The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency charged with monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases. The act authorizes the state board to include the use of market-based compliance mechanisms. Existing law requires all moneys, except for fines and penalties, collected by the state board as a part of the market-based compliance mechanism to be deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. Existing law requires the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, upon appropriation, to administer a grant program to provide financial assistance to promote the in-state development of infrastructure, food waste prevention, or other projects to reduce organic waste, sort and aggregate or process organic and other recyclable materials into new, value-added products, or divert items from disposal through enhanced reuse opportunities. Existing law requires the grant program to provide eligible financial assistance for certain activities, including activities that expand and improve organic waste diversion and recycling, including, but not limited to, the recovery of food for human consumption and food waste prevention. Existing law specifies eligible infrastructure projects for purposes of the program, including, but not limited to, the construction of facilities to help develop, implement, or expand edible food waste recovery operations. This bill would expand the grant program to provide financial assistance for the recovery of edible food, as specified. The bill would specify that eligible infrastructure projects includes the construction or expansion of facilities to help develop, implement, or expand edible food waste recovery operations. The bill would require the department to consider the increased amount of edible food recovery capacity that the project will create when awarding a grant for edible food recovery.
Existing law creates within the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development the Office of Small Business Advocate, which is led by the Small Business Advocate, to advocate the causes of small business and to provide small businesses with the information they need to survive in the marketplace. Existing law requires the advocate to, among other duties, collaborate with the Office of Small Business and Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise Services in their activities under the Small Business Procurement and Contract Act, including promoting small business certification. This bill would also require the advocate to collaborate with local agencies on the development and implementation of local strategies to increase small business participation in local procurement opportunities, as specified. In this connection, the bill would authorize a local agency, as defined, to establish a Small Business Utilization Program (SBUP) to increase small businesses' participation in local agency procurement opportunities. The bill would require an SBUP, to facilitate the participation of small businesses in the provision of goods, information technology, and services to the local agency, to establish a small business certification process. As part of this process, the bill would require the SBUP, to the extent feasible, to include all of specified criteria, including, among other things, a minimum goal of 25% procurement participation for small businesses certification. The bill would authorize a local agency to submit information on its small business procurement participation to the Office of Small Business Advocate, including progress toward meeting utilization goals. The bill would require the Office of Small Business Advocate, subject to funding being available, and upon appropriation by the Legislature for these purposes, to issue its first data call to local agencies on or before November 15, 2026, as specified. The bill would include related legislative findings.
Existing law establishes the Early Psychosis Intervention Plus (EPI Plus) Program to encompass early psychosis and mood disorder detection and intervention. Existing law establishes the Early Psychosis and Mood Disorder Detection and Intervention Fund and makes the moneys in the fund available, upon appropriation, to the Behavioral Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission. Existing law authorizes the commission to allocate moneys from that fund to provide grants to create or expand existing capacity for early psychosis and mood disorder detection and intervention services and supports. This bill would require the Behavioral Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission to consult with the State Department of Health Care Services and related state departments and entities, create a strategic plan to achieve specific goals, including improving the understanding of psychosis, as specified, and, no later than July 1, 2025, submit that strategic plan to the relevant policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature. The bill would require the State Department of Health Care Services to seek to partner with the University of California to develop a plan to establish the Center for Mental Health Wellness and Innovations to, among other things, promote the widespread availability of evidence-based practices to improve behavioral health services. If the center is established, the bill would require the State Department of Health Care Services, no later than July 1, 2025, to submit the plan to create the center to the relevant policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature.
