Legislative Watch

(All Bills Last Checked 5/17/2022)

TRACK BILLS and COMMENT: http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov
Assembly Committees: https://www.assembly.ca.gov/committees
Senate Committees: https://www.senate.ca.gov/committees
STATE REPRESENTATIVE: http://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov
GOVERNOR: govapps.gov.ca.gov Phone: 916-445-2841 govapps.gov.ca.gov (You will see a form to complete; then a box appears for message.)

We encourage initiatives to help correct bad State laws. See web page of Initiatives for November ballot.

On THIS page, we only list active bills in which you can engage State legislators or committee chairs.

A bill pending referral allows direct public comment to the author using legislative web site. Too early to contact legislators.
A bill in committee is not ready for floor vote. Instead, ask named committee to either 'pass' or 'kill the bill in committee'.
Once examined by Appropriations Committee in each house, there will be a motion for a floor vote or put on consent calendar in that house.

Read steps a Bill goes through before signed into law: Legislation Steps.

The pace is about to quicken.

May 20 – Appropriations Committee final action on suspense file items

May 27 – Bills must be out of house of origin

May 31 thru June - Second house policy committee hearings

July 1 – Deadline Second house policy committee actions

July 1 – Aug 1 – Summer Recess

Aug. 1 – Aug. 31 Final days of 2022 session

Aug. 12 – Appropriations final actions deadline

Aug. 31 – Deadline for passing bills.

Aug. 31 – Interim recess begins after floor sessions end.

THEMES

The bills on this web page are sorted by Theme (Abortion Promotion, Climate overreach, COVID, Education, Gun Control, Housing, Sexual Overhaul, Violence, Other) to let you contact your legislators referencing several related bills in two phone calls or two letters (one for State Senate bills and one for Assembly Bills).

Assembly and Senate Contacts for your District

SD 5 Susan Eggman 916/651-4005 [email protected]
SD 7 Steven Glazer 916/651-4007 [email protected]
SD 9 Nancy Skinner 916/651-4009 [email protected]
SD 10 916/651-4010
AD 14 Buffy Wicks 916/319-2015 [email protected]
AD 16 R.Bauer-Kahan 916/319-2016 [email protected]
AD 18 Mia Bonta 916/319-2018 [email protected]
AD 20 916/319-2020
AD 24 916/319-2025

Letters and Calls

Write a very short letter in your own words summarizing your position on the theme. Write or call your legislator: “I ask for a 'No' vote on each of these bills (XX-1234, XX-2123, ...) because ….”. Be polite, to the point, and convincing. You want to sway legislators but not alienate them. Many instinctively react against your interests if you attack them. Calls get legislator attention, especially when hundreds come in spread over several days.

= = =

Theme: Abortion Promotion (Reproductive "Health") - This Legislature seems pre-occupied promoting California as the destination for cheap and easy abortions, while lowering medical safety standards. Why not? Taxpayers pay all the costs.

SB 1142 - Abortion Services. - Commission on Status of Women and Girls: grant program. Taxes to facilitate abortions and supporting abortion organizations. Tax-Paid travel costs for airplane tickets from anywhere in country, "lost wages", and even childcare while a mother gets an abortion. In Appropriations committee

SB 1245 - Los Angeles County Abortion Access Safe Haven Pilot Program. In Appropriations committee

SB 1375 - Nursing: nurse practitioners. Removes some doctor oversight requirements of abortions. In Appropriations committee

AB 1666 (Bauer-Kahan)-Abortion: civil actions. Pending Floor voteIn Third Reading

AB 1918- California Reproductive Health Service Corps. Provides tuition assistance to recruit medical students to receive abortion training. In Appropriations committee.

AB 2091- Reproductive health and privacy. Pending Floor vote In Third Reading

AB 2134 - Reproductive health care. In Appropriations committee.

AB 2223 (Buffy Wicks) - Infanticide. Reproductive health. Prevents prosecution of parents for "suspicious deaths" of infants up to and beyond 28 days old. Some call this the most extreme abortion bill ever. It takes away penalties for termination of defenseless babies even after birth. This needs to be stopped at its first hearing this week. In Appropriations Committee

AB 2320 - Reproductive health care pilot program. Creates program in five counties for grants to clinics to increase services for "marginalized patients". In Appropriations Committee

AB 2586 - Reproductive and sexual health working group. In Appropriations committee.

