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CA Bills are in the Second House!

Be sure to meet with your Legislators....

June 16, 2023 Update: Below A Voice for Choice Advocacy gives you a detailed description of all the bills we are Opposing and Supporting. While AVFCA will send out separate emails alerting you to actions you can take on the key bills, such as AB 659 and SB 499, the key action to take in the next few weeks is to meet with your California Assembly Member and State Senator, and share your concerns on the opposing bills and support for their work in getting good legislation passed.
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✘ 2023 CA BAD Bills ✘

A Voice for Choice Advocacy is Actively Opposing the following bills:

✘ AB-659 Cancer Prevention Act (Aguiar-Curry): declare the public policy of the state that students who are 8th grade to 26 years of age are expected to be fully vaccinated against HPV before enrolling in 8th grade or a public California higher education institution ( [link removed] [[link removed]] )
AVFCA Position: Opposed, unless further amended, to 1) change the language from "expected" to "recommended", 2) add a clause which states the HPV vaccine is not required for entrance, and 3) to remove the notification to 6th graders.
Status: Referred to Senate Education and Health Committees. Will be heard in the Senate Health Committee on June 28.
Take Action : Meet with your local State Senator or their staff sharing your concerns and request for amendments ( [link removed] [[link removed]] ). Talk to parents to do the same.


✘ AB 665 consent to mental health services (Carrillo) : This bill relates to current statute which allows 12+ year old minors to attain mental health services without their parent’s consent. This law currently appears in both the Health & Safety Code and the Family Code, but differs somewhat and so AB 665 aims to make the two code sections consistent. However, there are areas where the bill has removed criteria which the minors must meet in order to get treatment, making treatment options for which they can consent much broader, especially with regard to Residential Shelter Services. ( [link removed] [[link removed]] )
AVFCA Position: Unofficially opposed unless amended - AVFCA is working with the author's office and Senate Judiciary Consultant to reinstate the criteria or ensure these services are only for homeless youth.
Status: Will be heard in Senate Judiciary Committee on June 20.
Take Action : Meet with your local State Senator or their staff sharing your concerns ( [link removed] [[link removed]] ). Talk to parents to do the same.



A Voice for Choice Advocacy is Opposing the following bill, but it has been put On Hold (likely defeated, but could still be brought back):

✘ AB-1660 Cosmetic products: perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) (Ta) : This bill would authorize a person or entity to petition the board to exempt an intentionally added PFAS from that prohibition, and would authorize the state board to, in consultation with the State Water Resources Control Board, the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, and the Department of Toxic Substances Control, exempt an intentionally added PFAS from that prohibition if the state board determines that the intentionally added PFAS meets specified qualifications. ( [link removed] [[link removed]] )

AVFCA Position: Opposed.
Status: ON HOLD



✔ 2022 CA GOOD Bills ✔

A Voice for Choice Advocacy is Actively Supporting the following bills, which can be used as meetings openers:

✔ SB-499 Cool Schools Act (Menjivar):
This bill would, on or before January 1, 2025, require all schoolsites, as defined, to develop an extreme heat action plan, as specified, and, by January 1, 2027, to begin implementation of their extreme heat action plan. ( [link removed] [[link removed]] )
AVFCA Position: Bill Sponsor.
Status: In Assembly awaiting committee assignment.

✔ AB-57 California Pocket Forest Initiative (Kalra):
This bill would authorize the department to provide grants to cities, counties, districts, nonprofit organizations, and public schools to establish pocket forests on public lands; prioritize disadvantaged communities and communities that lack publicly accessible green space for these grants. ( [link removed] [[link removed]] )
AVFCA Position: Support.
Status: In Senate Rules Committee awaiting assignment.

✔ AB-527 Urban forestry: school greening projects: grants (Calderon):
This bill would require funds appropriated or allocated to the department for the bill’s purposes to be administered to support school greening, as defined, by providing grants to eligible local educational agencies, as defined, nonprofit organizations, cities, counties, and districts, including special districts, through a competitive grant process. ( [link removed] [[link removed]] )
AVFCA Position: Support.
Status: In Senate Rules Committee awaiting assignment.

