Existing law, the Cannella Environmental Farming Act of 1995, requires the Department of Food and Agriculture to establish and oversee an environmental farming program to provide incentives to farmers whose practices promote the well-being of ecosystems, air quality, and wildlife and their habitat. The act requires the Secretary of Food and Agriculture to convene the Scientific Advisory Panel on Environmental Farming, as prescribed, for the purpose of providing advice to the secretary on the implementation of the Healthy Soils Program and the State Water Efficiency and Enhancement Program and assistance to federal, state, and local government agencies on issues relating to the impact of agricultural practices on air, water, and wildlife habitat, as specified. This bill would authorize the panel to consult with any relevant advisory bodies established by the department, including, but not limited to, the California Organic Products Advisory Committee. The act requires the department, in consultation with the panel, to establish and oversee a Healthy Soils Program to seek to optimize climate benefits while supporting the economic viability of California agriculture by providing incentives, including loans, grants, research, and technical assistance, and educational materials and outreach to farmers whose management practices contribute to healthy soils and result in net long-term on-farm greenhouse gas benefits. Existing law authorizes the Healthy Soils Program to also include the funding of on-farm demonstration projects that further the goals of the program. This bill would require the department to provide grants of up to 5 years for on-farm demonstration projects, upon appropriation by the Legislature, as provided. The bill would require the department to authorize Healthy Soils Program grant recipients to request advance payments of their remaining awards, as specified, for incentive payments made pursuant to the program. The act establishes the Climate Smart Agriculture Technical Assistance Grant Program to provide funds to technical assistance providers to provide technical assistance, as defined, to applicants of the Healthy Soils Program, the Alternative Manure Management Program, and the State Water Efficiency and Enhancement Program. Existing law requires the secretary to make available not less than 5% of the funds appropriated to the department for those programs, but not more than 20% for providing technical assistance, as specified, and for supporting annual information sharing among technical assistance providers, the department, and other relevant stakeholders, as specified. This bill would expand the definition of "technical assistance" to include, among other things, training, conservation agriculture planning, and grant writing. The bill would delete the provision establishing the Climate Smart Agriculture Technical Assistance Grant Program and would instead require the secretary to make available not less than 5%, but not more than 20%, of the funds appropriated to the department for the above-described programs, for providing technical assistance directly through a technical assistance grant program, or indirectly through a block grant program that includes funding for technical assistance. The bill would require the department to provide funds to technical assistance providers to: (1) support farmers and ranchers in the application process for grants from those programs and the implementation of funded projects; (2) provide general planning and training for climate-smart and sustainable agriculture; and (3) lease, purchase, or repair farming, ranching, and food processing equipment that can be centrally housed with the technical assistance provider and shared regionally with producers. This bill would require the department to authorize a percentage of funding to support training and capacity building within technical assistance provider organizations and coordination between organizations to improve assistance, as provided, and would require the department to support information sharing among technical assistance providers, the department, and other relevant stakeholders, as specified. The bill would require the department to allow equipment sharing, as specified, to be funded as part of the grant awards.
Sponsored bills
(1) Existing law generally regulates classes of insurance, including life insurance and annuities. Existing law, beginning on January 1, 2025, requires a life agent, licensed on or after January 1, 2024, engaging in the sale of specified life insurance policies on or after January 1, 2025, to complete specified hours of life insurance training courses before soliciting consumers to sell these life insurance policies. Existing law requires a life agent, engaging in the sale of variable life insurance policies, to complete specified hours of training before renewing their license and applies these training provisions to licenses that are issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2025. This bill would clarify that the above-described training provisions apply to life agents selling individual life insurance policies and individual variable life insurance policies, as specified. (2) Existing law authorizes service of legal process, notices, or other specified papers to be made in specified circumstances by delivering 2 copies to the commissioner or the commissioner's deputy, accompanied by payment of $12. This bill would instead authorize service of legal process, notices, or other specified papers to be made in specified circumstances by delivering 2 copies to the commissioner, the commissioner's deputy, or the commissioner's designated agent for service of process, accompanied by payment of a substituted service fee determined by the commissioner. (3) Existing law prohibits knowingly employing runners, cappers, steerers, or other persons to procure clients or patients to perform or obtain services or benefits under workers' compensation coverage or a contract of insurance or that will be the basis for a claim against an insured individual or their insurer. Existing law authorizes a district attorney, the Insurance Commissioner, or an interested person to bring a civil action for a violation of that provision. If the district attorney elects not to pursue the matter due to insufficient resources, existing law authorizes the commissioner to proceed with the action. Existing law requires a copy of a complaint filed by an interested person to remain under seal for at least 60 days. Under existing law, an action brought by an interested person may be dismissed only if the court and the district attorney or the commissioner give written consent to the dismissal and their reasons for consenting. This bill would authorize the commissioner to proceed with an action if the district attorney elects not to pursue the matter for any reason, and would eliminate the requirement that the district attorney or commissioner give their reasons for consenting to dismissal of an action brought by an interested person. The bill would clarify that a complaint filed by an interested person is required to remain under seal for at least 60 days from the date of service on the district attorney and commissioner. (4) Existing law exempts from requirements for providing insurance set forth in the Insurance Code firefighters', police officers', and peace officers' benefit and relief associations that comply with specified criteria, including, among other things, a requirement that the membership consist solely of peace officers, members of police or fire departments, and emergency medical personnel employed by fire departments, as specified. Existing law prohibits these associations from operating or doing business in the state without a certificate of authority. Existing law requires an association to renew its certificate of authority on or before July 1, 2019, and every 5 years thereafter. This bill would, instead, require an association to renew its certificate of authority within 30 days after a change in name or address or before a merger. (5) Existing law sets forth procedures for a special motion to strike in a civil cause of action arising from an act in furtherance of a person's right of petition or free speech and for offers to compromise before commencement of a civil trial or arbitration. Existing law exempts from these procedures an enforcement action brought in the name of the people of the State of California by the Attorney General, a district attorney, or a city attorney, acting as a public prosecutor. This bill would additionally exempt from these procedures an enforcement action brought in the name of the people of the State of California by the Insurance Commissioner. (6) This bill would make technical changes to eliminate outdated references and correct errors.