AB 2698 - Reproductive Privacy Act. Pending referral to a committee.

= = =

Theme: Climate Overreach - Bad bills are based on presumed climate change and green agenda of central banks. We need a different narrative than "manmade climate change" and the radical green agenda. We need legislation that builds great water projects, nuclear power, expands fusion research, and allows our farmers water to grow our food! We need ability to allocate emergency credit as necessary. (Also: Legislators need to work with Congress to dissolve the Federal Reserve and set up a National Bank. This is a major goal of the LaRouche PAC. - Mindy P.)

Sample Climate Theme Letter to send to your legislator or committee chair:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I ask for a "No" vote on six bills: SB1376, AB2004, AB2587, AB1676, AB1644, and AB1369.

Taken together, these feel like significant overreach in the Climate debate that impedes transitional solutions.

For Climate effects of fossil fuel use, we forget that climate change was more severe in Europe long before the industrial revolution (coal-belching factories and car smog). Our American system reduced such gross pollution and found beneficial transitional solutions. Smog in Los Angeles is negligible compared to the thick brown-orange haze of the 1970s. While counter-intuitive for becoming far less dependent upon fossil fuels, we desperately need the improved designs for nuclear energy. Coal and gas plants currently power our electric cars that offset the purpose of such vehicles. Wind and solar provides just 10% of our energy needs. Without modern nuclear power replacing most gas and coal, we will still need continued easy access to fossil fuels to meet fundamental needs.

For similar Climate bills addressing the common drought cycles in California, we need better multi-year water management with increased water storage. We cannot let our water infrastructure decay with an increasing population. We cannot ration ourselves to success if there is no water stored to ration.

Thus, I urge a “No” vote on each of these Climate bills. Help us improve the livability of our State in both courageous energy and water stewardship.

SB1376 State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission-Zero-Carbon Resources.. Introduced by Senator Stern
AB1676-Pipeline safety: Carbon Dioxide. Introduced by Assembly members Grayson, Cunningham, Petrie-Norris
AB1644-Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. Introduced by Assembly Member Flora and Co-Author Senator Dodd
AB1369-Buy Clean California Act. Passed Assembly, in Senate Committee. Introduced by Assembly Member Bennett
AB2004-Establish Office of Clean Energy. Introduced by Assembly Member Boerner Horvath
AB2587-Firm Zero-Carbon Resources. Procurement. Introduced by Assembly member Eduardo Garcia

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SB 887 - Electricity: transmission facility planning: Requires California Public Utilities Commission to work with the state’s Independent System Operator, which manages the state’s flow of electricity, to more rapidly approve transmission projects for delivering energy from offshore wind and other sources, particularly to urban areas, by 2035, and expand their planning timeline. In Appropriations committee.

SB 1068 - Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development: Climate change. Requires GO-Biz to develop economic forecasts. The bill would require the economic forecasts to include climate impacts. In Appropriations committee.

SB 1376 - State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission: strategic plan: zero-carbon resources. In Appropriations committee.

SCR 53 - Climate change. Declare that a climate emergency threatens the state, nation, planet, natural world, and all of humanity. In Natural Resources committee.

AB 1369 -Buy Clean California Act: eligible materials: product-specific global warming potential emission. Passed Assembly - In SENATE Governmental Organization committee.

AB 1644 - Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund: California Jobs Plan Act of 2021. Passed Assembly - In SENATE pending referral

AB 1676 - Pipeline safety: carbon dioxide. Greenhouse gases: carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration. In Natural Resources committee.

AB-2204 - Clean Energy - Establishes Office of Clean Energy Workforce within Labor and Workforce Development Agency with executive director appointed by Governor, with consent of Senate, for the purpose of overseeing California’s transition to a sustainable and equitable carbon neutral economy. - An equitable carbon neutral economy is against the American Economic System and is unscientific. The whole idea of the green agenda is a genocide policy. We must replace this with increasing our energy density with nuclear power, and research in fusion. In Appropriations committee.

