Government Relations Update

By Rebecca Gonzales, Director of Government Relations and Political Affairs

The Legislative session is in recess for the month of July before reconvening in August for the last month of session. All bills are in their second house, which means Assembly bills are moving through the Senate and Senate bills are being heard in the Assembly. It is almost the end of the line before bills are sent to the Governor for his signature or veto.

Two of our Lobby Day bills are still moving through the process. They are AB 1455 (Campos), which provides a school counseling referral for the victims of school bullies. Current law only stipulates a referral for the bullies. The other Lobby Day bill moving is AB 1554 (Skinner),which strengthens the oversight of Residential Care Facilities for the Elderly by Community Care Licensing.

There have been a few disappointments thus far. Most notably, the failure of SB 935 (Leno), which would have increased the minimum wage to $13 by January 1, 2017 and instituted an automatic adjustment thereafter to maintain employee purchasing power. Last year we supported AB 10 (Alejo), which raised the minimum wage with the first increase taking place on July 1st. The Leno bill would have raised the minimum wage more aggressively and it also would have set up an automatic adjustment.

Another bill that failed was SB 899 (Mitchell), which would have ended the maximum family grant that prohibits an increase in a grant payment for a child born when a parent is on CalWORKs. Despite these defeats, many more bills that we support are still moving through the process.

We are also keeping a close watch on several bills, including SB 570 (DeSaulnier),which would set up a licensure procedure for drug and alcohol counselors. We want to make sure this license matches up to the rigorous standards provided by other licenses.

We are also concerned about, and currently oppose, AB 2198 (Levine), which requires additional CEUs on suicide prevention for LCSWs who completed graduate study prior to January 1, 2016. For those who begin graduate study on or after January 1, 2016, the bill requires coursework in suicide prevention. We believe that a statewide taskforce on suicide prevention would be a better way to determine best practices and actually reduce suicides in this state.

Other Support Bills

AB 1517 (Skinner) DNA Evidence

This bill helps to reduce the backlog in untested rape kits by specifying guidelines for testing and entering DNA profile information into CODIS, the FBI’s national DNA database.

Status: Senate Appropriations Committee

AB 1579 (Stone) CalWORKs: Pregnant Mothers

The bill will allow for a pregnant woman to receive aid each month that she is pregnant, beginning the month in which she submits verification of her pregnancy — rather than current law which only allows aid in the last four months of the pregnancy.

Status: Senate Appropriations suspense file

AB 1652 (Ammiano) Inmates: Prison Gangs

This bill attempts to reduce the overuse of solitary confinement by reserving its use for inmates who have committed a serious offense while incarcerated rather than using solitary confinement for being associated with a gang.

Status: Failed on the Assembly Floor

AB 1653 (Garcia) CalWORKs: Victims of Domestic Violence

This bill seeks to ensure CalWORKs applicants and recipients who are present or past victims of domestic violence are provided appropriate and timely information regarding their rights to a waiver of program requirements if adherence to those requirements would unfairly penalize them or put them at risk of further abuse.

Status: Senate Appropriations Committee

AB 1733 (Quirk-Silva) Public Records: Fee Waiver

This bill requires each county registrar or recorder to issue a certificated birth certificate, without a fee, to a homeless person or youth who has corroborating evidence that they are homeless.

Status: Senate Appropriations Committee

AB 1929 (Chau) California Housing Finance Agency: MHSA Funding: Special Needs Housing for Persons with a Mental Illness

This bill authorizes the counties and specified state agencies to work together to develop permanent supportive housing for people with a mental illness using Mental Health Services Act funding.

Status: Senate Appropriations Committee

SB 1135 (Jackson) Inmates: Sterilization

This bill prohibits the sterilization of inmates in prison or jails for birth control without their consent.

Status: Assembly Appropriations Committee

For more information on these bills, go to www.leginfo.ca.gov. To see a list of all the bills we have taken a position on this year go to the “advocacy” section on our website at www.naswca.org.