Existing federal law, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988, provides for the negotiation and execution of tribal-state gaming compacts for the purpose of authorizing certain types of gaming on Indian lands within a state. The California Constitution authorizes the Governor to negotiate and conclude those compacts, subject to ratification by the Legislature. Existing law expressly ratifies a number of tribal-state gaming compacts, and amendments to tribal-state gaming compacts, between the State of California and specified Indian tribes. The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of, an environmental impact report on a project, as defined, that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment, as defined, or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. This bill would ratify the tribal-state gaming compacts entered into between the State of California and the Campo Band of Diegueno Mission Indians of the Campo Indian Reservation, California, the La Posta Band of Diegueno Mission Indians of the La Posta Indian Reservation, California, the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe, and the Elem Indian Colony of Pomo Indians of the Sulphur Bank Rancheria, California, and amendments to the tribal-state gaming compacts entered into between the State of California and the Augustine Band of Cahuilla Indians, California, the Picayune Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians of California, and the Cher-Ae Heights Indian Community of the Trinidad Rancheria, California. The bill would provide that, in deference to tribal sovereignty, certain actions related to these compacts are not projects for the purposes of CEQA. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law requires the State Board of Education to adopt at least 5 basic instructional materials in specified subject areas, including, among others, social science, for use in kindergarten and grades 1 to 8, inclusive, as specified. Existing law establishes the Instructional Quality Commission, as specified, and requires the commission to, among other things, develop criteria for evaluating instructional materials. This bill would require the commission, when the state board adopts new instructional materials for history-social science on or after January 1, 2025, to consider providing for inclusion, in its evaluation criteria, content on the case of Mendez v. Westminster School District of Orange County. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 51226.3 of the Education Code proposed by AB 1821 to be operative only if this bill and AB 1821 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.
Existing law prohibits certain distribution of materially deceptive audio or visual media of a candidate within 60 days of an election at which the candidate will appear on the ballot, unless the media includes a disclosure stating that the media has been manipulated, subject to specified exemptions. Existing law authorizes a candidate whose voice or likeness appears in audio or visual media distributed in violation of these provisions to file specified actions, and it requires a court to place such proceedings on the calendar in the order of their date of filing and give the proceedings precedence. This bill would prohibit a person, committee, or other entity from knowingly distributing an advertisement or other election communication, as defined, that contains certain materially deceptive content, as defined, with malice, as defined, subject to specified exemptions. The bill would apply this prohibition within 120 days of an election in California and, in specified cases, 60 days after an election. The bill would authorize a recipient of materially deceptive content distributed in violation of this section, candidate or committee participating in the election, or elections official, as defined, to file a civil action to enjoin the distribution of the media and to seek damages against the person, committee, or other entity that distributed it, except as specified. The bill would require a court to place such proceedings on the calendar in the order of their date of filing and give the proceedings precedence. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 35 of the Code of Civil Procedure proposed by AB 2655 to be operative only if this bill and AB 2655 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services and under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions. Existing law requires the department to standardize applicable covered Medi-Cal benefits provided by Medi-Cal managed care plans under comprehensive risk contracts with the department on a statewide basis and across all models of Medi-Cal managed care, in accordance with the Terms and Conditions of the California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal (CalAIM) initiative. Existing law requires, commencing January 1, 2022, that Community-Based Adult Services (CBAS) continue to be available as a capitated benefit for a qualified Medi-Cal beneficiary under a comprehensive risk contract with an applicable Medi-Cal managed care plan. For contract periods during which that provision is implemented, existing law requires each applicable plan to reimburse a network provider furnishing CBAS to a Medi-Cal beneficiary enrolled in that plan, and requires each network provider of CBAS to accept the payment amount that the network provider of CBAS would be paid for the service in the Medi-Cal fee-for-service delivery system, as specified, unless the plan and network provider mutually agree to reimbursement in a different amount. This bill, for purposes of the mutual agreement between a Medi-Cal managed care plan and a network provider, would require that the reimbursement be in an amount equal to or greater than the amount paid for the service in the Medi-Cal fee-for-service delivery system.