AB 2587- Energy: firm zero-carbon resources: procurement. In Appropriations committee.

= = =

Theme: COVID - The Corona-Virus created much stress and anxiety. Beyond physical damage and death, once again legislators are convinced that a multitude of bills can fix everything. Therefore, a long list of bills are going to “solve the problem of the virus.” Unfortunately, these result in incredible restriction of our Freedoms.

SB 866 (Wiener) - Immunizations. Lowers age of consent for all vaccines from 18 down to 12 years old. They can without a parent's consent, receive the COVID-19 vaccine at school or any vaccine site. Medical decisions should be made by parents in consultation with their doctors, not government bureaucrats. Passed Senate, Pending referral in Assembly.

SB 871 - COVID. Adds COVID-19 vaccine to list of mandatory immunizations required for students (K-12) to attend school as of January 1, 2023, even without full FDA Approval. Removes Personal Belief exemptions by parents. In Health committee

SB 1018 - COVID. - Operators of commercial internet websites or online services: privacy policies. Requires online platforms to be more transparent about how information is pushed out to consumers. In Appropriations committee

SB 1464 (Pan) - COVID. - Forces police to enforce public health orders. Withholds state funds from any law enforcement agency that "publicly announces that they will oppose, or adopts a policy to oppose, a public health order." The bill proposes reallocating withheld funds to public health departments. The bill is a response to law enforcement agencies butting heads with public health guidelines. In Health committee

Local law enforcement should not be required to enforce health orders, since already overwhelmed and understaffed.
Requiring health interventions interferes with voluntary and informed consent and should not make use of police powers.
The punitive consequence against a law agency would unfairly impact residents within that county.
Protecting law enforcement discretion is important when considering that local health officers can "take any action" to control communicable disease.

SB 1479 - COVID-19 testing in schools: COVID-19 testing plans. Requires schools to continue testing and to create testing plans. In Appropriations committee

AB 1797 - Immunization registry. Requires changes to the California Immunization Record Database. This bill would merge the three CA Immunization Registry tracking systems to create on statewide system. All vaccines will be required to be entered. Race and ethnicity will be entered. Schools and other entities would have access to all vaccine records, rather than just those of their students/patients. In Appropriations committee.

Any private medical information should only be stored and shared with the express written permission of the patient or the parent or guardian of the patient. Currently, the only option for patients is to refuse to allow their personal medical information to be shared, however, the local health department and the State Department of Public Health may maintain access to the information. The CAIR2 database should be an opt in system.
The risk of violating patient privacy is significant. Recent California database breaches: The State Bar of California experienced a data breach of confidential information. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-02-27/california-bar-investigates-possible-data-breach-after-discipline-records-published-online In 2018, the California Department of Developmental Services notified 582,174 patients that their protected health information had potentially been compromised. https://www.hipaajournal.com/california-dept-of-developmental-services-582000-patients-phi/
California Constitution gives each citizen an "inalienable right" to pursue and obtain "privacy.” Many other California laws protect medical information of individuals.
While stated intention is to keep schools safe and open by tracking COVID-19 vaccination status, no state requirement for student vaccination for COVID-19 exists. Furthermore, children have a very low risk of severe disease or hospitalization from COVID-19 and multiple studies show fewer than 5% of COVID cases in school came from within the school.
Some patients want to get vaccinated. To avoid being part of the database, they might avoid vaccination, resulting in fewer people getting vaccinated.

AB 1993 - Employment: COVID-19 vaccination requirements. Allows limited medical or religious exemptions but requires testing for anyone unvaccinated. Requires new hires to have at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by the time they start, and a second dose within 45 days. Businesses that do not comply would face a penalty. In Labor and Employment committee.