✔ SB-28 Education finance: school facilities: Public Preschool, K–12, and College Health and Safety Bond Act of 2024 (Glazer):
This bill would establish the 2024 State School Facilities Fund, and authorize the board to apportion, and make disbursements of, moneys in the fund, as provided, including funding for health and safety projects by a school district, and test for lead in water outlets used for drinking or preparing food on schoolsites serving kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, as provided. ( [link removed] [[link removed]] )
AVFCA Position: Support.
Status: Re-referred to Assembly Education and Higher Education Committees pursuant to Assembly Rule 96.

✔ AB-247 Education finance: school facilities: Kindergarten Through Community College Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2024 (Muratsuchi):
This bill would set forth the Kindergarten Through Community College Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2024 as a state general obligation bond act that would provide an unspecified amount to construct and modernize education facilities, as specified. ( [link removed] [[link removed]] )
AVFCA Position: Support.
Status : Referred to Senate Education and Governance & Finance Committees; awaiting hearing date

✔ AB-249 Water: schoolsites: lead testing: conservation (Holden):
This bill would require a community water system that serves a schoolsite with a building constructed before January 1, 2010, to test for lead in the potable water system of the schoolsite before January 1, 2027, and for the community water system to report its findings to the applicable school or local educational agency. ( [link removed] [[link removed]] )
AVFCA Position: Support.
Status : In Senate Rules Committee awaiting assignment.

✔ SB-348 Pupil Meals (Skinner):
This bill would authorize local educational agencies to provide only one meal on each 4-hour schoolday unless the State Department of Education receives a waiver from the USDA; require the State Department of Education, in partnership with specified entities to determine the maximum amount of added sugar to be allowed in a nutritionally adequate breakfast or lunch, as provided. ( [link removed] [[link removed]] )
AVFCA Position: Support.
Status : Referred to Assembly Education and Human Services Committees; awaiting hearing dates.

✔ AB-418 Food Product Safety (Gabriel):
This bill, commencing January 1, 2025, would prohibit a person or entity from manufacturing, selling, delivering, distributing, holding, or offering for sale, in commerce a food product that contains any specified substance, including, among others, brominated vegetable oil and red dye 3. ( [link removed] [[link removed]] )
AVFCA Position: Support.
Status : Referred to the Senate Health Committee; awaiting hearing date.

✔ AB-660 Food labeling: quality dates, safety dates, and sell by dates (Irwin):
This bill would require the Department of Food and Agriculture to, in consultation with the State Department of Public Health, before January 1, 2025, publish information to assist food manufacturers, processors, and retailers responsible for the labeling of food products to use specified terms on food product labels to communicate quality dates and safety dates, as provided. ( [link removed] [[link removed]] )
AVFCA Position: Support.
Status : Referred to Senate Health and Agriculture Committees; awaiting hearing dates.

✔ AB-406 Agriculture: Healthy Soils Program and California Farmland Conservancy Program (Connolly):
This bill would additionally authorize the Healthy Soils Program to include the funding of organic farming projects that further the goals of the program and require the department to establish the technical advisory committee if it elects to fund those projects, as specified. ( [link removed] [[link removed]] )
AVFCA Position: Support.
Status : Assembly Appropriations Committee hearing postponed on May 18.

✔ AB-408 Climate-resilient Farms, Sustainable Healthy Food Access, and Farmworker Protection Bond Act of 2024 (Wilson):
This bill would enact the Climate-resilient Farms, Sustainable Healthy Food Access, and Farmworker Protection Bond Act of 2024, which would authorize the issuance of bonds in the amount of $3,365,000,000 pursuant to the State General Obligation Bond Law, to finance programs related to, among other things, agricultural lands, food and fiber infrastructure, climate resilience, agricultural professionals, including farmers, ranchers, and farmworkers, workforce development and training, air quality, tribes, disadvantaged communities, nutrition, food aid, meat processing facilities, and fishing facilities. ( [link removed] [[link removed]] )
AVFCA Position: Support.
Status : In Senate Rules Committee awaiting assignment.

