(1) Existing law, the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975, provides for the licensure and regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care and makes a willful violation of the act a crime. Existing law also provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Department of Insurance. Existing law requires that health care service plan contracts and health insurance policies provide coverage for certain services and treatments, including emergency medical transportation services. This bill would require a health care service plan contract or a health insurance policy issued, amended, or renewed on or after January 1, 2020, to provide that if an enrollee, insured, or subscriber (individual) receives covered services from a noncontracting air ambulance provider, the individual shall pay no more than the same cost sharing that the individual would pay for the same covered services received from a contracting air ambulance provider, referred to as the in-network cost-sharing amount. The bill would provide that an individual would not owe the noncontracting provider more than the in-network cost-sharing amount for services. The bill would authorize a noncontracting provider to advance to collections only the in-network cost-sharing amount that the individual has failed to pay. The bill would authorize a health care service plan, health insurer, or provider to seek relief in any court for the purpose of resolving a payment dispute, and would not prohibit a provider from using a health care service plan's or health insurer's existing dispute resolution processes. Because a willful violation of the bill's requirements relative to health care service plans would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) Existing law, the Emergency Medical Air Transportation Act, effective until January 1, 2022, imposes a penalty of $4 until January 1, 2020, upon every conviction for a violation of the Vehicle Code or a local ordinance adopted pursuant to the Vehicle Code, other than a parking offense. The act requires the county or the court that imposed the fine to transfer the moneys collected pursuant to that act to the Treasurer for deposit into the Emergency Medical Air Transportation and Children's Coverage Fund. Under the act, moneys in the fund are made available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the State Department of Health Care Services for children's health care coverage and administrative costs relating to emergency medical air transportation provider payments. Existing law requires the assessed penalty to continue to be collected, administered, and distributed until exhausted or until June 30, 2021, whichever occurs first, and requires any remaining unexpended and unencumbered moneys in the fund to be transferred to the General Fund, to be available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for specified purposes, including funding children's health care coverage. This bill would impose the penalty until July 1, 2020, and would extend the above-specified dates by six months. (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.
Sponsored bills
Existing law creates the California Transportation Commission, with various powers and duties relative to the programming of transportation capital projects and allocation of funds to those projects pursuant to the state transportation improvement program and various other transportation funding programs. Existing law requires the commission and the State Air Resources Board to hold at least 2 joint meetings per calendar year to coordinate their implementation of transportation policies. This bill would instead require the commission, the state board, and a representative from the Department of Housing and Community Development to hold those joint meetings to coordinate their implementation of policies that jointly affect transportation, housing, and air quality.
Existing law establishes the Department of Technology within the Government Operations Agency, which is supervised by the Director of Technology. Existing law authorizes the director and the department to exercise various powers in creating and managing the information technology policy of the state. Existing law includes among the director's duties the duty to perform enterprise information technology functions and services, including, but not limited to, implementing Geographic Information Systems (GIS) , shared services, applications, and program and project management activities in partnership with the owning agency or department. Existing law requires every operator of a subsurface installation, including specified private entities and any state or local public agency except the Department of Transportation, to become a member of, participate in, and share in the costs of, a regional notification center, defined to mean a nonprofit association or other organization of operators of subsurface installations that provides advance warning of excavations or other work close to existing subsurface installations, for the purpose of protecting those installations from damage, removal, relocation, or repair. This bill would authorize the Department of Technology to provide GIS data to a regional notification center, as specified. The bill would require the department to collect payment from a regional notification center to cover its reasonable costs for providing GIS data pursuant to those provisions. The bill would provide that a state agency is not liable to a regional notification center or other third party for providing GIS data pursuant to these provisions. Existing law requires an excavator to notify the appropriate regional notification center of the excavator's intent to excavate at least 2 working days, and not more than 14 calendar days, before conducting the excavation. Existing law requires a city or county to administratively approve applications to install solar energy systems through the issuance of a building permit or similar nondiscretionary permit. This bill would require a city or county to include a reference in an application to install a solar energy system to the requirement to notify the appropriate regional notification center before conducting an excavation, including, but not limited to, installing a grounding rod. The bill would require the Governor's Office of Planning and Research to, no later than January 1, 2021, include a reference in the California Solar Permitting Guidebook of the requirement to notify the appropriate regional notification center of the excavator's intent to excavate. The bill would prohibit a city or county from being liable for any damages associated with the failure of a person required to obtain a solar energy system permit to notify the appropriate regional notification center of an intended excavation. By requiring cities and counties to include specified information in the application documents for a solar energy system, the 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.