AB 2098 - Physicians and surgeons: unprofessional conduct. Prevents licensed physicians and surgeons from spreading COVID-19 misinformation. Injects disciplinary actions by the Medical Board of California or the Osteopathic Medical Board of California to care providers promoting alleged misinformation. “The idea that they’re going to come after physicians that spread misinformation, without defining what misinformation is, [is] frightening,” - Physician Dr. Jeff Barke. Pending Floor vote In Third Reading

Doctors go through rigorous education and training and should be allowed to voice their medical and professional opinions freely.
Science and medicine have historically been advanced through minority voices. The stifling of dissent will have lasting effects on advancing health care.
The unintended consequence might be that the healthcare provider shortage would be exacerbated.
The understanding of the data and science related to COVID-19 continues to change as more studies are done. Standards of care are being updated as new information and treatments emerge. Any attempt at determining “contemporary scientific consensus” will be fleeting.

= = =

Theme: Education

SB 70 - requires a child to complete one year of kindergarten before first grade, starting in 2022-23 school year. Passed Senate. In Assembly Education COmmitttee.

SB 830 - Education funding-Existing law establishes a public-school financing system that requires state funding for county superintendents of schools, school districts, and charter schools to be calculated pursuant to average daily attendance. In other words, “when kids actually attend school.” This bill requires a local educational agency to receive supplemental education funding for the difference between average daily attendance and average daily membership (not attendance). The bill requires local educational agencies to use at least 50% of the supplemental education funding to supplement existing local educational agency expenditures to address chronic absenteeism and habitual truancy, as provided. The bill conditions implementation of these provisions upon the appropriation of funds for these purposes in the annual Budget Act or other statute. Co-sponsored by the California School Association. In Appropriations committee.

SB 1184 - Medical Records. Confidentiality of Medical Information Act: school-linked services coordinators without parental consent. Pending Floor vote In Third Reading

AB 1785 - California Parents’ Bill of Rights Act. Requires a charter school, school district, or county office of education to provide parents and guardians with opportunities to participate in schools to improve parent and teacher cooperation, and post information for parents or guardians on its internet website regarding a variety of topics. Parents have the right to know what their children are learning and have opportunities to participate in their children’s educational experience. In Education Committee.

AB 1973 - To make sure families can comply with new SB-70, requires school districts and charter schools to offer full-day kindergarten programs to all students starting in 2025-26. Passed Assembly. In Senate.

= = =

Theme: Gun Control

SB 906 - School safety: mass casualty threats. Makes it mandatory that parents of students disclose firearm ownership status to the schools their children attend, including how they are stored. It requires that these questions be placed on the forms used to register or enroll students, and these forms may be made available to law-enforcement under certain conditions. In Appropriations committee.

SB 915 – Firearms: state property. Prohibits sale of firearms and ammunition on ALL state property. The law builds upon 2019 laws that prohibits gun shows at the Del Mar Fairgrounds and in 2021 at the Orange County Fair and Event Center. This effectively ends gun shows on all 73 state fairgrounds. A state officer or employee, or operator, lessee, or licensee of any state property, shall not contract for, authorize, or allow the sale of any firearm, firearm precursor part, or ammunition on state property or in the buildings that sit on state property or property otherwise owned, leased, occupied, or operated by the state. In Appropriations committee.

AB 1769 - Firearms: prohibited places. prohibits officers, employees, operators, lessees, or licensees of the AD31 Agricultural Association from entering into any agreement to allow sale of any firearm, firearm parts, or ammunition on property or buildings that comprise the Ventura County Fair and Event Center or properties in Ventura County and the City of Ventura that are owned, leased, operated, or occupied by the District. This imposes a one-size-fits-all restriction to prevent County officials from deciding how to use Ventura-specific venues. Sacramento should not be a 300-mile-long screwdriver to tell a singled-out County how to run their own local facilities. Ask Assembly Member to block all bills that apply to a single County. In Appropriations committee.

= = =

Theme: Housing - Is 2022 the year that we finally get some good housing legislation from Sacramento? Are some legislators beginning to understand that trickle down market-based legislation is not the solution?

SB 15 - Housing development: incentives: rezoning of idle retail sites. Provides state incentives to rezone idle retail sites for housing. - Passed Senate Pending referral to Assembly committee.

