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2021 Legislation

AB 43 – SETTING SPEED LIMITS TO ENHANCE TRAFFIC SAFETY

According to the National Transportation Safety Board, speeding accounts for nearly a third of all traffic fatalities. AB 43 implements policy recommendations from the California Transportation Agency as outlined in the Zero Traffic Fatalities Task Force by providing for more flexibility on setting speed limits based on safety.

Status: signed into law

452 – PUPIL SAFETY: PARENTAL NOTIFICATION: FIREARM SAFETY LAWS

75% of school shootings are facilitated by kids having access to unsecured and/or unsupervised guns at home. Safe gun storage saves lives. This bill requires school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools to annually inform parents and guardians of students at the beginning of the school year of California’s child access prevention laws and laws relating to the safe storage of firearms.

Status: Signed into law

AB 468 – SALE OF EMOTIONAL SUPPORT ANIMALS

AB 468 prevents the sale of emotional support animals as guide, signal, or service dogs, and requires the sale of emotional support animals be accompanied with written notice. This bill would also prohibit a health care practitioner from providing documentation relating to an individuals need for an emotional support dog that is not a guide, signal or service dog as defined, unless the health care practitioner complies with specific requirements.

Status: Signed into law

AB 592 – PROMOTING STABLE AND POSITIVE HOUSING IN THE EXTENDED FOSTER YOUTH PROGRAM

AB 592 promotes placement stability and a positive, supported transition to independence for youth participating in the Extended Foster Care Program.

Status: Signed into law

AB 642 – CULTURAL BURNING AND FIRE PREVENTION

AB 642 is an omnibus fire prevention bill that makes various changes to support cultural and prescribed fire, including the creation of a Cultural Burning Liaison at CAL FIRE, and requires a proposal for creating a prescribed fire training center in California. AB 642 also requires CAL FIRE to improve and update wildfire severity maps in the Local Responsibility Area.

Status: Signed into law

AB 652 – BANNING PFAS IN JUVENILE PRODUCTS

PFAS chemicals are harmful to human health. AB 652 would reduce one source of PFAS contamination in our children by prohibiting its use in a range of juvenile products, such as nap pads, crib mattresses, and portable car seats.

Status: Signed into law

AB 679 – INFORMANTS

In nearly 17% of wrongful convictions nationwide, known since 1989, jailhouse informant testimony was a contributing factor. In-custody informants can be incentivized to testify with immunity from prosecution, a reduced sentence, money or other benefits. An informant’s own self-interests, especially when it comes to gaining their own freedom, has led to their false testimony and wrongful convictions. AB 679 makes inadmissible testimony from an in-custody informant regarding statements allegedly made by a defendant while that defendant was in custody.

Status: Placed on the Inactive File

AB 838 – BUILDING CODE ENFORECEMENT

Housing and building codes are intended to ensure that residents are safe in their dwellings. Enforcement of these codes is especially crucial in the context of multi-family rental dwellings, where tenants have limited ability to correct health and safety problems. AB 838 prohibits local code inspection agencies in California from placing restrictions or preconditions before responding to habitability complaints.

Status: Signed into law

AB 1020 – STRENGTHENING CONSUMER PROTECTIONS IN HOSPITAL DEBT COLLECTION

Despite qualifying for charity care or Medi-Cal, patients are still getting hit with large medical bills. This means hospitals are not screening for other coverage or providing charity care at the frequency required under the law. Kaiser Health News reported in 2019 that nonprofit hospitals in California could have—but did not—provide $135 million in charity care to patients. Patients report being discharged and receiving medical bills without knowing they could apply for charity care. Worse, hospitals often sell patient accounts to collections agencies which further neglect to inform patients they could apply for charity care. Consequently, patients face negative credit reporting and, finally, collections lawsuits. AB 1020 strengthens state enforcement and oversight of the Hospital Fair Pricing Act by limiting a hospital’s ability to sell patient debt, providing greater transparency for patients and screening requirements for both hospitals and debt collectors, and penalizing hospitals that do not comply.

 Status: Signed into law

AB 1124 – SOLAR ENERGY SYSTEMS

AB 1124 clarifies existing law to ensure that the permitting fees charged by cities and counties for homes and businesses to install solar are reasonable and consistent, and do not hinder the growth of solar across the state.

Status: Signed into law

AB 1147MEET GREEN HOUSE EMISSIONS GOAL

SB 375 (Steinberg, 2008), the Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act of 2008, was a first-of-its-kind law to recognize the critical role of integrated transportation, land use, and housing decisions to meet state climate goals. AB 1147 takes a multifaceted approach to set California on the course to meet the greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets expected under SB 375 by making changes at the state, local, and regional levels to provide tools, accountability, and incentives for metropolitan planning organizations to meet their 2035 regional GHG emission target.