Existing law prohibits a person or specified entity from, with actual malice, producing, distributing, publishing, or broadcasting campaign material, as defined, that contains (1) a picture or photograph of a person or persons into which the image of a candidate for public office is superimposed or (2) a picture or photograph of a candidate for public office into which the image of another person or persons is superimposed, unless the campaign material contains a specified disclosure. This bill would, until January 1, 2023, instead prohibit a person, committee, or other entity, within 60 days of an election at which a candidate for elective office will appear on the ballot, from distributing with actual malice materially deceptive audio or visual media of the candidate with the intent to injure the candidate's reputation or to deceive a voter into voting for or against the candidate, unless the media includes a disclosure stating that the media has been manipulated. The bill would restore the existing provisions described above on January 1, 2023. The bill would define "materially deceptive audio or visual media" to mean an image or audio or video recording of a candidate's appearance, speech, or conduct that has been intentionally manipulated in a manner such that the image or audio or video recording would falsely appear to a reasonable person to be authentic and would cause a reasonable person to have a fundamentally different understanding or impression of the expressive content of the image or audio or video recording than that person would have if the person were hearing or seeing the unaltered, original version of the image or audio or video recording. The bill would authorize, until January 1, 2023, a candidate for elective office whose voice or likeness appears in audio or visual media distributed in violation of this section to seek injunctive or other equitable relief prohibiting the distribution of the deceptive audio or visual media. It would also authorize a candidate whose voice or likeness appears in the deceptive audio or visual media to bring an action for general or special damages against the person, committee, or other entity that distributed the media, and would authorize the court to award a prevailing party reasonable attorney's fees and costs. The bill would provide exemptions for all of the following: (1) a radio or television broadcasting station, including a cable or satellite television operator, programmer, or producer, when it is paid to broadcast materially deceptive audio or visual media, (2) materially deceptive audio or visual media that constitutes satire or parody, (3) a radio or television broadcasting station, including a cable or satellite television operator, programmer, or producer, that broadcasts materially deceptive audio or visual media as part of a bona fide newscast, news interview, news documentary, or on-the-spot coverage of bona fide news events, if the broadcast clearly acknowledges through content or a disclosure that there are questions about the authenticity of the materially deceptive audio or visual media, and (4) an internet website, or a regularly published newspaper, magazine, or other periodical of general circulation, including an internet or electronic publication, that routinely carries news and commentary of general interest, and that publishes the materially deceptive audio or visual media, if the publication clearly states that the materially deceptive audio or visual media does not accurately represent the speech or conduct of the candidate.
(1) The Automotive Repair Act provides for the licensure and regulation of automotive repair dealers by the Bureau of Automotive Repair, within the Department of Consumer Affairs. Existing law also requires each manufacturer of a motor vehicle who furnishes notification to the registered owner of the motor vehicle of a defect in that motor vehicle or motor vehicle equipment that relates to motor vehicle safety to correct the defect without charge to the registered owner or to reimburse the registered owner for the cost of making the correction. The Uniform Electronic Transactions Act applies to electronic records and electronic signatures to a transaction, and generally prohibits a record or signature from being denied legal effect or enforceability solely because it is in electronic form. Existing law exempts from that act specific transactions, including transactions involving a motor vehicle manufacturer's responsibility to furnish notification to the registered owner of the motor vehicle of any defect in the motor vehicle or its safety equipment, and the manufacturer's duty to correct that defect without charge to the registered owner or by reimbursing the registered owner for the cost of making corrections, as specified. This bill would permit a new motor vehicle dealer, despite the above provisions governing electronic transactions and notification of motor vehicle defects, to receive electronic authorization from consumers consistent with regulations of the Bureau of Automotive Repair for any repair of a manufacturer recall. (2) Existing law requires a motor vehicle dealer to provide specified conspicuous notice to prospective purchasers and lessees on how to get copies of service bulletins describing any defects in their vehicles in accordance with federal law, from the manufacturer or the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) . Existing law provides that this notice requirement will be deemed to be satisfied if the dealer posts in the showroom or other area a form that includes specified information, including that the bulletins are available for a fee from the manufacturer or the NHTSA Technical Reference Division at a specified address. Existing law also requires this notice to state that certain consumer publications publish these bulletins and some companies will send them to prospective purchasers and lessees for a fee. This bill would delete the above-described language that references obtaining copies of these bulletins from the NHTSA Technical Reference Division at a specified address. The bill would also delete the first reference in the required notice that states that prospective purchasers and lessees may obtain copies of these bulletins "for a fee." The bill would require the notice to state that these bulletins are not recalls. The bill would make related changes to these provisions.
