Existing law authorizes the Fish and Game Commission to adopt regulations that it deems necessary for the disposition of birds or mammals that are killed accidentally. Existing law also authorizes the commission, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to establish, in consultation with specified public agencies and stakeholders, a pilot program no later than January 1, 2022, for the issuance of wildlife salvage permits that authorize a person to recover, possess, use, or transport certain mammals that have been accidentally killed as a result of a vehicle collision for purposes of salvaging wild game meat for human consumption. Existing law requires the Department of Fish and Wildlife, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to implement the pilot program no later than 6 months after the commission establishes the pilot program. Existing law repeals the pilot program provisions on January 1, 2029. This bill would eliminate the January 1, 2022, deadline for the commission to establish this previously authorized pilot program. Existing law authorizes, upon appropriation by the Legislature, the department to develop a separate pilot program to collect and compile information and data on wildlife-vehicle collisions to support certain wildlife conservation efforts. This bill would require the department to conclude the pilot program 5 years after the date of commencement.
(1) Existing law establishes various programs to provide assistance to homeless youth, including, among others, homeless youth emergency service pilot projects and the Runaway Youth and Families in Crisis Project. This bill, subject to an appropriation by the Legislature for this purpose, would require the State Department of Social Services to establish the California Success, Opportunity, and Academic Resilience (SOAR) Guaranteed Income Program. The program would award public school pupils who are in grade 12 and are homeless children or youths, as defined, a guaranteed income of $1,000 each month for 4 months from May 1, 2025, to August 1, 2025, inclusive, as provided. The bill would establish the California SOAR Guaranteed Income Fund as the initial depository of all moneys appropriated, donated, or otherwise received for the program, and upon appropriation by the Legislature, would provide moneys in the fund to counties that opt in to the program for distribution to eligible participants. (2) Existing federal law, the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, provides grants to states to carry out activities relating to the education of homeless children and youths, as defined, including, among others, providing services and activities to improve the identification of homeless children and youths and to enable them to enroll in and succeed in school. Existing law requires local educational agency liaisons, as defined, to ensure that homeless children and youths are identified by school personnel through outreach and coordination activities, as specified. This bill would require, in counties participating in the California SOAR Guaranteed Income Program, local educational agency liaisons to provide all known eligible participants with program information and enrollment forms, as specified. (3) Existing law, beginning on or after January 1, 2015, in modified conformity with federal income tax law, allows an earned income tax credit, the California Earned Income Tax Credit, against personal income tax. The Personal Income Tax Law also allows, for each taxable year beginning on or after January 1, 2019, a young child tax credit and, for each taxable year beginning on or after January 1, 2022, a foster youth tax credit against the taxes imposed under that law. This bill, for the taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2025, and before January 1, 2030, would exclude from gross income, for purposes of the personal income tax, any amount received as an award pursuant to the California SOAR Guaranteed Income Program. The bill, for the taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2025, and before January 1, 2030, would additionally provide that the amount awarded is not earned income for purposes of eligibility for the California Earned Income Tax Credit, the young child tax credit, or the foster youth tax credit. (4) Existing law establishes various public social services programs to provide eligible recipients with certain benefits, including, but not limited to, cash assistance under the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program, nutrition assistance under the CalFresh program, and health care services under the Medi-Cal program. Under existing law, those programs, among others, are in part federally funded and governed by federal eligibility criteria, including specified income or resource limits. This bill would prohibit any award received by a student through the California SOAR Guaranteed Income Program from being considered income or resources for purposes of determining the student's, or any member of their household's, eligibility for benefits or assistance, or the amount or extent of benefits or assistance, under any state or local means-tested program, including certain public social services programs. The bill would condition implementation of this provision on not conflicting with federal law, or receipt of any necessary federal waivers or exemptions and the availability of any applicable federal financial participation, as specified. This bill would require the State Department of Social Services, in consultation with stakeholders and the Legislature, to identify the CalWORKs, CalFresh, and Medi-Cal programs and any other state program that implements a federal means-tested program and that would require an exemption or waiver. The bill would require a state department or agency that administers a program identified by the State Department of Social Services or by the department or agency itself, to approve an exemption or waiver or to seek one from the federal government. If the state fails to receive the necessary federal exemption or waiver, the bill would authorize the State Department of Social Services to consider alternatives to prevent adverse consequences for California SOAR Guaranteed Income Program participants. (5) This bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2028, except as provided. (6) Existing law requires any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure to contain, among other things, specific goals, purposes, and objectives that the tax expenditure will achieve, detailed performance indicators, and data collection requirements. This bill would include the additional information required for a bill authorizing a new tax expenditure.