SB 1353 - part of "ACT on Homelessness," 17 new proposals from Republicans aimed at tackling the problem. Other proposals include reducing barriers to placing unhoused individuals under conservatorship; providing grant funding for expansion of mental health programs and homeless courts; and investing in employment and training programs for vulnerable youth. In Appropriations Committee

SB 1457 - Housing: California Family Home Construction and Homeownership Bond Act of 2022. Provides $25 billion in bonds for home construction and home ownership. - Half the money raised by bonds is eaten by interest but is suitable for bonds since a mortgage for property. Taxpayers pay the bill unless home recipients have some sort of payback clause. In Appropriations committee

AB 1771 - California Housing Speculation Act: income taxes: capital gains: sale or exchange of qualified asset: housing. finally attacks speculation, a key issue in the high cost of housing. - In Revenue and Taxation committee

AB 1910 - Offer grants to purchase public golf courses and turn them to mixed income housing developments – from very low income to very high income. United Neighbors in LA fighting land grabs. In Appropriations committee

AB 2053 - Enable the Social Housing Act and create the California Housing Authority to produce and acquire social housing developments. United Neighbors in LA fighting land grabs. In Appropriations committee

AB 2097 - State mandated control over counties and cities re: residential and commercial property. United Neighbors in LA fighting land grabs. Pending Floor Vote. In Third reading.

ACA 14 (Buffy Wicks) - Homelessness and affordable housing. could provide 10s of Billions annually for affordable housing and homelessness: Livable California has long said that state funding is the only way to provide affordability for the most needy. This bill could be the long-awaited answer. In Appropriations committee

= = =

Theme: Sexual Overhaul - Senator Scott Wiener promotes many bills hostile to traditional faith beliefs, sexual morals, and parental authority. Read carefully any bill bearing his name.

SB 357 (Wiener)- Prostitution. Legalizes loitering for Prostitution- essentially legalizing street walking for prostitutes or sex buyers. Police departments ask that the vote be NO. Passed Senate Pending referral to Assembly committee.

SB 923 (Wiener) - Gender-affirming care. Punishes and shames medical workers who do not affirm gender confusion of their patients or refuse to use treatments that permanently sterilize them. In Appropriations committee

SB 1222 (Republican Dahle) - Comprehensive sexual health education and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention education. Protects parental rights and provides transparency on sex education taught in public schools. Failed in Education committee 3/30. (Ayes 3. Noes 3.) Reconsideration granted for Hearing. In Education committee

= = =

Theme: Violence - Many liberal legislators resist any laws that control widespread violence. Ask legislators for severe penalties for any violence involved in a crime.

No Bills currently for this theme.

= = =

Theme: Other

SB 920 - Medical Records. Medical Board of California: investigations: record requests. - Authorizes a Medical board investigator and a medical consultant, at discretion of board, to inspect business location and records of a physician or surgeon, including patient and client records, without patient’s consent. Allows complainants opportunity to provide a statement to be considered after final adjudication for purposes of setting generally applicable policies and standards. In Business, Professions and Economic Development committee.

SB 1100 – Open Meetings: Orderly Conduct. Existing law, the Ralph Brown Act, requires that meetings of a legislative body of a local agency be public, that all persons may attend and participate, and requires every agenda for regular meetings allow the public to directly address the legislative body before or during the legislative body’s consideration of a specific item. Existing law authorizes the legislative body to order the meeting room cleared and continue in session, if an individual or group(s) willfully interrupted the orderly conduct and order cannot be restored by the removal of such individuals. SB 1100 requires removal to be preceded by a warning to the individual/group(s) disrupting the proceedings and a request that they curtail their disruptive behavior or be subject to removal. The bill would define “willfully interrupting” to mean intentionally engaging in behavior during a meeting that substantially impairs or renders infeasible orderly conduct. Is this a new tool to remove dissenting opinion? If SB 1100 only institutes the warning procedure, there is nothing ominous about this bill at face value. In Local Government committee

SB 1353 – Homeless Census: Data Collection and Reporting. - Requires a local government entity to maintain a public homelessness dashboard website. They must collect homeless population census data for its jurisdiction, report that data to the California Interagency Council, make it public on its dashboard, report and post this data quarterly, annually report to the State Council expenditures on homelessness programs and efforts provided to homeless persons within its jurisdiction, related data regarding the funding of these services, and to post that data to its homelessness dashboard. It requires State Council to maintain a public homelessness dashboard website and report to the Legislature annually. In Appropriations committee.