(1) Existing law requires a person, as defined, who owns, leases, controls, operates, or maintains an occupied dwelling or occupied structure in, upon, or adjoining specified types of land areas within a very high fire hazard severity zone to maintain defensible space around the structure, as specified. Existing law also requires the State Fire Marshal, in consultation with the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection and the Director of Housing and Community Development, to recommend updated building standards that provide for comprehensive site and structure fire risk reduction to protect structures from fires spreading from adjacent structures or vegetation and to protect vegetation from fires spreading from adjacent structures, as provided. Existing law requires the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to develop, periodically update, and post on its internet website guidance documents on fuels management, as provided. This bill would require the Office of the State Fire Marshal to develop, in consultation with representatives from local, state, and federal fire services, local government, building officials, utility companies, the building industry, insurers and insurance research organizations, and the environmental community, a model defensible space program to be made available for use by a city, county, or city and county in the enforcement of the defensible space provisions. The bill would set forth required components of the program. The bill would require the model defensible space program to be updated when the guidance documents specified above are substantially updated, as provided. (2) Existing law requires the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection to identify areas in the state, except as specified, as very high fire hazard severity zones based on specified criteria in order to enable public officials to identify measures that will retard the rate of spread and reduce the potential intensity of uncontrolled fires that threaten to destroy resources, life, or property and to require that those measures be taken. Existing law requires the State Fire Marshal to prepare and adopt a model ordinance that provides for the establishment of very high fire hazard severity zones. Existing law also requires the State Fire Marshal to annually review, revise as necessary, and administer the California Fire Service Training and Education Program. Existing law requires a local agency to designate, by ordinance, very high fire hazard severity zones within its jurisdiction. This bill would require the Office of the State Fire Marshal to develop and make available on its internet website a Wildland-Urban Interface Fire Safety Building Standards Compliance training intended for use in the training of local building officials, builders, and fire service personnel. The bill would also require the office to develop and update on a regular basis a Wildland-Urban Interface Products listing of products and construction assemblies that comply with specified fire safety building standards, as provided. (3) Existing law establishes the Building Standards Administration Special Revolving Fund in the State Treasury. Existing law provides that moneys in the fund, which include building permit applicant fees, shall be available, upon appropriation, to the Office of the State Fire Marshal, among other state entities, for expenditure in carrying out various provisions relating to building and housing standards, as provided. This bill would additionally provide that, upon appropriation, moneys in the fund may be available for purposes of carrying out the requirements described in (1) and (2) above, as provided.
Under existing law, the California Emergency Services Act, the Governor is authorized to proclaim a state of emergency, as defined, under specified circumstances. The California Emergency Services Act also authorizes the governing body of a city, county, city and county, or an official designated by ordinance adopted by that governing body, to proclaim a local emergency, as defined. Existing law provides that a person has a privilege to refuse to disclose, and prevent another from disclosing, a confidential communication with specified persons, except in specified circumstances. This bill would enact the California Firefighter Peer Support and Crisis Referral Services Act. The bill would authorize the state or a local or regional public fire agency to establish a Peer Support and Crisis Referral Program to provide an agencywide network of peer representatives available to aid fellow employees on emotional or professional issues. The bill would, for purposes of the act, define a "peer support team" as a team composed of emergency service personnel, as defined, hospital staff, clergy, and educators who have completed a peer support training course, as specified. The bill would provide that an emergency service personnel, whether or not a party to an action, has a right to refuse to disclose, and to prevent another from disclosing, a confidential communication between the emergency service personnel and a peer support team member, crisis hotline staff member, or crisis referral service, except under limited circumstances, including, among others, when disclosure is reasonably believed to be necessary to prevent death, substantial bodily harm, or commission of a crime, or when disclosure is required as part of a mandated reporter obligation. The bill would also provide that, except for an action for medical malpractice, a peer support team member providing peer support services as a member of a peer support team and the public fire agency that employs them are not liable for damages, as specified, relating to an act, error, or omission in performing peer support services, unless the act, error, or omission constitutes gross negligence or intentional misconduct.
