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Past Legislative Successes

Leg Year - 2019-2020

Requires the Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) to consider whether to classify or reclassify fairs at least once every 5 years instead of annually.

AB 1801: Cattle: Inspections

Repeals provisions that requires female cattle of the beef breeds that are over 12 months of age and sold within the state to bear evidence of official calfhood brucellosis vaccination and increases brand inspection fees in statute to reflect the actual fees being imposed by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA). Clarifies the intent of an existing exemption for a mobile slaughter operator where the livestock is not of the owner’s own raising but the slaughter occurs on the premises of the person who raised the livestock. Exempts any cattle or calves originating outside of the state transported solely to a stockyard or slaughter facility to be sold or slaughtered from a $1.00 per head assessment that supports the activities of the state’s Cattle Council.

AB 1823: Fire Protection: Local Fire Planning

Requires the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection to consider a local agency’s compliance with the Board’s regulations, including minimum fire safety standards, when developing its criteria for the “Fire Risk Reduction Community” list.  Requires this list to be posted on the Board’s website.  Extends a due date for the identification of barriers to in-state production of mass timber and innovative forest products, adds a definition of the Forest Management Task Force, and makes other technical changes.

AB 1824: California Environmental Quality Act

Makes a number of technical changes to Public Resources Code and Government Code.  Re-establishes a California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) exemption for Public Utilities Commission (PUC) closure of railroad crossings that sunset in 2019.

AB 3163: Energy: Biomethane: Procurement

Revises the definition of “biomethane” to include methane produced from an organic waste feedstock that meets specified conditions for injection into a common carrier pipeline and is either methane produced from the anaerobic decomposition of organic material, including co-digestion, or methane produced from the non-combustion thermal conversion of certain materials, when separated from other waste. Promotes the in-state production and use of biomethane and biogas, which helps California meet its climate and clean energy policies.

AB 3220: Hazardous Materials: Underground Storage Tanks: Pesticides

Extends the sunset in statute on the registration and reporting requirements for laboratories that perform cholinesterase testing on human blood by two years to 1/1/2023. Extends the sunset on the State Water Board’s (SWB’s) grant and loan programs to assist small businesses in upgrading, replacing, or removing petroleum underground storage tanks (USTs) to comply with various laws by four years to 1/1/2026. Extends the Medical Supervision Program reporting requirement in order to provide time to review a state evaluation of the reporting’s effectiveness, due 1/1/2021, and preserves funding opportunities to assist in meeting UST laws while significantly expanding enforcement abilities.

SB 34: Cannabis: Donations

No later than March 1, 2020, allows a licensed cannabis retailer to provide free cannabis or cannabis products to a medicinal cannabis patient who has a valid and verified physician’s recommendation or a Compassionate Use Act identification card. Requires any donated cannabis or cannabis products to be recorded in the state’s cannabis track and trace system as belonging to the retailer. Allows cannabis or cannabis products to also be donated in compliance with any compassionate use, equality, or other similar program administered by a local jurisdiction. Allows a retailer to contract with an individual or organization to coordinate the provision of free medicinal cannabis/products on the retailer’s premises. Exempts cannabis or cannabis products donated or designated for donation from the state cannabis use tax, excise tax, and cultivation tax for 5 years. Requires the Legislative Analyst’s Office to report annually to the Legislature on the bill’s impact.

SB 38: Sales And Use Taxes: Consumer Designation: All Volunteer Fire Department

Extends the sunset on the statute that specifies that all-volunteer fire departments are exempt from the requirement to collect sales and use tax from their fundraising sales when the profits are used to further the organization’s purpose and the gross receipts of those sales are less than $100,000 in the preceding two calendar years.  Benefits volunteer fire departments that solicit donations and sell items at fundraisers to raise money for their operations.

SB 62: Endangered Species: Accidental Take Associated With Routine And Ongoing Agricultural Activities: State Safe Harbor Agreements

Makes permanent California’s Safe Harbor Program, which provides flexibility to landowners who voluntarily manage their lands to benefit species that receive regulatory protections according to California’s Endangered Species Act (CESA). Extends the legal protections for the “accidental take” of endangered species during routine agricultural activities and requires that landowners who use this provision to report the take to the Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) within 10 days.