Status: Vetoed by Governor Newsom

AB 1371 – REDUCING SINGLE-USE PLASTIC PACKAGING IN E-COMMERCE

Single-use plastic packaging is often added to a packaged good for shipment of a product ordered by consumers online. The vast majority of this plastic packaging becomes waste immediately after a package is opened, littering the environment and increasing disposal costs for local jurisdictions, their residents and businesses. AB 1371 will reduce harmful environmental, health, and economic impacts of unnecessary single-use plastic by phasing out the use of most single-use plastic films and expanded polystyrene in e-commerce packaging for online retail purchases.

Status: Did not pass Assembly

AB 1401 – PARKING REQUIREMENTS REFORM

AB 1401 would prohibit a public agency from imposing or enforcing a minimum parking requirement on developments located near public transit. This measure would reduce car dependence, lower carbon emissions, and encourage more housing production near transit.

Status: Held in the Senate Appropriations Committee

AB 1434 – INDOOR RESIDENTIAL WATER USE STANDARD

AB 1434 will update the indoor residential water use efficiency standards to values that more appropriately reflect best practices for indoor residential water use pursuant to the requirements of AB 1668 (Friedman, 2018).

Status: Held in the Assembly Appropriations Committee

AB 1556 – TICKET SELLERS

AB 1556 provides greater consumer protections for ticket buyers by requiring that the ticket price for a cancelled event be refunded within 30 days of the cancellation, and that the ticket price for a postponed or scheduled event to be fully refunded within 30 days of a request by the ticket buyer.

Status: Signed into law

AB 1909 – VEHICLE OMNIBUS BILL

This bill would remove the prohibition of class 3 electric bicycles on a bicycle path or trail, bikeway, bicycle lane, equestrian trail, or hiking or recreational trail, as specified, and would instead authorize a local authority to prohibit the operation of any electric bicycle or any class of electric bicycle on an equestrian trail, or hiking or recreational trail. The bill would also authorize the Department of Parks and Recreation to prohibit the operation of an electric bicycle or any class of electric bicycle on any bicycle path or trail within the department’s jurisdiction.

Status: Signed into law

AB 1933 – PROPERTY TAXATION: Welfare exemption: non-profit corporation: low-income families

This bill would also provide, for lien dates occurring on or after January 1, 2023, and before January 1, 2028, that property is fully exempt from property taxation and is also within that welfare exemption if that property is owned and operated by a nonprofit corporation, as described, that is organized and operated for the specific and primary purpose of building and rehabilitating single or multifamily residential units and the property has units that meet specified requirements.

Status: Signed into law

AB 1938 – TRAFFIC SAFETY: Speed limits

This bill would, if the speed limit needs to be rounded down to the nearest 5 miles per hour increment of the 85th-percentile speed, authorize Caltrans or a local authority to lower the speed limit by 5 miles per hour from the nearest 5 miles per hour of the 85th percentile, as specified. The bill would prohibit the total reduction in the speed limit from exceeding 12.4 miles per hour from the 85th-percentile speed and would authorize a local authority to retain the currently adopted speed limit without further reduction or restore the immediately prior adopted speed limit without further reduction. The bill would make conforming changes.

Status: Signed into law

AB 2024 – HEALTH CARE COVERAGE: Diagnostic imaging

This bill would require a health care service plan contract, health insurance policy, or self-insured employee welfare benefit plan issued, amended, or renewed on or after January 1, 2023, to provide coverage for screening mammography, medically necessary diagnostic or supplemental breast examinations, or testing for screening or diagnostic purposes upon referral by specified professionals. The bill would cover supplemental breast examinations and tests for screening or diagnostic purposes to the extent consistent with nationally recognized, evidence-based guidelines. The bill would prohibit a health care service plan contract, health insurance policy, or self-insured employee welfare benefit plan issued, amended, or renewed on or after January 1, 2023, from imposing cost sharing for screening mammography, medically necessary or supplemental breast examinations, or testing, unless the contract or policy is a high deductible health plan and the deductible has not been satisfied for the year. Because a willful violation of these provisions by a health care service plan would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

Status: Did not pass Appropriations

AB 2026 – RECYCLING: Plastic packaging

This bill would require an e-commerce shipper, as defined, that ships purchased products in or into the state to reduce from its 2023 calendar year levels the total weight and number of units of single-use plastic shipping envelopes, cushioning, and void fill, and expanded and extruded polystyrene, it uses to ship or transport the products, by no less than unspecified percentages on or before January 1, 2030. The bill would establish exemptions from these prohibitions.

