Sen. Dave Cox

The California Constitution prohibits a bill from being passed by the Legislature until the bill with amendments has been printed and distributed to the Members. This measure would prohibit passage of a bill by a house of the Legislature unless, at least 48 hours in advance, the bill is made available to the public on the Internet, except that the house may dispense with this requirement by rollcall vote, 34 of the membership concurring.

This measure would urge Congress and the President to restore funding for the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program.

The Administrative Procedure Act generally sets forth the requirements for the adoption, publication, review, and implementation of regulations by state agencies. Existing law establishes the Bureau of State Audits, which is headed by the State Auditor and has specified statutory duties, including the performance of statutorily mandated audits. This bill would require the Bureau of State Audits to review, report, and make recommendations on each regulation, before May 1 of the 5th year after the regulation was amended or adopted, that the State Energy Resources and Development Commission, the Public Utilities Commission, the California Consumer Power and Conservation Financing Authority, or any other state agency that has duties relating to state energy regulations or the implementation of those regulations adopts or amends on or after January 1, 2011. The bill would require the review, report, and recommendations to include specified factors, including a summary of the written criticisms received by the agency that adopted or amended the regulation within the preceding 5 years and the estimated economic, small business, and consumer impact of the regulation, as specified. The bill would require the bureau to make the report available on its Internet Web site. The bill would authorize the adopting agency to take specified actions in response to the bureau's report, and would provide that a regulation ceases to be operative, as specified, if the agency takes no action. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

This measure would request that the President and the Congress of the United States pass the H.R. 2474 that would restore funding for California veterans pursuing higher education.

Existing law prohibits the reorganization of a school district or districts from affecting the classification of certificated employees already employed by a school district affected by the reorganization and from affecting the rights of persons employed in positions not requiring certification qualifications to retain the salary, leaves, and other benefits that they would have had if the reorganization had not occurred. Existing law requires that persons employed in positions not requiring certification qualifications in a school district whose territory is included in a unification of districts to continue as employees of the unified school district for not less than 2 years and prohibits those persons from being deprived, by reason of the unification, of any benefit that they would have had if the unification had not taken place. This bill would repeal these provisions.

Existing law prohibits the use of any vacuum or suction dredge equipment by any person in any river, stream, or lake of this state without a permit issued by the Department of Fish and Game. Existing law designates the issuance of permits to operate vacuum or suction dredge equipment to be a project under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) , and suspends the issuance of permits, and mining pursuant to a permit, until the department has completed an environmental impact report for the project as ordered by the court in a specified court action. Existing law prohibits the use of any vacuum or suction dredge equipment in any river, stream, or lake, for instream mining purposes, until the Director of Fish and Game certifies to the Secretary of State that (1) the department has completed the environmental review of its existing vacuum or suction dredge equipment regulations as ordered by the court, (2) the department has transmitted for filing with the Secretary of State a certified copy of new regulations, as necessary, and (3) the new regulations are operative. This bill would require the department, upon request, to refund the amount of the permit fee paid in 2009 by a person issued a vacuum or suction dredge equipment permit and subject to the latter prohibition. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Existing law, the Medical Practice Act, restricts the employment of licensed physicians and surgeons and podiatrists by a corporation or other artificial legal entity, subject to specified exemptions. Existing law establishes, until January 1, 2011, a pilot project to allow qualified district hospitals to employ a physician and surgeon if certain conditions are satisfied. The pilot project authorizes the direct employment of a total of 20 physicians and surgeons by those hospitals, and specifies that each qualified district hospital may employ up to 2 physicians and surgeons, subject to certain requirements. The pilot project requires that the term of a contract with a licensee not exceed 4 years. Existing law requires the Medical Board of California to report to the Legislature not later than October 1, 2008, on the effectiveness of the pilot project. This bill would revise the pilot project to authorize the direct employment by qualified health care districts and qualified rural hospitals, as defined, of an unlimited number of physicians and surgeons under the pilot project, and would authorize such a district or hospital to employ up to 5 physicians and surgeons at a time if certain requirements are met. The bill would require that the term of a contract with a physician and surgeon not exceed 10 years and would extend the pilot project until January 1, 2018. The bill would require the board to provide a preliminary report to the Legislature not later than July 1, 2013, and a final report not later than July 1, 2016, evaluating the effectiveness of the pilot project, and would make conforming changes.

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 health care service plan contracts and health insurance policies to provide coverage for all generally medically accepted cancer screening tests and requires those plans and policies to also provide coverage for the treatment of breast cancer. Existing law imposes various requirements on contracts and policies that cover prescription drug benefits. This bill, until January 1, 2015, would require health care service plan contracts and health insurance policies that provide coverage for cancer chemotherapy treatment to provide coverage for a prescribed, orally administered, nongeneric cancer medication, as specified. The bill would require a health care service plan or health insurer to review the percentage cost share, as defined, for oral nongeneric cancer medications and intravenous or injected nongeneric cancer medications and to apply the lower of the 2 as the cost-sharing provision for oral nongeneric cancer medications. The bill would limit increases in cost sharing for nongeneric cancer medications, as specified. The bill would specify that its provisions do not apply to health care service plan contracts or health insurance policies that do not provide coverage for prescription drugs. The bill would specify that its provisions do not apply to a health care benefit plan, contract, or health insurance policy with the Board of Administration of the Public Employees' Retirement System. 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. 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.

(1) Existing law defines a necessary small school as an elementary school with an average daily attendance of less than 101, exclusive of pupils attending grades 7 and 8 of a junior high school, maintained by a school district that maintains 2 or more schools, that meets other criteria involving combinations of distance and average daily attendance. Existing law requires the county superintendent of schools to make computations for each elementary and secondary school district that has fewer than 2,501 units of second principal apportionment average daily attendance and maintains at least one school that meets the criteria for a necessary small school. This bill would deem Gasquet Mountain Elementary School and Margaret Keating Elementary School to be necessary small schools and make the Del Norte County Unified School District eligible to receive apportionments for each school pursuant to its status as a necessary small school. The bill also would deem Rail Road Flat Elementary School to be a necessary small school and make the Calaveras Unified School District eligible to receive apportionments for this school pursuant to its status as a necessary small school. This bill would provide that if the average daily attendance of any of these schools exceeds 100, then the school would no longer be eligible to receive apportionments as a necessary small school. (2) This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the Del Norte County Unified School District and the Calaveras Unified School District. (3) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services. This bill would prohibit the expansion, as defined, of the Medi-Cal program pursuant to any provision of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or any amendment thereto, requiring expansion of the program unless the federal government fully funds the expansion.