SB 245: Public Animal Shelters: Adoptions: Veterans

Prohibits a public animal shelter from charging an adoption fee for a dog or cat if the person adopting the dog or cat presents to the shelter a current and valid driver’s license or ID card with the “VETERAN” printed on its face.  Authorizes a shelter to limit the number of dogs and cats adopted without an adoption fee by an eligible veteran to one dog and cat each 6-month period. 

SB 288: California Environmental Quality Act: Exemptions: Transportation-Related Projects

Provides numerous California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) exemptions for transportation-related projects.  Recognizes that transit agencies have been working with reduced budgets since the COVID-19 pandemic and if California is going to meet its goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions there will be a need to accelerate the construction of these types of projects.

SB 289: Medi-Cal: Home- And Community-Based Services: Military

Requires an active duty military service member’s dependent child or spouse, who is eligible, enrolled, or on the waiting list for a Medi-Cal 1915(c) (Home- and Community-Based Services for the Developmentally Disabled (HCBS)) waiver program, to retain eligibility or their position on the waiting list if the military service member receives a military order to transfer out of state. Authorizes a dependent child or spouse to apply for a 1915(c) waiver program when a military service member residing out of state receives a military order to move to the state. Establishes a streamlined process for a formerly-enrolled dependent child or spouse to easily re-enroll in the 1915(c) waiver program once they return to the state.

SB 366: Public Postsecondary Education: Mandatory Orientation For Students

Requires the California State University (CSU) Board of Trustees (Trustees) and requests the University of California (UC) Board of Regents (Regents), to provide as part of the campus’s established orientations, educational and preventive information about cyberbullying to students at all campuses of their respective segments.

SB 395: Wild Game Mammals: Accidental Taking And Possession Of Wildlife: Collision With A Vehicle: Wildlife Salvage Permits

Requires the Fish and Game Commission (FGC), upon an appropriation by the Legislature, to establish a pilot wildlife salvage permit program authorizing the roadkill of elk, deer, pronghorn antelope, or wild pig to be taken for human consumption. Requires the Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) to report specified findings to the (FGC) at the conclusion of the pilot program.

SB 402: Vehicles: Off-Highway Vehicle Recreation: County Of Inyo

Extends by five years the sunset on a pilot project in Inyo County allowing on-road use of off-highway motor vehicles within highway segments up to 10 miles in length designated by the county. Improves access to trails and services for off-highway vehicle (OHV) users, and provides additional time to evaluate the impacts of combined road use in Inyo County.

SB 449: Pest Control: Pierce’s Disease

Extends the sunset date for the Pierce’s Disease Control Program and the Pierce’s Disease and Glassy-winged Sharpshooter Board within the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) from 2021 to Mach 1, 2026, subject to a referendum of winegrape producers, and processors.

SB 490: CalFresh: Benefit Overissuance

Increases the thresholds on the prohibitions on the Department of Social Services (DSS) collecting a CalFresh benefit overissuance in a variety of circumstances such as county error and unintentional reporting error, and directs DSS to create a policy regarding the collection of error claims on households with at least one elderly or disabled individual, including those receiving social security (SSI). Ties timing of roll out of the new policy to completion of the Statewide Automated Welfare System (SAWS).

SB 513: State Water Resources Control Board: Grants: Interim Relief: Private Water Wells

Allows the State Water Board (SWB), contingent upon an appropriation, to provide grants to counties, community water systems, local agencies, and nonprofit organizations to provide “interim relief” (such as domestic water tanks, hauled water, and bottled water) for households with private wells that have gone dry or been destroyed by natural disasters. Allows the SWB to use up to 10% of the funds for planning activities for permanent solutions for such wells, and to use up to 5% for administrative expenses. Allows the SWB to implement these provisions through guidelines exempt from the Administrative Procedures Act and through contracts exempt from competitive contracting rules.