Legislature Breaks for Summer Recess
Last week's legislative schedule featured long hearings and packed halls as members wrapped up work in advance of their four-week summer break. Committees were operating under the pressure of legislative deadlines that required all bills to be considered by relevant policy committees before adjournment for summer recess.
When members return to Sacramento on August 12, the respective Appropriations Committees will be poised to undertake fiscal review of remaining necessary measures, and the houses will consider and take action on the hundreds of proposals headed to the respective floors. The Governor's signing period - which, of course, will be his first opportunity to signal how he's going to approach major policy decisions via the signature and veto process - runs from September 13 through October 13.
Below we provided an update on some key legislative measures of interest. (A copy of the latest bill report containing status information on UCC's priority measures can be found here.) |
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Wildfire Fund
Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 1054 - a bipartisan measure co-authored by Assembly Members Chris Holden, Autumn Burke, and Chad Mayes- into law last Friday, after the bill moved through the legislative process at breakneck speed. Sold as a means to keep California's investor-owned utilities from a market downgrade, AB 1054 will establish a $21 billion wildfire fund to pay eligible claims from a covered wildfire; $10.5 billion of the fund will come from extension of an existing charge paid by utility customers and utilities will pay the remaining $10.5 billion. (Note that budget trailer bill AB 111 is joined to the now-enacted AB 1054.)
Eighty pages of amendments were incorporated into the bill on July 5, and the Legislature moved the bill quickly through the legislative process, with the bill landing on the Governor's desk on Thursday of last week. Many members expressed concern about the lack of thorough vetting of the bill, and others raised concerns that the bill rewards bad-acting utilities that have failed to appropriately maintain their infrastructure. (More than one legislator noted that a recent Wall Street Journal article indicated that PG&E had known for years that its lines could spark fires and didn't take steps to fix them.) However, after a hard push from the Governor's Office, which included testimony by Cabinet Secretary Ana Matosantos before legislative policy committees (a move not typically seen in the normal bill-vetting process), AB 1054 was approved by a Senate vote of 31-7 and an Assembly vote of 63-8, easily meeting the two-thirds vote requirement for passage of urgency legislation.
Legislative leaders have pledged to continue working on wildfire prevention issues during the final weeks of session.
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Bills Linked to Health Care Budget Agreement
Several measures advancing in the second house tie to the overall health care budget agreement, as follows:
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Affordability. AB 174, by Assembly Member Jim Wood (Assembly Health Committee chair), now requires Covered California to develop and prepare one or more reports to be issued at least quarterly and be made publicly available within 30 days following the end of each quarter for the purpose of informing the California Health and Human Services Agency, the Legislature, and the public about the enrollment process for the individual market assistance program, established in the 2019-20 Budget Act. The measure is in Senate Appropriations Committee. SB 65, by Senator Richard Pan (the Senate Health Committee chair), was amended to include the same reporting requirements as AB 174. SB 65 passed out of Assembly Health Committee this week and heads to Assembly Appropriations Committee.
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Individual Mandate. AB 414, by Assembly Member Rob Bonta, directs the Franchise Tax Board to report to the Legislature regarding specific information resulting from California's minimum essential health coverage requirement and individual shared responsibility penalty.
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Coverage Expansion.Senator Maria Elena Durazo's SB 29 was amended to expand Medi-Cal to undocumented seniors over the age of 65. The expansion is contingent on funding provided in the budget act; please note that the budget act provided funding to expand Medi-Cal to only undocumented young adults ages 19 through 25. The measure passed out of Assembly Health Committee this week and heads to Assembly Appropriations Committee.
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Emergency Medical Services Dispatch
SB 438, by Senator Bob Hertzberg, passed out of Assembly Health Committee this week with several amendments, including language to address the consent of local agencies to contract for dispatch, alternative to deeming approval of emergency medical dispatch or advanced life support applications from local agencies, and medical control. The specific language is not yet in print.
While the amendments address a number of concerns, county associations continue to have conversations with the author and sponsor about the medical control aspect of the bill. SB 438 is not required to undergo a fiscal committee review, so it heads directly to the Assembly Floor for consideration. |
Increase to DJJ Fee
Although it was eligible for consideration on the Assembly floor last week, Senator Jim Beall's SB 284 was not taken up. This measure would increase from $24,000 to $125,000 the fee counties pay for a specified cohort of youth who are placed in the Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ).
UCC is part of a county coalition that remains concerned that a considerable fee increase would merely divert local resources away from prevention and intervention strategies that permit counties to keep as many youth close to home as possible. If approved by the Assembly, the measure - because it has not been amended in the second house - would move straight to the Governor for his review and action.
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2019-20 State Budget Update
Now that we find ourselves a few weeks into the 2019-20 fiscal year, we wanted to provide (found at this link) you with the full list - including summaries of - all budget trailer bills associated with the state spending plan. This list includes two trailer bill measures sent to and signed by the Governor last week: AB 110 and AB 111. Also in budget-related news, the Department of Finance released a summary last week of the final 2019-20 state spending plan as enacted.
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