Existing law, the Planning and Zoning Law, requires a city or county to adopt a general plan for land use development within its boundaries that includes, among other things, a housing element. Existing law requires the planning agency of a city or county to provide by April 1 of each year an annual report to, among other entities, the Department of Housing and Community Development. Existing law requires that the annual report include, among other specified information, the progress in complying with specified laws. Existing law requires a city or county to provide an option for an applicant to apply for and retrieve a postentitlement phase permit on the city's or county's internet website. Existing law, the Permit Streamlining Act, requires a city, county, or special district to maintain on its internet website, as applicable, a current schedule of fees, exactions, and affordability requirements imposed by the city, county, or special district, including any dependent special district, applicable to a proposed housing development project, all zoning ordinances and development standards, and annual fee reports or annual financial reports, as specified. Existing law requires a city, county, or special district to provide on its internet website an archive of impact fee nexus studies, cost of service studies, or equivalent, as specified. This bill would require the planning agency to include in the annual report evidence of compliance with the above-described internet website requirements. By requiring a planning agency to include additional information in its annual report, 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, 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, including health insurers, by the Department of Insurance. Existing law requires a health care service plan contract and disability insurance policy that provides coverage for hospital, medical, or surgical expenses and is issued, amended, delivered, or renewed on and after July 1, 2000, to provide coverage for the testing and treatment of phenylketonuria, including coverage for the formulas and special food products that are part of a prescribed diet, as specified. This bill would require a health care service plan contract or disability insurance policy that provides coverage for hospital, medical, or surgical expenses and is issued, amended, delivered, or renewed on and after July 1, 2025, to provide coverage for dietary enteral formulas, as defined, for the treatment of regional enteritis, as specified. The bill would specify that these provisions do not apply to Medi-Cal managed care plans to the extent that the services are excluded from coverage under the contract between the Medi-Cal managed care plan and the State Department of Health Care Services. Because a violation of the bill's requirements 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 requires any person that sells firefighter personal protective equipment to provide written notice to the purchaser if the equipment contains intentionally added perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) . Existing law requires the seller to retain a copy of the written notice and provide the notice to specified law enforcement entities, including the Attorney General, upon request. Existing law makes a violation of those provisions subject to a penalty of up to $5,000 for a first violation and up to $10,000 for a subsequent violation. This bill, commencing July 1, 2026, would prohibit a person from manufacturing, knowingly selling, offering for sale, distributing for sale, distributing for use, or purchasing or accepting for future use in this state firefighter personal protective equipment containing intentionally added PFAS chemicals. The bill would make a violation of this provision subject to the civil penalty provisions described above. The bill would specify that an individual firefighter shall not be personally liable for payment of the civil penalty. Existing law requires the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board, in consultation with the Department of Industrial Relations, every 5 years, as specified, to review all revisions to National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standards pertaining to personal protective equipment covered by specified safety orders. If the review finds the revisions provide a greater degree of personal protection than the safety orders, existing law requires the board to consider modifying existing safety orders and to render a decision regarding changing safety orders or other standards and regulations to maintain alignment of the safety orders with the NFPA standards no later than July 1 of the subsequent year. This bill would require the board, in consultation with the department, within one year of the NFPA updating a specified standard on protective ensemble for structural firefighting and proximity firefighting to include PFAS-free turnout gear, to update the applicable safety orders, or other standards or regulations, to maintain alignment with the NFPA standard. The bill would state related findings and declarations of the Legislature.
(1) Existing law, the Early Education Act, among other things, requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to administer all California state preschool programs, including, but not limited to, part-day and full-day age and developmentally appropriate programs for 3- and 4-year-old children. Existing law, the Child Care and Development Services Act, administered by the State Department of Social Services, establishes a system of child care and development services for children up to 13 years of age. Existing law requires the department, in collaboration with the State Department of Education, to implement a reimbursement system plan that establishes reasonable standards and assigned reimbursement rates, as specified. Existing law requires the state and Child Care Providers United - California to establish a Joint Labor Management Committee to develop recommendations for a single reimbursement rate structure that has specified characteristics, and requires the Joint Labor Management Committee to present those recommendations to the Department of Finance no later than November 15, 2022. Existing law also requires the department, in consultation with the State Department of Education, to convene a working group to assess the existing quality standards for childcare and development and preschool programs and the methodology for establishing reimbursement rates for those programs, and requires the working group to provide recommendations relating to specified topics to a specified Joint Labor Management Committee, the Department of Finance, and the Joint Legislative Budget Committee no later than August 15, 2022. This bill would require the State Department of Social Services, in collaboration with the State Department of Education, to develop an alternative methodology for calculating subsidy payment rates for child care and development services and California state preschool program services that