AB 44 -- The fur industry has long been associated with inhumane practices and recent evidence shows that fur also has a negative environmental impact AB 44 makes it unlawful to sell, give, or manufacture a new fur product in the state. If passed, California will be the first state in the country to ban the cruel and unnecessary fur trade within its borders.
AB 60 – California’s recurring droughts are prompting a closer look at the use and management of the state’s water resources. As important as water metering is, there are no performance standards for the use and efficiency of water meters installed in California. AB 60 requires the California Energy Commission to set standards for the accuracy of water meters before installation.
AB 276 -- Safe storage laws promote responsible gun-owning practices by requiring gun owners to keep their firearms out of the reach of others, such as intruders or prohibited persons, who could use the weapon to deadly effect. These laws help prevent tragedies due to unintentional discharges, suicide, and gun theft by creating an environment that helps ensure firearms are only used by their rightful owners.
AB 276 requires a firearm to be securely stored against theft or unauthorized access when left in a residence.
AB 285 -- Direct emissions from the tailpipes of cars, trucks, off-road transportation sources, intrastate aviation, and more, accounted for 39% of California’s greenhouse gas emissions inventory in 2016. AB 285 requires Caltrans to address in future updates to the California Transportation Plan how the state will achieve its greenhouse gas emissions reductions goals consistent with recently passed SB 32 (Pavley, 2016) and Governor Brown’s Executive Order (B-55-18) on carbon neutrality.
AB 383 -- California has dozens of programs designed to support clean energy financing solutions across several agencies and offices, ranging from rebates for solar homes to tax credits for bus retrofits. While all these clean energy programs may be successful on their own, the sheer number of programs and the variety of managing entities makes coordination difficult. AB 383 creates a centralized Clean Energy Financing Office within the Office of the Treasurer to provide strategic leadership for coordinated public and private investment. AB 383 is jointly authored by Assemblymembers Mayes and Friedman.
AB 531 -- While California has created housing options to meet the varied needs of transition age youth and non-minor dependents, there remains a shortage of adequate and affordable housing to support the full array of youth participating in extended foster care. AB 531 increases the housing options available for foster youth in the Extended Foster Youth Program by creating housing navigators to aid youth in locating and securing appropriate housing and support transitions to independence, strengthening accountability at the county level, and streamlining the certification process for providers.
AB 587 -- Secondary units or Accessory Dwelling Units have been identified as an important piece of the solution to California’s housing crisis. AB 587 creates a narrow exemption for affordable housing organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, with the consent of the local jurisdiction, to sell deed-restricted land to eligible low-income homeowners and provides the necessary housing to those in need.
AB 700 -- In California, ideologically diverse special interests, businesses, and individuals are increasingly using the California Public Record Act to disrupt research at public universities. The law is being used as a tool to threaten researchers, disrupt researchers’ work, dissuade them from collaborating with colleagues, and discourage research on “hot” topics with societal relevance. AB 700 would address this narrow issue and modernize the Public Record Act to encourage inquiry and knowledge production at public universities.
AB 937 (by Assemblymember Robert Rivas) -- California’s agricultural industry feeds the world, and as water resources for irrigation grow increasingly limited, farmers have been turning to new sources to irrigate their crops, including wastewater from the oil industry. To protect public health, AB 937 requires a Regional Water Quality Control Board to determine whether utilizing oil wastewater for irrigation of crops and other beneficial uses is safe, before additional permits can be approved.
AB 1034 -- California’s network of community care facilities consists of a range of residential facilities, adult day programs, foster family homes, community treatment facilities and daycare facilities serving children and adults across the state. AB 1034 strengthens the emergency preparedness plans and training standards for California’s community care facilities to ensure that they are adequately prepared to respond to emergencies and keep some of California’s most vulnerable residents safe in the face of disaster.
AB 1080 -- Every day, single-use packaging and products in California generate tons of non-recyclable and non-compostable waste impacting our health, natural environment, and local governments. AB 1080 sets goals to reduce waste from single-use packaging and products and ensure the remaining items are effectively recycled. AB 1080 is jointly authored by Assemblymembers Gonzalez, Friedman and Ting.
AB 1110 -- California has seen rising housing costs impact all communities and residents regardless of income status. According to the State Legislative Analyst Office, an average California home costs approximately 2.5 times the average national home price and the average rent is approximately 50% higher in California than the rest of the country. AB 1110 amends California noticing requirements for rent increases by implementing new, longer noticing periods to tenants, depending upon the amount of the proposed rent increase.