The bill would make a violation of the foregoing requirements subject to civil penalties and would require penalties collected by the Attorney General to be deposited into the Plastic Packaging Reduction Penalty Account, which the bill would create, for expenditure by the Attorney General, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to enforce those requirements.

Status: Placed on suspense

AB 2097 – RESIDENTIAL, COMMERCIAL, OR OTHER DEVELOPMENT TYPES: Parking requirements.

This bill would prohibit a public agency from imposing any minimum automobile parking requirement on any residential, commercial, or other development project, as defined, that is located within 1/2 mile of public transit, as defined. The bill, notwithstanding the above-described prohibition, would authorize a city, county, or city and county to impose or enforce minimum automobile parking requirements on a housing development project if the public agency makes written findings, within 30 days of the receipt of a completed application, that not imposing or enforcing minimum automobile parking requirements on the development would have a substantially negative impact, supported by a preponderance of the evidence in the record, on the public agency’s ability to meet its share of specified housing needs or existing residential or commercial parking within 1/2 mile of the housing development.

Status: Signed into law

AB 2189 – FOSTER YOUTH

This bill would prohibit jurisdiction from being terminated over a non-minor dependent who has attained 21 years of age until the county welfare department has provided the non-minor dependent that information and those documents and services and, if the non-minor dependent has not secured housing, until the county welfare department has submitted a report to the court verifying that specified requirements have been met. The bill would extend the authority of the court to retain jurisdiction over a non-minor dependent who has attained 21 years of age for the limited purpose of complying with those requirements. The bill would authorize a non-minor dependent over whom jurisdiction has been extended pursuant to that authorization to continue receiving the support and services they were entitled to receive immediately prior to attaining 21 years of age, and benefits equal to the amount of Aid to Families with Dependent Children-Foster Care (AFDC-FC) program benefits, until jurisdiction has been terminated. By imposing additional duties on county welfare departments, this bill would impose a state-mandated program.

Status: Vetoed by Governor

AB 2309 – GUARDIANSHIPS

This bill would require the parents, whose children are under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court, to execute a written waiver of family maintenance or family reunification services prior to the court ordering a legal guardianship and appointing a legal guardian under the circumstances described above. Under the bill, if the parent designates a specific person to be the child’s guardian, the child, or the child’s legal counsel, as specified, does not object to that person’s appointment, and the court finds that the proposed guardian agrees to the appointment as the child’s guardian, as well as all rights and responsibilities of being a legal guardian, the court would be required to appoint the proposed guardian, unless it finds by a preponderance of the evidence that the person’s appointment would be contrary to the best interests of the child.

Status: Signed into law

AB 2336 – VEHICLES: Speed safety system pilot program

This bill would authorize, until January 1, 2028, the Cities of Los Angeles, Oakland, San Jose, Glendale, and Palm Springs, and the City and County of San Francisco, to establish the Speed Safety System Pilot Program if the system meets specified requirements. The bill would require the participating cities or city and county to adopt a Speed Safety System Use Policy and a Speed Safety System Impact Report before implementing the program, and would require the city or city and county to engage in a public information campaign at least 30 days before implementation of the program, including information relating to when the systems would begin detecting violations and where the systems would be utilized. The bill would require the participating cities or city and county to issue warning notices rather than notices of violations for violations detected within the first 60 calendar days of the program. The bill would require the participating cities or city and county to develop uniform guidelines for, among other things, the processing and storage of confidential information. The bill would designate all photographic, video, or other visual or administrative records, not including data about the number of violations issued or the speeds at which they were issued for, made by a system as confidential, and would only authorize public agencies to use and allow access to these records for specified purposes.

This bill would specify that any violation of a speed law recorded by a speed safety system authorized by these provisions would be subject only to the provided civil penalties. The bill would, among other things, provide for the issuance of a notice of violation, an initial review, an administrative hearing, and an appeals process, as specified, for a violation under this program. The bill would require any program created pursuant to these provisions to offer a diversion program for indigent speed safety system violation recipients, as specified. The bill would require a city or city and county participating in the pilot program to submit reports to the Legislature, as specified, to evaluate the speed safety system to determine the system’s impact on street safety and economic impact on the communities where the system is utilized. Existing law establishes a $25 filing fee for specified appeals and petitions.

This bill would require a $25 filing fee for an appeal challenging a notice of violation issued as a result of a speed safety system until January 1, 2028.

