Public Safety
AB 656 – Office of Healthy and Safe Communities: This bill establishes an Office of Healthy and Safe Communities (OHSC) to consolidate and coordinate programming to end cycles of violence and invest in prevention, healing, and community-driven solutions. Inspired by Governor Newsom’s Executive Order N-02-19 which appoints a Surgeon General to advise the Governor on policy to address the root causes of health inequities, the OHSC will be overseen by the Surgeon General as the proposed office aligns with the purpose of this new role and position.
AB 1029 – The Phoenix Act: This bill would waive the statute of limitations for domestic violence crimes committed on or after January 1, 2020 if certain requirements are met. This bill would also increase the training requirements for law enforcement to promote victim safety and prevention.
Water, Parks and Wildlife
AB 217 – Safe Drinking Water for All Act: This bill provides a means to support safe and affordable drinking water to all Californians. The bill respects regional differences by returning a portion of the funding to help address local water quality issues in California. In order to ensure that funding remains available for safe drinking water in the future, this bill also establishes a trust fund with strong accountability measures.
AB 1657 – Office of the Salton Sea and Salton Sea Oversight Committee: This bill would establish the Office of the Salton Sea within the Natural Resources Agency; equipped with the staffing necessary to ensure oversight and the timely execution of the ten-year plan. The creation of a dedicated office with staffing will not only help the state keep on target with established mitigation benchmarks but also allow to the state to proactively engage on next steps.
Community Environment
AB 56 – California Clean Energy Authority: This bill would establish the California Clean Energy Authority (Authority) as a new, public non-profit benefit corporation with an appointed board. The Authority would function as a non-profit utility regulated by the state. The Authority would be created with a one-time loan from the General Fund, and would receive cost recovery through a nonbypassable rate paid by customers who benefit from the purchases made by the Authority.
AB 293 – Direct Environmental Benefit Offset Protocols: This bill would direct the California Air Resources Board to work with the Compliance Offset Protocol Task Force (Task Force) to consider the development of new offset protocol for the enhanced management or conservation of agricultural and natural lands as well as a protocol for the enhancement and restoration of wetlands. The measure would further ask the Task Force to consider methodologies that would allow small land owners to work together on projects.
AB 335 – State Authorization to include Non-Transportation Activities for the Imperial County Transportation Commission: This bill expands the potential duties of the Imperial County Transportation Commission, a state created entity, to include non-transportation or “council of government like” activities approved by local members that would serve the needs of Imperial County.
AB 352 – Climate Investment Equity: This bill seeks to improve access to programs funded by the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund by expanding the list of co-benefits, aligning application scoring with the implementation of AB 617 (Chaptered 2017), and reporting on applications received so the Legislature can better understand where outstanding funding needs persist. It also asks administering agencies to ensure there is at least a three month gap between a competitive call for proposals and due dates for those proposals, and to reevaluate their scoring criteria to ensure jurisdictions are able to compete regardless of their baseline residential size or density.
AB 386 - Agricultural Working Poor Energy Efficient Housing Program: This bill establishes the Agricultural Working Poor Energy Efficient Housing Program (Program) within the Department of Community Services and Development. It will specifically require that the Program and funds be used to improve energy efficiency in farmworker housing in the following ways: weatherization of residences, replacement of energy inefficient appliances, replacement of lighting, installation of photovoltaic solar panels and solar water heating systems and Installation of battery backups. The measure also requires that the Program is developed to be compatible with the state’s current energy goals and to avoid duplicating any current energy efficiency programs.
AB 753 – Low Carbon Fuels: This bill would require the California Energy Commission to set aside at least 30% of AB 118 funds and the California Air Resources Board to set aside at least 30% of the Low Carbon Transportation Fund. This new pot of money shall be used for the production of innovative and emerging fuels, or for fuel infrastructure with a 25% set aside for innovative and emerging fuels. The measure would further direct the agencies to prioritize funding to projects that align with other state goals such as methane mitigation or local workforce benefits.
Businesses & Labor
AB 17 – Vote by Mail (Salas/E. Garcia) : This bill would prohibit an employer from requiring or requesting that an employee bring his or her vote by mail ballot to work or vote his or her vote by mail ballot at work.AB 377 – Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operations: This bill is a technical cleanup offering non-substantive changes to AB 626, Homemade Food Operations Act (Chaptered 2018) in order to clarify the jurisdiction opt-in process as well as how inspections shall be conducted.
AB 1248 – Targeted Revitalization Incentive Program: This bill will provide local governments a tool to incentivize the redevelopment and rehabilitation of abandoned or distressed facilities in their communities by attracting investment from small and mid-size manufacturers. This bill would also allow a city or county to offer a partial property tax rebate for qualified manufacturing facilities located in their jurisdiction that invest in excess of $5 million or more in exchange for the manufacturer entering into an agreement requiring that the manufacturer spend a portion of the rebated money to fund local community programs and projects.
AB 1430 – Cost Effectiveness for Public Programs: This bill would require the California Public Utilities Commission, the California Air Resources Board, the California Transportation Commission, and the Labor and Workforce Development Agency to provide a joint assessment of options for redefining “cost-effective” for the purpose of prioritizing public investment opportunities by January 1, 2021. The assessment must consider energy or transportation cost impacts, important co-benefits such as improved environmental quality or job opportunities, and other state programs or priorities.
