Sen. Andreas Borgeas

This measure would proclaim the month of July 2021 as California Parks and Recreation Professionals Month to celebrate the accomplishments and resilience of parks and recreation professionals throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

This measure would urge the United States Congress to revise the United States Code to remove the requirement that, to be eligible for GI benefits, a law school be accredited by a specialized accreditor and the overly broad restriction that graduates must be eligible to sit for a bar examination in any state.

Existing law prohibits a state agency from sending any outgoing United States mail to an individual that contains personal information about that individual, including, but not limited to, the individual's social security number, telephone number, driver's license number, or credit card account number, unless that personal information is contained within sealed correspondence and cannot be viewed from the outside of that sealed correspondence. Existing law, commencing on or before January 1, 2023, prohibits a state agency from sending any outgoing United States mail that contains an individual's social security number unless the number is truncated to its last 4 digits or in specified circumstances. This bill would instead require, as soon as feasible, but not later than January 1, 2023, a state agency to stop sending any outgoing United States mail that contains an individual's social security number unless the number is truncated to its last 4 digits or in specified circumstances. The bill, commencing on or before October 1, 2021, would prohibit, with exceptions, the Employment Development Department from sending any outgoing United States mail to an individual containing the individual's social security number, unless that social security number is replaced with a modified unique identifier or the number is truncated to its last 4 digits. Existing law creates, in the Labor and Workforce Development Agency, the Employment Development Department, which is vested with the duties, purposes, responsibilities, and jurisdiction with respect to job creation activities. Existing law requires the Director of Employment Development to periodically review policies and practices used to determine eligibility for and the amount of benefits in the unemployment insurance program to identify those policies and practices doing certain things, including, but not limited to, providing little or no value in identifying or preventing fraud or abuse in the unemployment insurance program. This bill would require the department, on or before January 1, 2022, to identify the fraud prevention efforts it can adjust to improve effectiveness during periods of high demand for benefits. The bill would also require the department, on or before January 1, 2022, using existing resources, to designate a single unit responsible for coordinating fraud prevention and align the unit's duties with best practices for detecting and preventing fraud. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Existing law requires the State Department of Education to incorporate age-appropriate materials relating to, among other things, genocide and the Holocaust into publications that provide examples of curriculum resources for teacher use, consistent with the subject frameworks on history and social science. Under existing law, the Legislature encourages the incorporation of survivor, rescuer, liberator, and witness oral testimony into the teaching of genocide and the Holocaust. This bill would establish a 15-member Governor's Council on Genocide and Holocaust Education to, among other things, establish best practices for, and promote implementation of, education on genocide, including the Holocaust, and submit an annual report to the Legislature, as specified. The bill would provide that the Governor, the Speaker of the Assembly, and the Senate Committee on Rules would each appoint 5 members of the council, who would be required to be individuals with particular interest in, or expertise on, genocide, including the Holocaust. The bill would make an appropriation by authorizing the department to use funds donated by private individuals or entities for the purpose of reimbursing members of the council for their actual and necessary expenses incurred in the performance of their official duties as members of the council. The bill would strongly encourage local educational agencies, as defined to include school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools, with pupils in grades 4 to 12, inclusive, to integrate the best practices into instruction on genocide, including the Holocaust, that meets existing academic content standards and the history-social science curriculum framework for these pupils. The bill would authorize the department to issue grants to local educational agencies for professional development, and would specify that the grant funds would either be appropriated through the annual Budget Act or another statute, or provided through donations to the department from private individuals or entities. To the extent that the bill would authorize the department to make grants with these donated funds, it would make an appropriation. The bill would require the department to conduct a study on the manner in which the instruction is offered to assess the impact of the instruction.

Under existing law, the California FAIR Plan Association is a joint reinsurance association in which all insurers licensed to write basic property insurance participate in administering a program for the equitable apportionment of basic property insurance for persons who are unable to obtain that coverage through normal channels. Existing law defines "basic property insurance" for these purposes, and excludes from that definition insurance on automobile or farm risks. Existing law authorizes the governing committee of the association to establish separate classifications of written premiums for the purpose of equitable distribution of basic property insurance, but prohibits those classifications from including premiums from automobile or farm risks. This bill would instead exclude insurance on automobile risks, commercial agricultural commodities or livestock, or equipment used to cultivate or transport agricultural commodities or livestock from the definition of "basic property insurance," and would require the association, within 90 days of the bill's operative date, to file a new or amended rate application with the Insurance Commissioner consistent with these exclusions. The bill would prohibit the governing committee from including premiums from automobile risks, commercial agricultural commodities or livestock, or equipment used to cultivate or transport agricultural commodities or livestock from the above-described separate classifications. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Existing law designates particular days each year as having special significance and encourages all public schools and educational institutions to observe those days and to conduct suitable commemorative exercises on those days. This bill would designate and set apart September 11 each year as September 11th Remembrance Day, a day having special significance. The bill would encourage, when September 11th Remembrance Day falls on a schoolday, each public elementary and secondary school to observe a moment of silence at an appropriate time while school is in session.

This measure would recognize the month of June 2021 as Alzheimer's and Brain Awareness Month and Sunday, June 20, 2021, as The Longest Day, and would urge all Californians to commemorate the month of June 2021 as Alzheimer's and Brain Awareness Month.