or authorizes these boards and the State Athletic Commission, with certain exceptions, to appoint an executive officer and existing law authorizes the Governor to appoint the chief of the Professional Fiduciaries Bureau. Existing law repeals these provisions on January 1, 2012. Under existing law, boards scheduled for repeal are required to be evaluated by the Joint Sunset Review Committee. This bill would extend the operation of these provisions until January 1, 2016, except the State Board of Guide Dogs for the Blind and the State Athletic Commission, which would be extended until January 1, 2014, and except the Professional Fiduciaries Bureau, which would be extended until January 1, 2015. The bill would instead specify that these boards would be subject to review by the appropriate policy committees of the Legislature. (5) With respect to accounting firms, existing law, until January 1, 2014, requires a firm, in order to renew its registration, to have a specified peer review report accepted by a California Board of Accountancy-recognized peer review group. Existing law, until January 1, 2014, requires the board to appoint a peer review oversight committee of certified public accountants to provide recommendations to the board relating to the effectiveness of mandatory peer review. Existing law also requires the board, by January 1, 2013, to provide the Legislature and the Governor with a report regarding specified peer review requirements that includes specified information. This bill would extend the operation of the peer review report requirement and the peer review oversight committee indefinitely. The bill would require the report to the Legislature and the Governor to be submitted by January 1, 2015, and would require the report to include certain additional information and recommendations. Existing law requires an accountant licensee to report to the board the occurrence of certain events taking place after January 1, 2003, including any restatement of a financial statement. This bill would exempt any restatement that is included in any report filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission from this requirement. (6) Existing law authorizes the California Architects Board to, by regulation, implement an intern development program until July 1, 2012. This bill, by deleting that termination date, would instead authorize the board to, by regulation, implement the intern development program indefinitely. (7) Existing law prohibits a person from holding himself or herself out as a professional fiduciary without a license issued by the Professional Fiduciaries Bureau. Under existing law, a license may be suspended, revoked, denied, or other disciplinary action may be imposed for various reasons. This bill would authorize the bureau, instead of issuing an accusation or statement of issues against a licensee or applicant, to enter into a specified settlement with a licensee or applicant. (8) Existing law authorizes the State Board of Guide Dogs for the Blind to establish an arbitration panel pilot project, until January 1, 2012, for the purpose of resolving disputes between a guide dog user and a licensed guide dog school, as specified. This bill would instead authorize the arbitration panel pilot project until January 1, 2014. (9) Existing law requires an applicant to use the title "structural engineer" to have successfully passed both a written examination that incorporates a national examination for structural engineers and a supplemental California specific examination, as specified. This bill would instead require these applicants to pass only a written examination for structural engineering that is administered by a nationally recognized entity approved by the board. (10) Existing law establishes the Professional Engineer's and Land Surveyor's Fund, requires all money received by the Department of Consumer Affairs from the operation of the Professional Engineer's Act and the Professional Land Surveyor's Act to be deposited in the fund, and appropriates the moneys in the fund for the purposes of those acts. Existing law establishes the Geology and Geophysics Fund and requires the Board for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, and Geologists to provide all money received by the board under the Geologists and Geophysicists Act to the State Treasury for credit to the Geology and Geophysics Fund. This bill would abolish the Geology and Geophysics Fund, create the Geology and Geophysics Account within the Professional Engineer's and Land Surveyor's Fund, and require all moneys received by the board under the Geologists and Geophysicists Act to be deposited in that account. The bill would require all moneys paid into the account pursuant to the Geologists and Geophysicists Act to be appropriated to carry out the provisions of the act, thereby making an appropriation. (11) Existing law requires an applicant for registration as a geologist to pay an examination fee fixed by the board at an amount equal to the actual cost to the board to administer the examination, not to exceed $450. This bill would delete the provisions limiting the examination fee to $450. (12) Existing law requires the State Athletic Commission to provide a report to the Governor and the Legislature by July 30, 2010, regarding the condition of the State Athletic Commission Neurological Examination Account and the Boxers' Pension Fund, as specified. This bill would require the commission to provide the report to the Legislature by July 30, 2012. (13) This bill would incorporate additional changes in Section 205 of the Business and Professions Code proposed by SB 933, to be operative only if SB 933 and this bill are both chaptered and become effective January 1, 2012, and this bill is chaptered last.