AB 1111 -- California’s outdoor recreation economy is the largest in the United States. Purchases of outdoor equipment and goods, recreation-oriented travel and transportation, other retail, food, and equipment purchases, and payment of entrance and access fees to recreational areas in California make our outdoor recreation economy one of the top economic sectors in the state. AB 1111 creates a state Office of Outdoor Recreation to increase jobs and economic growth in the outdoor recreation industry, promote outdoor recreation opportunities for all Californians, and foster collaboration among state and local partners to increase recreation-oriented tourism.
AB 1142 -- Recent studies show that California will not meet its climate goals from the transportation sector. AB 1142 addresses gaps in California’s strategies to reduce transportation emissions by requiring Regional Transportation Plans to measure trips made by riding sharing companies such as Uber and Lyft, and identify community specific barriers that reduce utilization of public transit. This bill also requires the Strategic Growth Council to fund and support pilot projects that will enhance the use of existing public transit infrastructure and reduce vehicle miles travelled.
AB 1180 -- The California Code of Regulations, Title 22 regulates the use of recycled water in California. The regulations for California’s vast network of purple pipes, which provide recycled water for non-potable uses in every county in the state, have not been updated for 19 years. AB 1180 requires the state to update these regulations, incorporating the knowledge and lessons learned from nearly two decades of non-potable water recycling, to help the state to achieve its ambitious goals for recycled water use.
AB 1407 -- Illegal street racing continues to create a significant public safety threat across California. In order to combat reckless driving and street racing, law enforcement entities have turned to evidence-based penalties like extended vehicle impoundments that have proven to change driver behavior. AB 1407 requires a 30-day impound penalty for a vehicle used in connection with a second or subsequent conviction of reckless driving or speed racing.
AB 1414 -- The comprehensive Long-Term Water Use Efficiency Legislative Package - Assembly Bill 1668 (Friedman) and Senate Bill 606 (Hertzberg) - were signed into law by Governor Brown on May 31, 2018. Both bills included new reporting requirements for water agencies in addition to existing requirements in law for Urban Water Management Plans and Water Loss Audit Reports. AB 1414 streamlines these reporting requirements, which are increasingly time-intensive and resource intensive to complete.
AB 1415 – California is committed to the conservation and efficient use of water and preventing the waste of this valuable resource through a variety of laws that require planning and reporting by local public entities. But many local entities simply do not submit their reports to California’s Department of Water Resources as required by law. This bill authorizes the department to impose and collect civil penalties from local public entities -- urban and agricultural water suppliers, cities, and counties -- that fail to submit water-related reports and plans.
AB 1516 -- During 2017 and 2018 California experienced the largest fires ever recorded in its history. In 2017, over 1.3 million acres burned in high-severity wildfires and over 10,000 structures were destroyed. In 2018, over 1.8 million acres burned and over 22,700 structures were destroyed. Over one hundred Californian’s have died from wildfires over the last two years. AB 1516 improves defensible space requirements and compliance to protect lives, businesses and homes.
AB 1560 -- California law allows for an exemption from the California Environmental Quality Act for residential, employment center, and mixed-use projects within a “major transit stop.” However current law excludes from this exemption some areas across the state that are well served by transit. AB 1560 revises the definition of “major transit stop” to include a bus rapid transit station, which is served by a local circulator or a local serving on-demand transit program.
AB 1799 -- California’s transition to a carbon-neutral economy can be threatened by natural gas price volatility resulting from a range of factors, making it difficult to understand the real impact of new standards and regulations while also potentially inspiring investments in additional gas infrastructure and delivery. AB 1799 requires the California Energy Commission to identify, collect, and analyze certain data regarding the natural gas market to determine causes of natural gas price volatility experienced by its customers. The bill also requires utilities to identify ways to manage and reduce risk from price volatility in the wholesale electricity and natural gas markets in their integrated resource plans.
SB 458 (by Senator Durazo) -- Nearly a million pounds of chlorpyrifos are used on California’s crops each year—mainly on fruits, nuts, and vegetables—exposing children and pregnant women to a chemical that permanently damages the developing brain. SB 458 prohibits the use of a pesticide that contains the active ingredient chlorpyrifos. Assemblymember Friedman is the principal co-author of SB 458.