Existing law prohibits a court from approving entry of judgment in certain adjudication actions for a basin required to have a groundwater sustainability plan under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, unless the court finds that the judgment would not substantially impair the ability of a groundwater sustainability agency, the State Water Resources Control Board, or the Department of Water Resources to comply with the act and to achieve sustainable groundwater management. This bill would require the parties to an adjudication action to submit a proposed settlement agreement determining rights to water to the board for a nonbinding advisory determination as to whether the proposed settlement agreement will substantially impair the ability of a groundwater sustainability agency, the board, or the department to achieve sustainable groundwater management before filing the proposed settlement agreement with the court. The bill would require the board to provide its nonbinding advisory determination to the parties no later than 120 days after the proposed settlement agreement was submitted, and would require the parties to include the board's nonbinding advisory determination in the court filing, as provided. The bill would require the board to consult with the department before making its nonbinding advisory determination, and would require the nonbinding advisory determination to include findings on the consistency of the proposed settlement agreement with the groundwater sustainability plan and on how the proposed settlement agreement would affect small and disadvantaged groundwater users, as specified.
The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 establishes the State Air Resources Board as the state agency responsible for monitoring and regulating sources emitting greenhouse gases. The act requires the state board to approve a statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit equivalent to the statewide greenhouse gas emissions level in 1990 to be achieved by 2020 and to ensure that statewide greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to at least 40% below the 1990 level by 2030. The act authorizes the state board to adopt a regulation that establishes a system of market-based declining annual aggregate emissions limits for sources or categories of sources that emit greenhouse gases, applicable from January 1, 2012, to December 31, 2030, inclusive, as specified. The act authorizes the state board to include in its regulation of those emissions the use of market-based compliance mechanisms. The act requires the state board to prepare and approve a scoping plan for achieving the maximum technologically feasible and cost-effective reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and to update the scoping plan at least once every 5 years. Existing law requires the state board, as part of its scoping plan, to establish specified carbon dioxide removal targets for 2030 and beyond. The act also declares the policy of the state both to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible, but no later than 2045, and achieve and maintain net negative greenhouse gas emissions thereafter, and to ensure that by 2045, statewide anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to at least 85% below the 1990 levels. This bill would require the state board to develop and adopt regulations, or utilize existing programs and regulations, to ensure the state achieves carbon dioxide removals equivalent to at least 100% of statewide greenhouse gas emissions in calendar year 2045, and all subsequent years, in order to achieve the net zero and net negative greenhouse gas emissions goals. As part of those efforts, the bill would require the state board to establish separate interim targets for greenhouse gas emissions reductions and carbon dioxide removals, to be applicable beginning no later than calendar year 2030, and to report on progress toward achieving those targets. For purposes of those provisions, the bill would require state board to only approve carbon dioxide removal processes that meet certain requirements, as specified. Existing law requires the state board to establish a Carbon Capture, Removal, Utilization, and Storage Program to, among other things, evaluate the efficacy, safety, and viability of carbon capture, utilization, or storage technologies and carbon dioxide removal technologies and facilitate the capture and sequestration of carbon dioxide from those technologies, where appropriate. Existing law requires the state board to adopt regulations to implement that program. In furtherance of the objectives of that program, existing law authorizes the state board, by January 1, 2024, to adopt protocols to support additional methods of utilization or storage of captured carbon dioxide. This bill would require the state board to adopt the regulations to implement the program no later than July 1, 2027. The bill would indefinitely authorize the state board to adopt those protocols, and protocols to support methods of utilization or storage of removed carbon dioxide.