Sponsored bills
Existing law sets forth the requirements for the solicitation and evaluation of bids and the awarding of contracts by public entities. This bill would authorize a public entity to use, enter into, or require contractors to enter into, a project labor agreement for a construction project, if the agreement includes specified taxpayer protection provisions. This bill would authorize the members of the governing board of a local public entity to choose by majority vote whether to use, enter into, or require contractors to enter into a project labor agreement for a specific project or projects awarded by that entity and whether to allocate funding to a specific project covered by such an agreement. This bill would prohibit a charter provision, initiative, or ordinance from preventing the governing board of a local public entity, other than a charter city, from exercising this authority on a project-specific basis. This bill would also provide that if a charter provision, initiative, or ordinance of a charter city prohibits the governing board's consideration of a project labor agreement for a project to be awarded by the city, or prohibits the governing board from considering whether to allocate funds to a city-funded project covered by such an agreement, then state funding or financial assistance may not be used to support that project, as specified.
Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, pursuant to which medical benefits are provided to public assistance recipients and certain other low-income persons. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid Program provisions. Existing law provides for a schedule of benefits under the Medi-Cal program, which includes medical transportation, and authorizes the department to prescribe polices and regulations as necessary to carry out the Medi-Cal program, including setting rates for payment of services. This bill would provide that an eligible provider, as described, may receive supplemental Medi-Cal reimbursement, in addition to the rate of payment that the provider would otherwise receive, for Medi-Cal ground emergency medical transportation services and that the supplemental reimbursement shall be equal to the amount of federal financial participation the department receives as a result of claims submitted for expenditures for services, as specified. This bill would require the department to promptly seek any necessary federal approvals for the implementation of these provisions, including obtaining approval from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for the specified payment methodology to be used to distribute the supplemental reimbursement. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law regulates various subjects relating to the protection and preservation of personal health, including infant, child, and adolescent health, reproductive privacy, and the prevention of the practice of female genital mutilation. This bill would preclude a city, county, or city and county ordinance, regulation, or administrative action from prohibiting or restricting the practice of male circumcision, or the exercise of a parent's authority to have a child circumcised. This bill would provide that the Legislature finds and declares that the laws affecting male circumcision must have uniform application throughout the state. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
(1) The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of, an environmental impact report (EIR) on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. CEQA establishes procedures for creating the administrative record judicial review procedure for any action or proceeding brought to challenge the lead agency's decision to certify the EIR or to grant project approvals. This bill would enact the Jobs and Economic Improvement Through Environmental Leadership Act of 2011 and establish specified judicial review procedures for the judicial review of the EIR and approvals granted for a leadership project related to the development of a residential, retail, commercial, sports, cultural, entertainment, or recreational use project, or clean renewable energy or clean energy manufacturing project. The act would authorize the Governor to certify a leadership project for streamlining pursuant to the act if certain conditions are met. The bill would repeal the act as of January 1, 2015. Because the lead agency would be required to use these alternative procedures for creating the administrative record if the project applicant so chooses and the project is certified by the Governor, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require, among other things, that the project create high-wage, highly skilled jobs and not result in any net additional emission of greenhouse gases, including greenhouse gas emissions from employee transportation. (2) This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the act's unique and unprecedented streamlining benefits under the California Environmental Quality Act. (3) 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. (4) This bill would become operative only if SB 292 is enacted and takes effect on or before January 1, 2012.
The Surface Mining and Reclamation Act of 1975 prohibits a person, with exceptions, from conducting surface mining operations unless a permit is obtained from, a reclamation plan is submitted to and approved by, and financial assurances for reclamation have been approved by, the lead agency for the operation. Existing law requires a lead agency, within 12 months of certain occurrences, to establish, in accordance with state policy, mineral resource management policies to be incorporated into the lead agency's general plan. Existing law requires these policies to, among other things, assist in the management of land use that affects areas of statewide and regional significance. This bill would instead require the policy to assist in the management of land use that affects access to areas of statewide and regional significance. The bill would also make technical changes.
This measure would designate the month of September of every year as Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month throughout the State of California, and would encourage and promote efforts to educate the people and the health care practitioners of the state regarding ovarian cancer and its early detection and prevention, the risk factors involved in its development, and the early warning symptoms and signs.
Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal program, administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which basic health care services are provided to qualified low-income individuals. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid Program provisions. Existing law, subject to federal approval, imposes a quality assurance fee, as specified, on certain general acute care hospitals through and including June 30, 2011. Existing law creates the Hospital Quality Assurance Revenue Fund in the State Treasury and requires that the money collected from the quality assurance fee be deposited into the fund. Existing law, subject to federal approval, requires the department to make supplemental payments for certain services, as specified, to private hospitals, increased capitation payments to Medi-Cal managed health care plans, and increased payments to mental health plans. Existing law provides that the moneys in the Hospital Quality Assurance Revenue Fund shall, upon appropriation by the Legislature, be available only for certain purposes, including paying for health care coverage for children, as specified, and making the supplemental payments to hospitals, increased capitation payments to Medi-Cal managed health care plans, and increased payments to mental health plans. Existing law also establishes the continuously appropriated Distressed Hospital Fund, which consists of moneys transferred to the fund or appropriated by the Legislature and used as the nonfederal share of payments to distressed hospitals, as defined. This bill would, subject to federal approval, impose a quality assurance fee, as specified, on certain general acute care hospitals, for the period of July 1, 2011, through December 31, 2013. This bill would require that the money collected from the quality assurance fee be deposited into the Hospital Quality Assurance Revenue Fund. The bill would, subject to federal approval, provide that the moneys in the Hospital Quality Assurance Revenue Fund shall, upon appropriation by the Legislature, be available only for certain purposes, including paying for health care coverage for children, as specified, and making supplemental payments for certain services to private hospitals, increased capitation payments to Medi-Cal managed care plans, increased payments to mental health plans, and supplemental payments for out-of-network emergency and poststabilization services provided by private hospitals and nondesignated public hospitals to Medi-Cal expansion enrollees in the Low Income Health Program. This bill would also authorize designated and nondesignated public hospitals to be paid direct grants in support of health care expenditures funded by the quality assurance fee. The bill would provide that if quality assurance fee payments are remitted to the department after the date determined by the department to be the final date for calculating the final supplemental payments, the fee payments shall be retained in the fund for purposes of funding supplemental payments supported by a hospital quality assurance fee program under subsequent legislation, but provides that if supplemental payments are not implemented under subsequent legislation, then those quality assurance fee payments shall be deposited into the Distressed Hospital Fund. The bill would also provide that if amounts of the quality assurance fees are collected in excess of the funds required to make the payments above and federal rules prohibit the department from refunding the fee payments to the general acute care hospitals, the excess funds shall be deposited into the Distressed Hospital Fund. By increasing the amount of money that may be deposited into the Distressed Hospital Fund, this bill would make an appropriation. This bill would also create the Low Income Health Program MCE Out-of-Network Emergency Care Services Fund, which would consist of moneys transferred from governmental entities on a voluntary basis and from the Hospital Quality Assurance Revenue Fund in specified amounts. This bill would provide that the moneys in the fund be used by the department, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to fund the nonfederal share of supplemental payments made to private hospitals and nondesignated public hospitals providing emergency and poststabilization services to Medi-Cal expansion enrollees in the Low Income Health Program. Existing law requires the department to seek a demonstration project or federal waiver of Medicaid law to implement specified objectives, which may include better care coordination for seniors, persons with disabilities, and children with special health care needs. Existing law provides that to the extent the provisions under the Medi-Cal Hospital/Uninsured Care Demonstration Project Act do not conflict with the provisions of, or the Special Terms and Conditions of, this demonstration project, the provisions of the Medi-Cal Hospital/Uninsured Care Demonstration Project Act shall apply. Under existing law, the department is required to reduce disproportionate share hospital replacement payments to private hospitals by 10% for the 2009–10 fiscal year, as specified. Existing law also provides that, in addition to the 10% reduction, disproportionate share hospital replacement payments to private hospitals shall be reduced in the 2010–11 fiscal year by an additional $30 million in General Fund moneys and by the corresponding federal financial participation, and in the 2011–12 fiscal year by an additional $75 million in General Fund moneys and by the corresponding federal financial participation. Existing law provides that the additional room under the federal upper payment limit created by these reductions shall be used for specified purposes. This bill would, in relation to the 2010–11 and 2011–12 fiscal year reductions, delete the requirement that the reductions be in addition to the 10% reduction for the 2009–10 fiscal year. This bill would also require the department to reduce disproportionate share hospital replacement payments to private hospital payments by specified amounts in the 2012–13 and 2013–14 fiscal years. Existing law establishes the continuously appropriated Private Hospital Supplemental Fund, which consists of moneys from various sources that are used as the source of the nonfederal share of supplemental payments to private hospitals. This bill would require that the money annually transferred to this fund from the General Fund be reduced by specified amounts for the 2012–13 and 2013–14 fiscal years, and that the reductions in the payments to private hospitals that result from the reductions in the amounts transferred from the General Fund be allocated equally as specified. This bill would appropriate specified amounts from the Hospital Quality Assurance Revenue Fund, the Federal Trust Fund, and the Low Income Health Program MCE Out-of-Network Emergency Care Services Fund to the department to be available for expenditure until January 1, 2015, for specified purposes. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
This measure would provide that the 2011–12 First Extraordinary Session of the Legislature shall stand adjourned sine die upon adoption of this measure by both houses of the Legislature.
This measure would commend and encourage the California Winter Games Committee to further pursue the opportunity to host the Winter Olympic Games in the Lake Tahoe region. The measure would also recognize June 23, 2011, as International Olympic Day.