Restores a program that sunset on January 1, 2017, which authorized the Department of Transportation (Caltrans) to assume the federal Secretary of Transportation’s responsibilities under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for designated highway projects. Continues a program that streamlines environmental review for highway projects, reduces costs, and accelerates project delivery.
Past Legislative Successes
Leg Year - 2017-2018
Requires the Governor to annually proclaim the day of the astronomical Northward equinox, which usually occurs on March 20th or the following day, as Nowrūz Day.
Updates California law to align with the Federal Stolen Valor Act of 2013.
Prohibits all employers from using salary history as a factor in determining whether to offer an applicant employment or what salary to offer an applicant. Prohibits employers from seeking salary history information about or from a job applicant. Requires all employers to provide pay scale information to job applicants upon request.
AB 172: Public Postsecondary Education: Residency: Dependents Of Armed Forces Members
Extends existing resident (in-state) status to dependents of active duty military to those who have been admitted to, not just in attendance at, a California public postsecondary institution.
Requires candidates for state elective office to include a link on their campaign websites to the page on the Secretary of State’s website that displays financial information concerning their campaign contributors.
Provides that temporary homeless assistance be made available to homeless families that would be eligible for CalWORKs cash aid except for the fact that their only child(ren) are in an out-of-home placement in the child welfare system under order of the dependency court, where the family is receiving reunification services and the county determines that homeless assistance is necessary for reunification to occur. Includes the above homeless assistance benefit to pay the costs of temporary shelter as a service provided to those eligible parents.
Requires a death certificate to include “whether the decedent was ever in the Armed Forces of the United States.” Requires the Department of Public Health to “access data within the electronic death registration system” in order to compile a report on veteran suicide in California, which would be required to “only include information on the ages, sexes, races and ethnicities, and methods of suicide of veterans.
Authorizes, to the extent that funding is made available, the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) to establish the Water and Wastewater Loan and Grant Program to provide funding to eligible applicants for specified purposes relating to drinking water and wastewater treatment.
Clarifies that all types of agricultural water users are, by definition, required to be included and informed in the development and management of a Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA).
Authorizes the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) to make loans to entities for urgent drinking water needs, as well as for the cleanup or abatement of the effects from a waste on waters of the state.
Requires the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency, the California Department of Veterans Affairs, and the California Department of Food and Agriculture, in consultation with the federal government, to post on their websites existing information to assist veterans in entering farming or ranching careers.
Ratifies the Tribal-State Gaming Compact between the State of California and the Tule River Indian Tribe of California.
Adds “liability” to the types of insurance coverage that may be offered by certain nontraditional insurers, including religious organizations meeting specified criteria, and deletes an obsolete cap on the dollar amounts of coverage that such insurers may offer.
Implements a recommendation by the California State Auditor and provides that, prior to July 1, 2019, and July 1 biennially thereafter, directors of state agencies, departments, or entities and their chief information officers post on the front page of the agency’s or entity’s Internet Web site a signed certification that the agency’s or entity’s Internet Web site is in compliance with specified accessibility standards. Requires the Director of Technology to create a standard form that each state agency’s or state entity’s chief information officer shall use to determine whether the state agency’s or state entity’s Internet Web site is in compliance with the accessibility standards.
Solidifies the current practice of local agency formation commissions (LAFCOs) approving annexations of areas already being served by a local agency through an out of area service agreement.