Existing law requires the State Air Resources Board to approve and begin implementing a comprehensive short-lived climate pollutant strategy to achieve a certain reduction in statewide emissions of methane, including a goal of a 75% reduction in the level of the statewide disposal of organic waste from the 2014 level by 2025. Existing law requires the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, in consultation with the state board, to adopt regulations that achieve those targets for reducing organic waste in landfills that may include, among other things, different levels of requirements for local jurisdictions and phased timelines based upon their progress in meeting the organic waste reduction goals, and penalties to be imposed by the department for noncompliance. The department's regulations authorize low-population and elevation waivers for a local jurisdiction, based on, among other things, a consideration of the jurisdiction's census tracts, that exempt the jurisdiction from all or some of the department's organic waste collection requirements. This bill would require the department to revise the regulations to require the department to consider, in addition to census tracts, alternatives to those census tracts, as provided, when deciding the geographic boundaries of a low-population or elevation waiver, as specified. The bill would prohibit the department from considering those alternatives when deciding the boundaries for those waivers until it adopts the revised regulations.
Existing law requires the Public Utilities Commission to adopt a process for each load-serving entities to file an integrated resource plan and a schedule for periodic updates to the plan and to ensure that load-serving entities, among other things, ensure system and local reliability on a near-term, mid-term, and long-term basis and maintain a diverse portfolio of energy resources. This bill would require the commission to ensure that diverse energy storage duration classes are modeled, as specified, and authorize energy storage technology that meets an energy storage class's minimum duration requirements to be modeled within that class to ensure technology neutrality. Under existing law, a violation of any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. Because a violation of a commission action implementing the bill's requirements would be a crime, this 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 generally regulates online platforms, including by requiring, on a semiannual basis and as specified, a social media company to submit to the Attorney General a terms of service report that includes, among other things, the current version of the terms of service of the social media platform. This bill, the California Journalism Preservation Act, would require a covered platform, as defined, to either pay at least $____ annually to compensate digital journalism providers, as defined, for accessing the internet websites of the providers for a California audience, where the money is annually adjusted, as specified, and annually distributed to digital journalism providers, as described, or to participate in a final arbitration process, as specified, and fully pay the arbitration award, as provided. The bill would require, commencing not later than March 1, 2025, a covered platform to compile and post on its internet website a list of digital journalism providers, as described, that the platform accessed for a California audience during the preceding 12 months. The bill would require a covered platform to provide the above-described list to any digital journalism provider upon request, as specified, and to establish a designated email address to which a request may be submitted. This bill would prohibit a covered platform from retaliating against a digital journalism provider for asserting its rights under the act by refusing to access content or changing the ranking, identification, modification, branding, or placement of the content of the digital journalism provider on the covered platform. The bill would require a digital journalism provider to spend at least 70% of funds received pursuant to the act on news journalists and support staff employed by the digital journalism provider. The bill would require an eligible digital journalism provider with 5 or fewer employees, to spend at least 50% of funds received pursuant to these provisions on news journalists and support staff employed by the digital journalism provider. This bill would require, no later than one year after the end of an arbitration proceeding or reaching a settlement in lieu of an arbitration proceeding, or receiving a payment, as specified, and each year thereafter, the digital journalism provider to compile a report containing, among other things, an attestation that the digital journalism provider has complied with the revenue sharing provisions described above. The bill would require a digital journalism provider to publish and distribute that report, as specified. By expanding the scope of the crime of perjury, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would authorize a digital journalism provider to seek and obtain injunctive relief to compel compliance, as specified, and would require court costs and reasonable attorney's fees to be awarded to a prevailing provider. The bill would state that its provisions are severable. 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, 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 provides for the regulation of disability insurers by the Department of Insurance. Existing law establishes the Independent Medical Review System within each department, under which an enrollee or insured may seek review if a health care service has been denied, modified, or delayed by a health care service plan or disability insurer and the enrollee or insured has previously filed a grievance that remains unresolved after 30 days. This bill, commencing January 1, 2026, would require a health care service plan or a disability insurer that upholds its decision to modify, delay, or deny a health care service in response to a grievance or has a grievance that is otherwise pending or unresolved upon expiration of the relevant timeframe to automatically submit within 24 hours a decision regarding a disputed health care service to the Independent Medical Review System, as well as the information that informed its decision, if the decision is to deny, modify, or delay specified services relating to mental health or substance use disorder conditions for an enrollee or insured up to 26 years of age. The bill would require a health care service plan or disability insurer, within 24 hours after submitting its decision to the Independent Medical Review System to provide