Status: Placed on inactive file

AB 2344 – WILDLIFE CONNECTIVITY: Transportation projects

This bill would require Caltrans, in consultation with DFW and other appropriate agencies, to establish an inventory of connectivity needs on the state highway system where the implementation of wildlife passage features could reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions or enhance wildlife connectivity, as specified. The bill would require Caltrans, no later than July 1, 2024, to develop and publish the inventory and a list of funded transportation projects with wildlife passage features that address wildlife connectivity needs and would require Caltrans to update the inventory and the project list at least once every 2 years.

The bill would require Caltrans, for any project on the state highway system in a connectivity area that adds a traffic lane or that has the potential to significantly impair wildlife connectivity, to perform an assessment, in consultation with DFW, to identify potential wildlife connectivity barriers and any needs for improved permeability, as specified. The bill would require Caltrans to submit the assessment to DFW and, if any structural barrier to wildlife connectivity exists or will be added by the project for target species in the connectivity area, would require the implementing agency to remediate barriers to wildlife connectivity in conjunction with the project. The bill would authorize Caltrans to use compensatory mitigation credits to satisfy these remediation requirements if DFW concurs with the use of those credits.

The bill would establish the Transportation Wildlife Connectivity Remediation Program, to be administered by Caltrans, in consultation with DFW, for the purposes of improving wildlife connectivity across transportation systems in connectivity areas. As part of the program, the bill would require Caltrans, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to develop a program of projects that support the remediation and improvement of wildlife connectivity across transportation systems, as specified. The bill would require Caltrans, in concurrence with DFW, to develop guidelines for the implementation of the program following one or more public workshops and an opportunity for the public to provide written comments. The bill would authorize Caltrans to receive compensatory mitigation credits for the implementation of a project in the program if DFW concurs with the creation of those credits.

Status: Signed into law

AB 2438 – TRANSPORTATION FUNDING: guidelines and plans

This bill would require, no later than January 1, 2024, the state highway system and other transportation improvements, including under the interregional transportation improvement program, the state highway operation and protection program, the Solutions for Congested Corridors Program, the Trade Corridor Enhancement Program, and the program within the Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation Program commonly known as the Local Partnership Program, to include the strategies established in the Climate Action Plan for Transportation Infrastructure adopted by the Transportation Agency, as provided. The bill would also require the Transportation Agency, the California Transportation Commission, and the Department of Transportation, no later than January 1, 2024, to each establish guidelines to ensure transparency and accountability for specified transportation funding programs that they respectively administer and for the project selection processes applicable to those programs. The bill would require those guidelines to meet certain requirements and would require those agencies to hold public workshops to solicit input before establishing the guidelines.

Status: Vetoed by Governor

AB 2667 – DISTRIBUTED ENERGY RESOURCES: Incentives

This bill would require the Energy Commission to use funds appropriated by the Legislature to provide incentives to eligible customers who install behind-the-meter energy storage systems, or self-generation systems paired with energy storage systems, to support statewide customer adoption of clean distributed energy resources, as specified. The bill would require the Energy Commission to establish a system to equitably award incentives and set incentive levels, as specified, and to prioritize certain resources. The bill would authorize the Energy Commission to authorize incentives for different technology types to be combined within this program and with other state-mandated programs, as provided, and would require the Energy Commission to adopt equipment inspection, operation, and verification procedures, and applicable performance criteria for eligible resources, as specified.

Status: Did not pass Assembly

AB 2746 – DRIVING PRIVILEGES: Suspension

This bill would, beginning January 1, 2027, repeal that requirement of the DMV to suspend a person’s driving privilege, would terminate any suspension issued by the DMV pursuant to those provisions prior to January 1, 2027, and would remove the prohibition from issuing or renewing a driver’s license. The bill would repeal the above-described authorization and requirement that the court notify the DMV of a violation of a written promise to appear or a lawfully granted continuance of their promise to appear in court or before a person authorized to receive a deposit of bail. The bill would make other conforming changes.

Existing law prohibits a person from driving a motor vehicle upon a highway, unless the person holds a valid driver’s license, except as specified. A violation of this provision is a misdemeanor.

Status: Signed into law

AB 2771 – COSMETIC PRODUCTS: Safety

This bill would prohibit, beginning January 1, 2025, a person or entity from manufacturing, selling, delivering, holding, or offering for sale in commerce any cosmetic product that contains intentionally added perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances PFAS, as defined.

Status: Signed into law

ACR 33 – WILDFIRE MITIGATION

ACR 33 emphasizes California’s commitment and prioritization to identify all solutions to enhance wildfire mitigation efforts and reduce wildfire risk that negatively impacts the state’s public health, safety, economy, infrastructure, and environment.

Status: Signed into law