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2019-2020 Legislative Summary

SIGNED /ADOPTED

AB 46Individuals with Mental Illness: Change of Term – Removes dehumanizing language from California law that perpetuates stigma and discrimination against people with mental health issues. Chaptered by Secretary of State – Chapter 9, Statues of 2019.

AB 593Unemployment Insurance: Use of Information – Enhances employment opportunities for Californians by providing Local Workforce Development Boards with greater access to wage data to improve the effectiveness of public workforce development programs. Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 611, Statutes of 2019.

AB 673Failure to Pay Wages: Penalties – Ensures an employee can collect fees if their paycheck is late through a hearing before the Labor Commissioner. Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 716, Statutes of 2019.

AB 1512– Security Officers: Rest Periods – Provides guidance to employers to better protect security workers and ensure public safety during COVID-19. Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 343, Statutes of 2020.

AB 1535Pet Insurance: Disclosures – Increases consumer transparency for pet owners by adding a disclosure requirement on pet insurance documents, which includes the California Department of Insurance’s contact information as well as the contact information of the insuring agency. Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 166, Statutes of 2019.

AB 1622Family Physicians – Enables family physicians to provide healthcare access to all Californians by adding them to areas in state law where they have been excluded. Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 632, Statutes of 2019.

AB 1668California Conservation Corps: Education and Employment Reentry Program – Offers career opportunities to formerly incarcerated individuals who have assisted in fighting California’s wildfires by creating an Employment and Reentry Education Program within the California Conservation Corps. Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 587, Statutes of 2019.

AB 1695Health Facilities – Protects our seniors and people living with disabilities by increasing transparency and accountability within our health facilities through a 90-day notice prior to sale or transfer of a nursing facility ownership. Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 832, Statutes of 2019.

AB 1768Prevailing Wage: Public Works – Ensures workers are paid the prevailing wage for their contributions to public works projects. Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 719, Statutes of 2019.

AB 2325 –- Child Support: Suspension – Restores California law that helps incarcerated parents have a successful reentry and return to their children. Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 217, Statutes of 2020.

AB 3336Third-Party Food Delivery Platforms: Food Safety – Creates basic consumer protections against food contamination from ready-to-eat food delivery services by requiring tamper-evident packaging to better protect the health of Californians. Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 105, Statutes of 2020.

ACR 27Bayard Rustin – This resolution, in observance of Black History Month, honors the legacy of Bayard Rustin, who stood at the confluence of the greatest struggles for civil, legal, and human rights by African Americans, as well as the LGBTQ community. Chaptered by Secretary of State - Res. Chapter 21, Statutes of 2019.

AJR 11– Immigration – Urges the President and Congress to enact legislation to provide permanent legal status and a path to citizenship for immigrant youths and individuals with Deferred Enforced Departure and Temporary Protected Status. Chaptered by Secretary of State - Res. Chapter 136, Statutes of 2019.

HR 40 – Latina Action Day – Recognizes May 23, 2019, as Latina Action Day and encourages the people of the State of California to support the continuous work and commitment of all Latina leaders in our communities. Adopted by the State Assembly.

HR 79 – American Heart Month and Wear Red Day – Recognizes the month of February 2020 as American Heart Month and February 7, 2020, as Wear Red Day in California to raise awareness of the importance of the ongoing fight against heart disease and stroke. Adopted by the State Assembly.

VETOED

AB 556 – Outdoor Experiences: Community Access Program – Would allow for the creation of a grant program that will provide additional monetary support to foster more access to the outdoors and uplift the many young people denied these advantageous outdoor experiences.

AB 1478 – Employment Discrimination – Would ensure domestic violence survivors have the deserved option of a straightforward and expeditious legal pathway to justice in the case of their employers' wrongdoing. 

AB 1658 – Teacher Credentialing – Would require the Commission on Teacher Credentialing to establish a workgroup to enhance the adult education teacher credentialing process.

INTRODUCED

AB 607 – Probation Eligibility – Is an incremental reform to return discretion to the courts. The bill would provide defendants with probation supervision and programming when it is in the interest of justice, the interest of public safety and consistent with the values of local communities.

AB 683 – Medi-Cal Eligibility – Would update the outdated Medi-Cal assets test to allow seniors, particularly those in minority groups, access to much-needed health care services, while maintaining their dignity and financial stability.

AB 758 – Equal Pay Act – Would clarify problematic language in the Equal Pay Act to prevent inadvertent legal loopholes that could deny protections to workers who have not been paid equally to their counterparts.

AB 1158 – Conveyances: Suspensions – Would allow for the temporary suspension of a permit to build or work on an elevator, if an inspection determines the work does not comply with the applicable building standards.

AB 1182 – Post-Release Supervision of Offenders – Would strengthen and expand existing earned discharged process for parolees and those on post release community supervision by aligning existing discharge terms with evidence-based practices to ensure discharge decisions are no longer driven by arbitrarily established timelines but instead determined by the parolee’s compliant and crime free behavior.