✔ AB-363 Pesticides: neonicotinoids for nonagricultural use: reevaluation: regulations (Bauer-Kahan):
This bill would require the Department of Pesticide Regulation, by July 1, 2024, to issue a determination, taking into account the latest science, with respect to a reevaluation of neonicotinoids on pollinating insects, aquatic ecosystems, and human health when used for the nonagricultural protection of outdoor ornamental plants, trees, and turf, and, by July 1, 2026, to adopt control measures for that use that are necessary to protect pollinating insects, aquatic ecosystems, and human health, as provided. ( [link removed] [[link removed]] )
AVFCA Position: Support.
Status : In Senate Rules Committee awaiting assignment.

✔ AB-1752 Bees: pesticides: civil penalties (Rivas):
In addition to existing regulations by the Secretary of Food and Agriculture necessary to minimize pesticide hazards to bees, this bill would authorize a county agricultural commissioner, in lieu of a civil prosecution by the secretary, to levy a civil penalty of not more than $3,000 per violation against a person violating said regulations. ( [link removed] [[link removed]] )
AVFCA Position: Support.
Status : Referred to Senate Agriculture Committee; hearing postponed on May 31.

✔ SB-675 Prescribed grazing: local assistance grant program: Regional Forest and Fire Capacity Program: Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force (Limon):
This bill would expand the definition of fire prevention activities to include prescribed grazing, defined as the lawful application of a specific kind of livestock at a determined season, duration, and intensity to accomplish defined vegetation or conservation goals, including reducing the risk of wildfire by reducing fuel loads, controlling undesirable or invasive plants, and promoting biodiversity and habitat for special status species. ( [link removed] [[link removed]] )
AVFCA Position: Support.
Status : Referred to Assembly Natural Resources Committee; awaiting hearing date.

✔ AB-1042 Department of Pesticide Regulation: Sustainable Pest Management Workgroup (Bauer-Kahan):
This bill would require the Director of Pesticide Regulation to adopt regulations to govern the use and disposal of seeds treated with a pesticide and to prohibit the use of seeds treated with a pesticide that meets specified conditions. ( [link removed] [[link removed]] )
AVFCA Position: Support.
Status : Referred to Senate Environmental Quality and Agriculture Committees; awaiting hearing dates.

✔ AB-246 Menstrual products: perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) (Papan):
Beginning January 1, 2025, this bill prohibits any person from manufacturing, distributing, selling, or offering for sale in California any menstrual products that contain regulated PFAS, and requires a manufacturer to use the least toxic alternative when removing regulated PFAS in menstrual products. ( [link removed] [[link removed]] )
AVFCA Position: Support.
Status : Referred to Senate Environmental Quality and Judiciary Committees; awaiting hearing dates.

✔ AB-496 Cosmetic Safety (Friedman):
Existing law, commencing January 1, 2025, prohibits a person or entity from manufacturing, selling, delivering, holding, or offering for sale in commerce any cosmetic product that contains any of several specified intentionally added ingredients except under specified circumstances. This bill would, commencing January 1, 2027, expand that prohibition by adding specified banned ingredients. ( [link removed] [[link removed]] )
AVFCA Position: Support.
Status : Referred to Senate Environmental Quality Committee; ordered to third reading.

✔ SB-303 Solid waste: Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act (Allen):
This bill would authorize the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery to adopt regulations to identify responsible end markets, and to establish criteria regarding benefits to the environment while minimizing risks to public health and worker health and safety. ( [link removed] [[link removed]] )
AVFCA Position: Support.
Status : Referred to Assembly Natural Resources and Judiciary Committees; awaiting hearing dates.

✔ AB-1290 Product safety: plastic packaging: substances (Rivas):
This bill would prohibit, beginning January 1, 2026, a person from manufacturing, selling, offering for sale, or distributing in the state, (1) opaque or pigmented polyethylene terephthalate bottles, and (2) plastic packaging that contains certain chemicals, pigments, or additives, and also exclude from that prohibition packaging used for certain medical, drug, and federally regulated products.
AVFCA Position: Support.
Status : Ordered to inactive file by author on May 31.

