2003 Budget Priorities | 2004 Budget Priorities
2005 Budget Priorities | 2006 Budget Priorities
2007 Budget Priorities
2003 Legislative Priorities | 2004 Legislative Priorities
2005 Legislative Priorities | 2006 Legislative Priorities
2007 Legislative Priorities | 2008 Legislative Priorities

2003 Legislative Priorities

AB 154 (Chan) - requires health plans participating in the Healthy Families Program and Medi-Cal to submit annual reports regarding the provision of culturally and linguistically appropriate services. Status: Held in Assembly Appropriations Committee.

AB 292 (Yee) - prohibits government agencies and private entities that receive state funding from using children under age 15 as interpreters with specified exceptions for emergencies and simple queries at public benefits agencies. Status: Held in Senate Appropriations Committee.

AB 309 (Chu) - Signed by Governor - extends existing consumer protections currently available to Spanish speakers to include speakers of Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, and Korean as well. This legislation was introduced to expand the protection of California Civil Code section 1632 to major Asian language communities in response to alleged fraudulent activity by unscrupulous businesses that would employ bilingual salespeople to negotiate contracts with limited-English speaking consumers in their native language, but then give the consumers English language contracts that varied materially from the terms and conditions they had just negotiated.

AB 526 (Chan) - Vetoed by Governor - establishes a pilot program in Alameda County to evaluate the effectiveness of Election-Day voter registration.

AJR 30 (API Legislative Caucus) - Adopted Unanimously by Assembly and Senate - condemns the statements made by United States Congressman Howard Coble (R-NC) justifying the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, urging him to apologize and asking him to resign from the chairmanship of the U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security.