AB 1225 – Education Finance: Youths Experiencing Homelessness – Would provide additional funding to help schools that have a high number of homeless students.

AB 1284 – Carbon Neutrality – Would create a definition of “carbon neutrality” to establish clear guidelines moving forward in California’s fight against climate change.

AB 1403 – General Assistance: Eligibility – Would correct an oversight in the law to ensure that these deeply impoverished individuals would be eligible for General Assistance allowing them access to critical resources.

AB 1427 – Community Colleges: Full-time Faculty – Would require the board of governors to adopt regulations that establish minimum standards regarding the percentage of hours of credit and noncredit instruction taught by full-time instructors.

AB 1490 – Medical Assistants – Would define “technical supportive services” to also include drawing up a local anesthetic provided specified conditions are met.

AB 1500 – Hazardous Substances – Would protect communities against hazardous waste disasters by empowering local authorities to take immediate action against threats to the public’s health and safety, including the ability to temporarily discontinue the operations of the facility that caused a harmful exposure.

AB 1526 – Restaurant Equity and Desegregation Program – Would establish within GO-Biz the Restaurant Equity and Desegregation Program to foster workplace equity in California restaurants.

AB 1678 – Indoor-Grown Cannabis Commission – Would create the Indoor-Grown Cannabis Commission in state government to, among other things, assess and address the impact of local and state regulations on the cannabis and indoor-grown cannabis industries, and collect and disseminate market price information to prevent unfair trade practices.

AB 1720 – Energy: Long-Duration Energy Storage – Would put Californians back to work building long duration energy storage infrastructure, the need for which has been identified by the California Public Utilities Commission through their integrated resource plan process, thus ensuring California has the energy storage it needs to reliably meet our climate goals while creating thousands of good-paying jobs.

AB 1725 – Before and After School Programs – Would protect California's investment in After School and Education Safety Programs by increasing funding for these critical programs as the state minimum wage or cost-of-living increases so that they may continue to serve California students and families.

AB 1753 – Immigration Consultants – Would ensure that immigration services are limited to licensed attorneys, paralegals and federally-accredited representatives who are authorized to provide legal advice and represent clients before the U.S. Department of Justice and/or the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in their immigration matters.

AB 1764 – Forced or Involuntary Sterilization Compensation Program – Would establish the Forced Sterilization Compensation Program to compensate survivors of forced sterilization, either under state eugenics laws while living in state hospitals or for those who were incarcerated in state prisons.

AB 1780 – Special Hospitals – Would benefit California residents by ensuring access to specialized medical services in local communities, closer to home for patients and families.

AB 2214 – Administrative Procedure Act – Would require the state agency to conspicuously post administrative regulations on the state agency’s website within 24 hours of submitting those documents to the office, instead of making those documents available to the public upon request.

AB 2298 – Hazardous Waste – Would authorize a Unified Program Agency to temporarily suspend a facilities permit, including shutting down a facility, if conditions at the facility pose an imminent or substantial threat to public health and safety.

AB 2308 – Restitution: Ability to Pay – Would make a defendant’s inability to pay a fine a compelling and extraordinary reason for a court to not impose a restitution fine upon a conviction of a misdemeanor or felony.

AB 2412 – Pupil Discipline – Would provide alternatives to expulsion for the sale of marijuana.

AB 2478 – International Medical Graduates – Would seek to help medically underserved regions with limited English proficient populations, by increasing bilingual physicians and supporting International Medical Graduate training programs.

AB 2525 – Student Mental Health Framework – Would require the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission, in coordination with other relevant state, local, and community-based entities, to develop a framework to support the development and deployment of effective strategies that address student mental health needs, produce positive school and mental health outcomes, and support healthy and safe learning environments.

AB 2582 – Net Energy Metering (NEM) – Would require the California Public Utilities Commission to develop a successor NEM tariff not later than July 1, 2021. 

AB 2604 – Public Health: Pandemic Protocols – Would require a health facility to limit the possible introduction of the pathogen, infection, or illness that is the subject of a declared pandemic or health-related state of emergency or local emergency into the facility by indefinitely postponing routine medical appointments and prohibiting visitor access.

AB 2740 – Fireworks – Would expand the definition of dangerous fireworks, and require the State Fire Marshal to identify and evaluate methods to track all containers containing dangerous fireworks, among other changes to state law.

AB 2976 – Licensed Professional Clinical Counselors – Would authorize licensed professional clinical counselors to provide to each client accurate information about the counseling relationship and the counseling process in electronic or hardcopy format, in accordance with each client’s preference.

AB 3052 – Forced or Involuntary Sterilization Compensation Program – Would rightfully compensate people who were involuntarily sterilized under California’s previous eugenics law and in women’s state prisons after 1979, by creating the Forced Sterilization Compensation Program.