✔ AB-1423 Product safety: perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and PFAS products (Schiavo):
This bill would, commencing January 1, 2024, require a manufacturer or installer of a covered surface, defined as artificial turf or a synthetic surface that resembles grass, proposing to design, sell, or install a field with a covered surface to any party to notify the party at the earliest possible date that the covered surface contains regulated PFAS, and also prohibit, commencing January 1, 2024, a public entity, including a charter city, charter county, city, or county, any public or private school serving pupils in kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, a public institution of higher education, other than the University of California, or a private institution of higher education from purchasing or installing a covered surface containing regulated PFAS, as provided. ( [link removed] [[link removed]] )
AVFCA Position: Support.
Status : Referred to Senate Environmental Quality and Governance & Finance Committees; awaiting hearing dates.

✔ AB-727 Product safety: cleaning products: perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (Weber):
This bill, beginning January 1, 2025, would prohibit a person from manufacturing, selling, delivering, distributing, holding, or offering for sale in the state a cleaning product that contains regulated PFAS, as specified. ( [link removed] [[link removed]] )
AVFCA Position: Support.
Status : Amended and re-referred to Senate Environmental Quality Committee.

✔ AB-347 Household product safety: toxic substances: testing and enforcement (Ting):
This bill would require the Department of Toxic Substances Control to enforce and ensure compliance with the Cleaning Product Right to Know Act of 2017. ( [link removed] [[link removed]] )
AVFCA Position: Support.
Status : In Senate Rules Committee awaiting assignment.

✔ AB-234 Microparticles (Bauer-Kahan):
This bill would enact the Synthetic Polymer Microparticles in Cosmetic and Cleaning Products Prevention Act, prohibiting a synthetic polymer microparticle from being placed on the market in this state as a substance on its own or, where the synthetic polymer microparticles are present to confer a sought-after characteristic, in mixtures in a concentration equal to or greater than 0.01% by weight. ( [link removed] [[link removed]] )
AVFCA Position: Support.
Status : Amended and re-referred to Assembly Natural Resources Committee.

✔ SB-665 Plastic waste: single-use plastics alternatives: working group (Allen):
Requires the California Environmental Protection Agency, by January 1, 2025, to establish a working group to establish a framework for evaluating novel material types as they are developed, in order to inform state policy decisions designed to create a more sustainable and circular economy. ( [link removed] [[link removed]] )
AVFCA Position: Support.
Status : Referred to Assembly Natural Resources Committee; awaiting hearing date.

✔ AB-99 State highways: vegetation management: herbicides and pesticides (Connolly):
This bill would require the Department of Transportation to adopt a statewide policy to use integrated pest management, as defined, on state roads and highways, as specified, and to implement the statewide policy in counties that have adopted integrated pest management approaches to road-side vegetation management. ( [link removed] [[link removed]] )
AVFCA Position: Support.
Status : Referred to Senate Environmental Quality and Transportation Committees; awaiting hearing dates.

✔ AB-824 Highway greening: statewide strategic plan (Calderon):
This bill would enact the Highway Greening Act, which would require the department to complete a statewide strategic plan, as specified, to achieve a 10% increase of green highways, as defined, in urban areas, disadvantaged communities, and low-income communities by 2035. ( [link removed] [[link removed]] )
A VFCA Position: Support.
Status : Referred to Senate Transportation Committee; awaiting hearing date.

✔ AB-1238 Hazardous waste: solar panels (Ward):
This bill would require the department to develop alternative management standards for managing photovoltaic modules, and specify parameters for the standards, including, but not limited to, that they promote the safe collection, reuse, and recycling of photovoltaic modules. ( [link removed] [[link removed]] )
AVFCA Position: Support.
Status : Referred to Senate Environmental Quality Committee; awaiting hearing date.

