2007 LEGISLATION

AB 43 - Religious Freedom & Civil Marriage Protection Act

This bill would define marriage as a civil contract between two persons, a definition that was in effect prior to 1977. It would also reaffirm that no religious entity is required to solemnize a marriage that is contrary to its religious tenets.

Read the bill text, analyses, status, and votes on the California Legislative Information Site

AB 684 - California Industrial Hemp Farming Act

Industrial hemp is a non-psychoactive variety of the cannabis plant that is genetically distinct from marijuana. Industrial hemp is used in the manufacture of a wide variety of products including automotive parts, fiber board, paper, textiles, healthy foods, and body care products. This bill would permit California farmers to grow industrial hemp and take advantage of the growing U.S. hemp products market now valued at $300 million.

Read the bill text, analyses, status, and votes on the California Legislative Information Site

AB 706 - The Crystal Golden-Jefferson Furniture Safety and Fire Prevention Act

This bill prohibits the use of all brominated and chlorinated fire retardants in upholstered furniture as well as bedding products such as pillows, comforters, and mattresses. These chemicals have been linked to a wide variety of health problems including cancer, birth defects and reproductive difficulties; and when they burn during house fires, they release even more toxic chemicals such as dioxins. The bill is named for a Los Angeles County firefighter who died from workplace related non-Hodgkins lymphoma, a cancer caused by dioxin exposure. AB 706 creates a smarter and improved fire-safety standard for furniture, while protecting our kids, workers, fire fighters, and others from potentially dangerous exposure to toxic chemicals.

Read the bill text, analyses, status, and votes on the California Legislative Information Site

AB 1046- Electronic Option for Voter Information Guides

This bill will allow a voter to choose not to receive a hard copy of the Voter Information Guide once it becomes available online at the Secretary of State’s website, saving postage and paper costs.

Read the bill text, analyses, status, and votes on the California Legislative Information Site

AB 1056 - California Ocean Protection Council (Leno & Huffman)

This bill authorizes the California Ocean Protection Council to establish a science advisory team to improve the Council’s ability to wisely spend $90 million in bond funds approved by the voters in 2006. It ensures that the Council’s decisions on ocean protection projects are informed by thorough research and scientific review.

Read the bill text, analyses, status, and votes on the California Legislative Information Site

AB 1154 - Diabetes Risk Reduction Pilot Program

This bill proposes a two-year pilot project to place 48 practitioners including, nurses, pharmacists, nutritionists and health educators, in 24 MediCal / MediCaid clinics throughout the state to treat patients who test positively for pre-diabetes and diabetes indicators. The program will utilize a proactive prevention approach which focuses on specialized care and counseling on preventative lifestyle changes to help manage and/or prevent the devastating health consequences of diabetes.

Read the bill text, analyses, status, and votes on the California Legislative Information Site

AB 1201 - Collective Bargaining for Direct Care Nurses

This bill would ensure that California’s direct care nurses preserve their collective bargaining rights, thereby preserving their rights under their existing contracts to challenge hospital staffing and effectively advocate for quality health care for their patients.

Read the bill text, analyses, status, and votes on the California Legislative Information Site

AB 1310 - Bandit Limos and Charter Transportation Services

California has a growing problem throughout the state of limousine and passenger charter transportation services operating without a certificate or permit issued by the Public Utilities Commission (PUC). These bandit services pose a threat to consumers who unknowingly call an advertised number of an illegally operating passenger carrier. This bill will require the certificate or permit number of any limousine or passenger charter transportation service to be included in any advertisement of service. Additionally, it will authorize the PUC to disconnect the telephone service of any limousine or passenger charter transportation entity that is advertising service but operating without a certificate or permit.

Read the bill text, analyses, status, and votes on the California Legislative Information Site

AB 1358 - Complete Streets Act

This bill prompts cities and counties to plan for the accommodation of all users of the roadway including motorists, bicyclists, pedestrians, seniors, children, and the disabled. Planning for these accommodations before construction begins is cheaper than retrofitting existing infrastructure and will give Californians real options for getting out of their cars. The resulting reduction in vehicle miles traveled will reduce California’s greenhouse gas emissions and help us meet standards set by AB 32.