build upon and align with the recommendations of the working group and Joint Labor Management Committee, and that uses a cost estimation model, as specified. The bill would require the department to develop an interim transition plan, if necessary, to implement the alternative methodology, as specified, and to seek preapproval from the United States Department of Health and Human Services to amend the state's current Child Care and Development Fund State Plan to change its current methodology for determining childcare and development and preschool subsidy payment rates to the alternative methodology. The bill would require the State Department of Social Services and the State Department of Education to implement the alternative methodology upon notice, in writing, to the Legislature that the alternative methodology has been adopted, as specified. (2) Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services, in consultation with the State Department of Education, to establish a fee schedule for families using preschool and child care and development services and requires families who utilize those services to be assessed a family fee that is based on income, certified family need for full-time or part-time care services, and enrollment. Existing law prohibits those family fees from exceeding 10% of the family's monthly income and prohibits family fees from being collected for the 2022–23 fiscal year. The bill would require the State Department of Social Services, in consultation with the State Department of Education, to develop an equitable sliding scale for the payment of family fees, and would suspend the collection of family fees until the new equitable sliding scale is implemented. (3) The Early Education Act requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to adopt rules, regulations, and guidelines to facilitate the funding and reimbursement required by the act. Existing law requires, for the 2022–23 fiscal year only, contracting agencies operating a California state preschool to be reimbursed 100% of the contract maximum reimbursable amount or net reimbursable program costs, whichever is less, if they meet specified criteria. This bill would delete the requirement that the above-described reimbursement rate apply only during the 2022–23 fiscal year, thereby extending that reimbursement rate for contracting agencies operating a California state preschool indefinitely. The bill would also delete the requirement of meeting specified criteria in order to obtain that reimbursement rate. Existing law requires reimbursement for full-day and part-day California state preschool family childcare home education network providers for the 2022–23 fiscal year to be based on the maximum certified hours of care for all families, including families certified for a variable schedule, regardless of attendance. This bill would delete the requirement that the above-described reimbursement provision apply during the 2022–23 fiscal year, thereby extending that reimbursement provision for full-day and part-day California state preschool family childcare home education network providers indefinitely. (4) Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services to contract with local contracting agencies for alternative payment programs for childcare services to be provided throughout the state. Existing law requires the alternative payment program to reimburse childcare providers based upon specified criteria, including the actual days and hours of attendance for those families with variable schedules. Existing law also requires the department to administer general childcare and development programs, as specified. This bill would instead require the alternative payment program to reimburse childcare providers based on the maximum certified hours of care, as specified. The bill would require contracting agencies operating those general childcare and development programs to be reimbursed the lesser of 100% of the contract maximum reimbursable amount or net reimbursable program costs.
This Senate Resolution officially designates October 3, 2024, as Latina Equal Pay Day in California to highlight the persistent wage gap affecting Latinas. The measure acknowledges that Latinas in the state earn significantly less than their White male counterparts, a disparity that impacts their economic security and retirement savings. By recognizing this date, the resolution aims to raise awareness about the need for policies that ensure equal pay for all workers regardless of gender or ethnicity.
This Senate Resolution recognizes Dr. Claudia Sheinbaum as the first female president of Mexico, highlighting her historic election and background in science and public service. The measure celebrates her achievements, including her work on climate change and transportation, and notes her status as the first female president elected in North America. It expresses the California Senate's support for her leadership and looks forward to strengthening ties between California and Mexico. The resolution is a formal acknowledgment rather than a law that changes policy or imposes new requirements.
Existing law requires the adopted course of study for grades 1 to 6, inclusive, and the adopted course of study for grades 7 to 12, inclusive, to include certain areas of study, including, among others, social sciences. Existing law requires instruction in social sciences to provide a foundation for understanding, among other things, the history, resources, development, and government of California and the United States of America. This bill, with respect to both of the above-referenced adopted courses of study, would explicitly require instruction in social sciences to also include civic engagement experiences with governmental institutions and instruction in principles of democracy and the State and Federal Constitutions. To the extent that this bill would create new duties for local educational agencies or local officials, it would constitute 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, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
Senate Resolution 122 officially designates September 2024 as Childhood Cancer Awareness Month in California. This measure encourages individuals, businesses, and organizations across the state to participate in awareness activities and support families affected by the disease. The resolution also expresses gratitude to medical professionals and acknowledges the progress made by organizations fighting childhood cancer.
Senate Resolution 114 is a non-binding tribute from the California State Senate honoring President Joseph Biden for his extensive public service career. The resolution details his background, legislative achievements, and leadership roles as a senator, vice president, and president, specifically highlighting his work on infrastructure, climate action, and pandemic response. It concludes by formally thanking the President for stepping down to allow new leaders to take office and directs the Senate Secretary to distribute copies of the resolution.