✔ AB-830 Water: general state powers (Soria):
This bill streamlines permitting for Flood-MAR projects or beneficial groundwater recharge necessary to protect downstream life and property. ( [link removed] [[link removed]] )
AVFCA Position: Support.
Status : In Senate Rules Committee awaiting assignment.

✔ AB-1407 Coastal resources: ocean recovery and restoration: large-scale restoration (Addis):
This bill would require the Ocean Protection Council, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to establish a Kelp Forest and Estuary Restoration and Recovery Framework that has a goal of restoring by 2050 an unspecified number of acres of kelp forests, eelgrass meadows, and native oyster beds. ( [link removed] [[link removed]] )
AVFCA Position: Support.
Status : Referred to Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee; awaiting hearing date.

✔ SB-597 Rainwater capture systems (Glazer):
This bill would require the department to conduct research, as specified, to assist in the development of mandatory building standards for the installation of rainwater catchment systems in newly constructed residential dwellings. ( [link removed] [[link removed]] )
AVFCA Position: Support.
Status : Referred to Assembly Housing & Community Development Committee; awaiting hearing date.

✔ SB-676 Local ordinances and regulations: drought-tolerant landscaping (Allen):
Prohibits a city, including a charter city, county, or city and county from enacting or enforcing any ordinance or regulation that prohibits the installation of drought-tolerant landscaping using living plant material on residential property. ( [link removed] [[link removed]] )
AVFCA Position: Support.
Status : Referred to Assembly Local Government Committee; awaiting hearing date.

✔ AB-48 Nursing Facility Resident Informed Consent Protection Act of 2023 (Aguiar-Curry):
This bill would add to the rights of patients that every resident receive information that is material to an individual’s informed consent decision concerning whether to accept or refuse the administration of psychotherapeutic drugs, as well as the right to be free from psychotherapeutic drugs used for the purpose of resident discipline, convenience, or chemical restraint, except in an emergency. ( [link removed] [[link removed]] )
AVFCA Position: Support.
Status : Referred to Senate Health and Senate Judiciary Committees; awaiting hearing dates.

✔ AB-310 CalWORKs (Arambula):
This bill would, among other things, revise and recast the welfare-to-work program, by renaming it as the family assistance program, repealing the provision that makes participation in work activities a condition of eligibility for CalWORKs aid, and instead requiring that every recipient be provided with an opportunity to participate in family assistance activities. ( [link removed] [[link removed]] )
AVFCA Position: Support.
Status : In Senate Rules Committee awaiting assignment.

A Voice for Choice Advocacy is Supporting the following bills, but they have been put On Hold (could be brought back in 2024):

✔ AB-1615 Pupil nutrition: school meals (Hoover):
Existing law requires the State Department of Education to comply with the federal “Buy American provision,” as provided. This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to that provision. ( [link removed] [[link removed]] )
AVFCA Position: Support.
Status : ON HOLD

✔ SB-625 Newborn screening: genetic diseases: blood samples collected (Nguyen):
This bill would require the department to provide information about the genetic testing program, and to obtain written consent from the parent or guardian acknowledging receiving information regarding the storage, retention, and use of the newborn child’s blood sample for medical research. ( [link removed] [[link removed]] )
AVFCA Position: Support.
Status : ON HOLD

✔ AB-343 Southern Los Angeles: ocean dumpsites: chemical waste (Muratsuchi):
This bill would require the California Environmental Protection Agency, until January 1, 2028, to hold at least 4 public meetings per year, with the first meeting occurring on or before March 31, 2024, to, among other things, provide members of the public with current information on the agency’s efforts to study and mitigate DDT and other chemical waste located at Dumpsite-1 and Dumpsite-2 off the coast of Los Angeles. ( [link removed] [[link removed]] )
AVFCA Position: Support.
Status: ON HOLD



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Together we can make change happen!

C
Christina Hildebrand
President/Founder
A Voice for Choice Advocacy, Inc.
[email protected] [[email protected]]
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www.avoiceforchoiceadvocacy.org [www.avoiceforchoiceadvocacy.org]
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