SB 1390 - Social media platforms: amplification of harmful content. Censors non-government narratives. In Judiciary commit

AB 1638 (Republican Kiley) - Motor Vehicle Fuel Tax Law: suspension of tax. Immediately suspend the state gas tax for six months. Inflation and record gas prices are making our state even less affordable. In Desk Process.

AB 2016 - Water: Desalination plant. Pushes Water Board for a feasibility study on or before 2025. This is a crazy delay, ask Committee for an emergency measure to implement an immediate plan, with shovels in the ground now. In Appropriations committee.

AB 2188 (Bill Quirk) - Cannabis. Makes it "unlawful to discriminate in hiring, termination, or any condition of employment…based upon the person's use of cannabis off the job." and not impaired on the job. This applies to employer-required drug screening that finds "non-psychoactive cannabis metabolites" anywhere in their system. This does not apply to construction and building workers, and federal and state employees. - In Appropriations committee.

AB 2506 - Inflation and Cannabis, excise tax, cultivation tax. In Business and Professions committee.

AB 2847 – Unemployment: Excluded Workers Pilot Program - Seeks unemployment benefits for undocumented workers. Existing law prohibits unemployment compensation benefits for services performed by a person who is not a citizen or national of the United States unless lawfully admitted for permanent residence, lawfully present for purposes of performing the services, or permanently residing under color of law. This bill establishes, until January 1, 2025, the Excluded Workers Pilot Program, administered by the Labor and Workforce Development Agency, to provide income assistance to excluded unemployed workers not eligible for state or federal benefits administered by the Employment Development Department. Makes individuals eligible to receive $300 for each week of unemployment during 2023, if the Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development makes certain findings. Appropriates $690,000,000 from the General Fund. Over a half-billion dollars for people here illegally at up to $16,000 each directly and administration costs above that! In Appropriations committee.

AB 2932 - Requires California companies with more than 500 employees to pay overtime (at least time and a half) to any employee who works more than 32 hours a week — a full day reduction from the traditional five-day, 40-hour workweek, but employees would still be paid their current salaries. In Labor and Employment committee.

ACA 11 – Taxes to fund single-payer health care - Requires voter approval and funds for ALREADY DEAD AB 1400 (Guaranteed Health Care for All). Existing law imposes various taxes. The Constitution requires a 2/3 vote of both houses of any change that results in a higher tax. The Constitution prohibits the total annual appropriations subject to limitation of the state and each local government from exceeding the appropriations limit of the entity of government for the prior fiscal year, adjusted for the change in the cost of living and the change in population, and prescribes procedures for making adjustments to the appropriation limit. This measure imposes an excise tax, payroll taxes and a State Personal Income CalCare Tax at specified rates to fund comprehensive UNIVERSAL SINGLE PAYER HEALTH CARE and a health care cost control system and reserves necessary to ensure payment. Authorizes Legislature, if insufficient funds, to increase any or all of these tax rates by a statute passed by a majority vote of both houses. (“majority” is not the required 2/3 vote to raise taxes). This measure establishes the CalCare Trust Fund to deposit these tax revenues and authorizes the Legislature to appropriate these funds by a statute passed by a MAJORITY vote of both houses. It excludes appropriations of revenues from CalCare Trust Fund from the limitation on appropriations and from consideration for purposes of educational funding mandated by the Constitution. Pending referral to a committee.

SIGNED LAWS FOLLOW-UP

Do not contact Legislators about these already-signed laws. See alternate actions listed for each bill.

AB 101 - The signed law makes Critical Race Theory a requirement for high school graduation beginning with the 2029-2030 graduating class and requiring implementation of this curriculum in public and charter schools by 2025. Since the classroom material does not have to be implemented until 2025, and the bill allows curriculum to be developed locally, parents and interested citizens should get involved by asking for a citizen’s committee to assist in the formation of that curriculum.