notice to the appropriate department, the enrollee or insured or their representative, if any, and the enrollee's or insured's provider. The bill would require the notice to include notification to the enrollee or insured that they or their representative may cancel the independent medical review at any time before a determination, as specified. This bill, commencing January 1, 2026, would require a health care service plan or disability insurer that provides coverage for mental health or substance use disorders to treat a modification, delay, or denial issued in response to an authorization request for coverage of treatment for a mental health or substance use disorder for an insured up to 26 years of age as if the modification, delay, or denial is also a grievance submitted by the enrollee or insured. The bill would require a plan or insurer to provide a written acknowledgment of a grievance that is automatically generated and would specify the circumstances under which that grievance is required to be submitted automatically to independent medical review. The bill would apply specified existing provisions relating to mental health and substance use disorders for purposes of its provisions, and would be subject to relevant provisions relating to the Independent Medical Review System that do not otherwise conflict with the express requirements of the bill. With respect to health care service plans, the bill would specify that its provisions do not apply to Medi-Cal managed care plan contracts. The bill would authorize the Director of Managed Health Care and the Insurance Commissioner to promulgate regulations subject to the Administrative Procedure Act to implement and enforce the bill, and to issue interim guidance, as specified. Because a willful violation of this provision by a health care service plan would be a crime, 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 vests the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) with regulatory authority over public utilities, including telephone corporations. The Moore Universal Telephone Service Act establishes the state lifeline telephone service program to provide low-income households with access to affordable basic residential telephone service. Federal law requires a common carrier designated as an eligible telecommunications carrier to be eligible to receive universal service support, which includes support provided by the federal lifeline program, as specified. Federal law provides various pathways for designation as an eligible telecommunications carrier, including, among other pathways, designation by a state commission. This bill would require the PUC, as part of a new or existing proceeding, to establish an expedited process by which a telephone corporation that offers broadband service may become an eligible telecommunications carrier for the purpose of providing stand-alone broadband service as part of the state or federal lifeline program, or both. The bill would require a telephone corporation to be eligible for the expedited process regardless of whether broadband service is provided by the telephone corporation or its affiliate, as defined.
Existing law makes it a crime to willfully threaten to commit a crime that will result in death or great bodily injury to another person, with the specific intent that the statement is to be taken as a threat that, on its face and under the circumstances in which it is made, is so unequivocal, unconditional, immediate, and specific as to convey to the person threatened a gravity of purpose and an immediate prospect of execution of the threat, and thereby reasonably causes the threatened person to be in sustained fear for their own safety or the safety of their immediate family, as defined. Under existing law, this crime is punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for no more than one year for a misdemeanor, or by imprisonment in state prison for a felony. This bill would make a person who willfully threatens to commit a crime which will result in death or great bodily injury to any person who may be on the grounds of a school or place of worship, with specific intent and under certain circumstances, and if the threat causes a person or persons reasonably to be in sustained fear for their own safety or the safety of another person, guilty of a misdemeanor or felony punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for a specified term, except that if the person is under 18 years of age, the bill would make the person guilty of a misdemeanor. By creating a new crime, this 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 requires the Secretary of Government Operations to develop a coordinated plan to, among other things, investigate the feasibility of, and obstacles to, developing standards and technologies for state departments to determine digital content provenance. For the purpose of informing that coordinated plan, existing law requires the secretary to evaluate, among other things, the impact of the proliferation of deepfakes, defined to mean audio or visual content that has been generated or manipulated by artificial intelligence that would falsely appear to be authentic or truthful and that features depictions of people appearing to say or do things they did not say or do without their consent, on state government, California-based businesses, and residents of the state. This bill would require the Government Operations Agency, the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development, the California Privacy Protection Agency, and the Department of Technology to collaborate to establish the California Artificial Intelligence Research Hub (hub) in the Government Operations Agency, as prescribed. The bill would require the hub to serve as a centralized entity to facilitate collaboration between government agencies, academic institutions, and private sector partners to advance artificial intelligence research and development that seeks to harness the technology's full potential for public benefit while safeguarding privacy, advancing security, and addressing risks and potential harms to society, as prescribed.
Existing law creates the Peace Officer Standards Accountability Advisory Board, the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, and the Peace Officer Standards Accountability Division. Existing law requires the board to report annually on the activities of the division, board, and commission relating to peace officer certification, including the number of applications for certification, the events reported, the number of investigations conducted, and the number of certificates surrendered or revoked. This bill would require the board to prepare the report no later than February 1 of each year.