Veterans
AB 55 – County Veterans Funding: This bill will provide the resources necessary to help California’s County Veteran Service Officers (CVSOs) connect California’s veterans with the benefits they have earned through their service with a continuous appropriation in the sum of $11 million annually. Increasing CVSO funding in this manner will not only improve and expand access to needed services and support for our veterans, it will generate a very positive return on investment that will ultimately benefit all Californians.
Health & Human Services
AB 743 – Student Asthma Medication Access Act: This bill will make it easier for students to access asthma medication during the school day. Existing law authorizes a pupil to carry and self-administer prescription inhaled asthma medication, if the school district receives a written statement from a physician or surgeon detailing the name of the medication, method, amount, and time schedules by which the medication is to be taken, and confirming that the pupil is able to self-administer it. AB 743 would additionally allow school districts to accept written statements provided by a physician or surgeon who is contracted through binational health plans.
AB 770 – Federally Qualified Health Clinics: Rural Health Clinics: This legislation will codify the intent of the federal law that the PPS rate be based on "reasonable costs" of Federal Qualified Health Clinics and Rural Health Clinics. Require the methodology of the adjusted per-visit rate to exclude, among other things, a per-visit payment limitation, and provider productivity standard.
AB 1095 – Desert Healthcare District: This bill would provide a technical cleanup to AB 2414 (Chaptered 2016), that allowed expansion of the existing Desert Healthcare District to include the Eastern Coachella Valley region, as well as required the addition of two board members residing in the newly annexed territory. The measure would rectify the phrasing of the existing provision that prohibits the initial appointees to the newly added board positions for seeking election subsequent to the term of their appointment.
AB 1643 - Services Provided By Regional Centers: This bill would increase transparency by requiring Regional Centers to publicly post, on its website, Department of Developmental Services-approved purchase of service policies and, as required by the legislature last year, internal guidelines, protocols and assessment tools for respite.
SB 12 – Youth Mental Health Drop-In Centers (Beal/Portantino/E. Garcia) This bill will encourage the development of a network of Youth-led drop-in mental health centers by requiring the California Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission to administer the Integrated Youth Mental Health Program. This bill requires that they additionally establish core components of the program and selection criteria for funding awardees.
Education
AB 8 – Mental Health Services in K-12 Schools (Chu/E. Garcia) This bill requires, by December 31, 2022, a school to have one mental health professional for every 400 students accessible to students on campus during school hours. For schools with fewer than 400 students, the bill requires at least one mental health professional for one or more schools. The bill makes specifications about the types of supervision and credentials the mental health professionals must possess. The bill also encourages a school that is eligible to receive Medi-Cal benefits to seek reimbursement through the Local Education Agency (LEA) Medi-Cal Billing option or the School-Based Medi-Cal Administrative Activities program.
AB 236: Special Education Programs: Family Empowerment Centers on Disability: This bill would support the critical work of California’s network of Family Empowerment Centers and ensure that children with disabilities have the tools they need to thrive.
AB 1119 - Substitute Teachers: Small School Districts: This bill would require the Commission on Teacher Credentialing in partnership with the State Department of Education to establish a Teacher and Substitute Shortage Workgroup that can identify steps to be taken to improve both the substitute pool and the qualified teacher workforce in small school districts.
AB 123 - Pre K for All (McCarty/E. Garcia): This bill establishes the Pre-K for All Act; expands the eligibility for California State Preschool Programs (CSPP); increases the reimbursement rate for the CSPP and requires a portion of the increase to be used to increase teacher pay; requires CSPP lead teachers to hold a bachelor’s degree by a specified date; and establishes a program to provide financial support to childcare workers pursuing a bachelor’s degree.
AB 124 - Childcare: Local Planning Councils (McCarty/E. Garcia): This bill requires local planning councils to provide information to cities and counties regarding facility needs for early childhood education, including but not limited to, childcare and preschool, in their jurisdictions.
AB 125 - Early Childhood Education: Reimbursement Rates (McCarty/E. Garcia): This bill revises the state’s system and rates for reimbursing subsidized child care and development programs to create a more uniform reimbursement system reflecting regional costs of care, and establishes the “Quality Counts California Pilot Reimbursement Program” as a pilot program to provide higher reimbursement rates to alternative payment program providers (APP) for meeting certain quality standards.
Housing & Transportation
AB 1010 – Native American Housing Eligibility: This bill would allow duly constituted governing bodies of a Native American reservation or Rancheria to become eligible applicants to participate in affordable housing programs.
AB 1056 – Residential Districts: This bill would authorize a demonstration project within 35 air miles of the United States/Mexico Border to define a “residence district” as a section of highway with 13 or more separate dwelling houses or business structures upon both sides of the highway.
Agriculture
AB 1156 – Methane: Dairy and Livestock: Pilot Financial Mechanism: This bill would move the responsibility of developing a pilot financial mechanism to help facilitate methane mitigation activities, as directed in SB 1383(Chaptered 2016), from the California Air Resources Board to the Treasurer as well as codify the structure of that mechanism in law.
AB 448 - Water rights: Stockponds: This bill will allow owners of stockponds with a capacity of no more than 10 acre-feet to pay a one-time fee to obtain a streamlined valid water right in the form of a certificate. The certainty associated with the fee will encourage compliance, improving the efficient administration of the water rights program. Additionally, AB 448 presumes that these small stockponds divert their full capacity, eliminating a regulatory burden for water rights holders and a workload burden for the California State Water Resources Control Board staff.
