Assemblymember Laura Friedman's proposed legislation for the 2017-18 session:
AB 766 – A college degree opens the door to a lifetime of opportunity, but for California’s foster youth, it can be out of reach without support. AB 766 ensures that minors in foster care can attend college while still receiving the supports and services of the foster care system. By extending the Supervised Independent Living Placement eligibility to minors, a college degree can become an attainable reality.
AB 975 – California has 1,362 miles of state-designated rivers in the California Wild and Scenic Rivers System – critical habitat for wildlife with extraordinary historical, cultural, and environmental value. As uncertainty mounts at the federal level, AB 975 ensures that California’s rivers that have a federal designation as Wild and Scenic are also protected under state law.
AB 1000 – The California desert is home to some of our state's most important and fragile ecosystems. AB 1000 would ensure that any future water transfers from groundwater basins underlying desert lands do not adversely affect the California desert’s natural or cultural resources, including groundwater resources or habitat.
AB 1208 – California law currently provides a 30 calendar day window for school districts to approve a family’s request to transfer schools, however, when a district is burdened with a high volume of requests, requests can be denied simply because the district ran out of time. AB 1208 changes the window to 30 business days, granting districts and families a little more flexibility to get the transfer process right for students.
AB 1286 – California’s airports are the gateway for millions of travelers every year – the volume creates ongoing pressure for the development and maintenance of modern infrastructure to meet their needs. AB 1286 removes the sunset clause for the airports’ authority to impose or increase a customer facility charge on car rentals for the development of consolidated rental facilities.
AB 1350 – California is in the midst of an affordable housing crisis. AB 1350 proposes an innovative solution, allowing local governments the flexibility to determine the best option for the development of affordable housing in their communities. For cities that either cannot, or do not want to, build affordable housing, they would be able to pay into an affordable housing fund that could be used by neighboring communities to build units to meet the area’s needs.
AB 1352 – Families seeking to adopt a child in California can face significant barriers before an adoption is finalized. AB 1352 streamlines the adoption process and improves privacy of mothers by waiving the notice requirements for presumed fathers when it can be proven by clear and convincing evidence that the individual is not the father of the child.
AB 1393 – While reckless driving and illegal street racing have been a problem faced by law enforcement for decades, recent research has found that vehicle impoundments are an effective public safety tool that has been proven to change driver behavior. AB 1393 updates the law and requires a mandatory 30-day vehicle impound penalty upon conviction of street racing or reckless driving – a penalty that has a proven record of results.
AB 1400 – Municipalities, businesses, college campuses and government agencies, including the Department of Defense are turning to microgrids for both electricity reliability and climate change resiliency. AB 1400 would bar recipients of grants from the California Energy Commission for mircogrid projects from spending any of the funds received on dirty fossil fuel generators.
AB 1414 – More and more Californians are moving towards solar as a source for clean energy in their homes. Unfortunately, the building permit fees for the installation of solar projects can vary widely across communities. To improve the affordability and accessibility of solar installations, AB 1414 makes permanent a cap on residential and commercial solar permit fees, lowers the cap to $350 for residential installations, and includes solar thermal and ground mounted systems under the cap.
AB 1458 – Transparency is always a good thing, especially during campaign season. AB 1458 requires all candidates to include on their campaign website a link to the California Secretary of State’s campaign finance report website – giving voters a clear view of the individuals and organizations funding their campaign.
AB 1560 – In clinics and hospitals across California, nurse practitioners provide critical health care services to millions. However, an arbitrary supervision ratio that limits the number of nurse practitioners that a physician can supervise to just four, creates a significant barrier to providers hoping to staff their centers to meet the needs of the community. AB 1560 eliminates the ratio, easing access to quality health care, particularly in underserved communities.
AB 1667 – The recent drought in California has shown that whether it’s a wet or dry year, we use more water than is naturally available. AB 1667 will help to ensure that Californians have secure and sustainable water supplies now and in the future by improving agricultural water management practices, planning, and reporting.
AB 1668 – In 2016, Governor Brown and his administration outlined water conservation goals in an executive order and the “Making Water Conservation a California Way of Life” report. AB1668 will strengthen local efforts to combat periods of drought by improving how we manage our water resources and plan for periods of water shortage. This bill will direct the Department of Water Resources, in consultation with the State Water Resources Control Board, to update and set standardized requirements for urban water management plans.
AB 1669 - Keeping in line with California’s aggressive water conservation goals, AB 1669 requires the State Water Resources Control Board, in consultation with the Department of Water Resources and other state agencies, to adopt a process to increase urban water use efficiency through incremental urban water use efficiency standards to be achieved by the state by January 1, 2025, and update the standards every five years.