Existing law, known as the Student Athlete Bill of Rights, requires intercollegiate athletic programs at 4-year private universities or campuses of the University of California or the California State University that receive, as an average, $10,000,000 or more in annual revenue derived from media rights for intercollegiate athletics to comply with prescribed requirements relating to student athlete rights. This bill would prohibit California postsecondary educational institutions except community colleges, and every athletic association, conference, or other group or organization with authority over intercollegiate athletics, from providing a prospective intercollegiate student athlete with compensation in relation to the athlete's name, image, or likeness, or preventing a student participating in intercollegiate athletics from earning compensation as a result of the use of the student's name, image, or likeness or obtaining professional representation relating to the student's participation in intercollegiate athletics. The bill also would prohibit an athletic association, conference, or other group or organization with authority over intercollegiate athletics from preventing a postsecondary educational institution other than a community college from participating in intercollegiate athletics as a result of the compensation of a student athlete for the use of the student's name, image, or likeness. The bill would require professional representation obtained by student athletes to be from persons licensed by the state. The bill would specify that athlete agents shall comply with federal law in their relationships with student athletes. The bill would prohibit the revocation of a student's scholarship as a result of earning compensation or obtaining legal representation as authorized under these provisions. The bill would prohibit a student athlete from entering into a contract providing compensation to the athlete for use of the athlete's name, image, or likeness if a provision of the contract is in conflict with a provision of the athlete's team contract. The bill would prohibit a team contract from preventing a student athlete from using the athlete's name, image, or likeness for a commercial purpose when the athlete is not engaged in official team activities, as specified. These provisions would become operative on January 1, 2023. This bill would require the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges to convene a community college athlete name, image, and likeness working group composed of individuals appointed on or before July 1, 2020, as specified. The bill would require the working group to review various athletic association bylaws and state and federal laws regarding a college athlete's use of the athlete's name, image, and likeness for compensation and, on or before July 1, 2021, submit to the Legislature and the California Community College Athletic Association a report containing its findings and policy recommendations in connection with this review.
The hazardous waste control laws prohibit the use of a nonbiodegradable toxic chemical in a chemical toilet, recreational vehicle, or waste facility of a vessel and prohibit the sale of a nonbiodegradable toxic chemical in a container that indicates that the chemical could be used in a chemical toilet, a waste facility of a recreational vehicle, or a waste facility of a vessel. Existing law requires the Department of Toxic Substances Control to develop and adopt regulations to define nonbiodegradable toxic chemicals and limitations on the sale of those chemicals. A violation of the hazardous waste control laws is a crime. Under the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act, the State Water Resources Control Board and the California regional water quality control boards are the principal agencies with authority over water quality. Under the act, persons discharging waste are required to file with the appropriate regional board a report of the discharge and the discharge is subject to waste discharge requirements prescribed by that regional board. This bill would prohibit the sale or distribution in commerce of a product that contains any of specified chemicals or chemical compounds in a container that indicates that the product is suitable for use in a holding tank or other portion of a waste facility of a recreational vehicle, and would prohibit the use of a product that contains any of those same chemicals or chemical compounds in a holding tank or other portion of a waste facility of a recreational vehicle or of a campground chemical toilet that discharges to one of specified kinds of waste systems. The bill would require an owner or operator of a recreational vehicle park or campground that utilizes one of those kinds of waste systems to dispose of recreational vehicle wastewater to post a specified notice in a conspicuous location. The bill would provide that enforcement of these requirements is contingent on an appropriation by the Legislature for that purpose. The bill would require an owner or operator to certify compliance with the requirement to post that notice as part of any waste discharge requirement or as a condition of a waiver of a waste discharge requirement. Because a violation of these requirements would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the state board, to the extent that funding is made available, to investigate methods to detect and quantify concentrations of chemical toilet deodorants, including those same chemicals and chemical compounds, in one of those same kinds of waste systems, as provided. The bill would make these provisions operative on January 1, 2022. 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.
This measure would condemn regulations recently adopted by the Department of Homeland Security to prescribe how a determination of inadmissibility for a person who is not a citizen or national is made based on the likelihood that the person will become a public charge. This measure would also urge the federal government to repeal the new regulations.