Existing law, the Alfred E. Alquist Hospital Facilities Seismic Safety Act of 1983, establishes, under the jurisdiction of the Department of Health Care Access and Information, a program of seismic safety building standards for certain hospitals constructed on and after March 7, 1973. Existing law requires that, by January 1, 2030, owners of these hospitals must either demolish, replace, or change to nonacute care use all hospital buildings that are not in compliance with these standards or seismically retrofit all acute care inpatient hospital buildings so they are in substantial compliance with these standards, unless subject to an abeyance. This bill would authorize a hospital owner or operator to submit an application, by specified dates, to the department for additional extensions to the compliance deadline. The bill would require the department to grant or deny an extension of the deadline for substantial compliance with seismic safety regulations or standards up to January 1, 2035. The bill would require the application to contain a seismic compliance plan, a specified evaluation report, a financial plan, and an attestation to the department that the appropriate governing board of that hospital is aware that the hospital building is required to be in substantial compliance with the seismic safety regulations or standards. By imposing the above-described attestation, this bill would expand the crime of perjury and impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would require the hospital and the department to identify specified milestones that are used for determining whether the hospital is making progress towards meeting the hospital's seismic compliance deadline. The bill would require the hospital to demonstrate efforts to comply with the seismic compliance deadline by providing the department with a plan outlining how seismic construction costs and other financial responsibilities will be met and what funding sources will be used if the hospital fails to meet an agreed-upon milestone due to circumstances that were within the hospital owner's or operator's control. The bill would require the owner or operator of that hospital to submit to the department an attestation that the appropriate governing board of that hospital is aware of the hospital's responsibility to comply with the associated construction costs to meet the seismic compliance deadlines. By requiring the owner or operator of a hospital to submit to the department an attestation, this bill would expand the crime of perjury and impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would require the department, before granting an extension past January 1, 2030, to provide public notice of a hospital's request for an extension, provide copies, upon request, of any publicly available material submitted by the hospital in support of their extension to interested parties, and allow the public to submit written comments on the extension proposal, as specified. The bill would require the department, beginning January 1, 2027, to post on the department's internet website specified information, including, among other things, its decision to grant or deny any extension. The bill would require the department to notify the county board of supervisors, the city council, and the Assembly and Senate representative in writing and electronically if a hospital within their district has been granted or denied an extension. This bill would require the department, on or before January 1, 2026, to adopt regulations and standards or revise regulations and standards, or both, to extend the deadlines for meeting the structural performance and nonstructural performance requirements. The bill would specify that regulatory submissions made by the department to the California Building Standards Commission are deemed to be emergency regulations and that the adoption of these regulations are to be deemed an emergency and necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health and safety, and general welfare. Existing law requires, before January 1, 2024, the owner of an acute care inpatient hospital that includes a building that does not substantially comply with seismic safety regulations or standards to post in a lobby or waiting area generally accessible to patients or the public a notice provided by the department that the hospital is not in compliance with the seismic safety requirements the hospital is required to meet by January 1, 2030. Existing law requires, on or before January 1, 2024, and annually thereafter, the owner of an acute care inpatient hospital that includes a building that does not substantially comply with seismic safety regulations or standards to provide an annual status update on the Structural Performance Category ratings of the buildings and the services provided in each hospital building on the hospital campus to specified entities until each of the hospital buildings owned by that hospital building owner is compliant. This bill would require, before January 1, 2025, the owner or operator of an acute care inpatient hospital that includes a building that does not substantially comply with the seismic safety regulations or standards to post in any lobby or waiting area generally accessible to patients or the public the notice mentioned above. The bill would also require, on or before January 1, 2025, and annually thereafter, the owner or operator to provide an annual status update, as specified. This bill would specify that the provisions of this act 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.
This measure would designate a specified portion of Interstate 80 in the City and County of San Francisco as the Willie Mays Highway. The measure would request the Department of Transportation to determine the cost of appropriate signs showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering that cost, to erect those signs.
This measure would declare the month of September 2024 as Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and state the commitment of the Legislature to support efforts to find cures, and less toxic treatments, for childhood cancer.
This measure would express the Legislature's support for President Joseph Biden's goal of ending hunger and increasing healthy eating and physical activity by 2030.