Read the bill text, analyses, status, and votes on the California Legislative Information Site

AB 1382- Improving Access to Food Stamps

Current law requires all applicants to the Food Stamp program to submit electronic fingerprints and photographs in order to obtain Food Stamps for themselves and their families. AB 1382 seeks to remove the fingerprinting requirement, eliminating what is widely regarded as an expensive, unnecessary barrier to low income families putting healthy food on their tables.

Read the bill text, analyses, status, and votes on the California Legislative Information Site

AB 1393- Public Records Act

This bill requires all state agencies with an internet website to include specific information on how a person may make a California Public Records Act request, including the name and contact information of staff trained to provide this information. It also requires specific public records to be maintained on the public agency’s website and establishes penalties for failure to disclose records that are obviously public.

Read the bill text, analyses, status, and votes on the California Legislative Information Site

AB 1451 - Solar Exclusion Renewal

This bill renews a successful exclusion from property tax assessments for solar energy systems. The bill also clarifies that the first buyers of newly constructed homes equipped with solar energy systems are eligible for the exclusion from assessment. This exclusion for solar power was initially approved by the voters in 1980 and has helped make California an international leader in solar technology and installation.

Read the bill text, analyses, status, and votes on the California Legislative Information Site

AB 1472 - California Healthy Places Act of 2007

This bill would require state agencies to work together to address how urban development impacts the health of our communities, with special focus on children. Attention will be given to new policies that support childhood development, prevent injury, illness and chronic disease, and ensure environmental health as our communities grow.

Read the bill text, analyses, status, and votes on the California Legislative Information Site

AB 1482 - Supplemental Instruction Funding

This bill would enable public and charter schools to assist at-risk and low-achieving students with the state’s High School Exit Exam and graduation requirements by providing more flexibility in the use supplement instruction (SI) funding. By removing the restriction on the use SI funding to only non-school hours and eliminating other administrative burdens, this bill will help schools deliver more effective instructional services students need to overcome academic hurdles.

Read the bill text, analyses, status, and votes on the California Legislative Information Site

AB 1511- Stronger Families for California Act

Based on a successful pilot program, this bill establishes a public education program aimed at decreasing teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases, and gives teens and parents the tools they need to have an open and honest dialogue about these important health issues.

Read the bill text, analyses, status, and votes on the California Legislative Information Site

AB 1578 - Foster Youth Higher Education Preparation and Support Act of 2007

This is a comprehensive bill to ensure that California foster youth receive the academic preparation, financial assistance and the campus-based support services they need to access and succeed in higher education.

Read the bill text, analyses, status, and votes on the California Legislative Information Site

AB 1590 - San Francisco Voter Approved Local Assessment

This bill would authorize the San Francisco Board of Supervisors with a 2/3 vote to put a measure before the voters that would add a local assessment to the state vehicle license fee such that the total vehicle license fee does not exceed its historic 2% level, with the proceeds going to fund critical local health, safety, and transportation services.

Read the bill text, analyses, status, and votes on the California Legislative Information Site

AB 1668 - Open File Format Standard

This bill would help preserve unfettered access and use of electronic documents by creating an “open file format” demonstration project in up to three state agencies. Today, many electronic documents are locked in closed, proprietary files that restrict and limit their use by the state and its residents The use of open formats allow software developers to incorporate the file format into multiple software solution and help reduce barriers and increase access to electronically stored information.

Read the bill text, analyses, status, and votes on the California Legislative Information Site

AB 1669 - SF Trauma Recovery Center

This bill would ensure funding for the San Francisco Trauma Recovery Center which provides critical services to crime victims suffering from severe economic, psychological and other trauma-related symptoms.

Read the bill text, analyses, status, and votes on the California Legislative Information Site

AB 1686 - Parking Enforcement Officers

This bill would help protect municipal Parking Control Officers from violence while they do their job, by extending the current penalties for assaulting or battering a Traffic Officer to officers that enforce state or local parking laws.

Read the bill text, analyses, status, and votes on the California Legislative Information Site