CHEAC Legislative Committee Meets Again Today to Review New Bills

The CHEAC Legislative Committee is meeting in Sacramento today to review the second set of new bills introduced in 2018. Over 100 bills will be reviewed and assessed for their impact on public health and local health departments, and CHEAC’s official positions on measures will be determined by the committee.

Our CHEAC Weekly Bill Chart is available here. Please note that new bills being reviewed today will be included in next week’s bill chart. Stay tuned for information and updates on new bills introduced in 2018.

The Legislature continues to propose amendments to new measures and schedule policy committee hearings. Below, we highlight bill activity from this week:

Communicable Disease Control

AB 1992 (Chu) as introduced on 2/1/2018 – Watch

This week, AB 1992 by Assembly Member Kansen Chu was heard in the Assembly Human Services Committee. The measure seeks to extend the amount of time CalWORKs families have to comply with immunization verification requirements for children not yet enrolled in school from 45 days to six months before impacting the grant calculation to the household. In addition, the bill strives to ensure families have access to immunizations by requiring counties to provide transportation. If after six months, there is still no documentation on file, the head of household may be excluded from the grant calculation until documentation has been provided.

The Western Center on Law on Poverty, the sponsors of AB 1992, stated their intent is not to decrease immunization rates, but to simply allow additional time for compliance and to make immunizations more accessible and to incorporate better tracking.

The bill was passed by the Assembly Human Services Committee and now heads to the Assembly Appropriations committee.

Upcoming Bill Hearings

Tobacco Control

SB 835 (Glazer) as amended on 3/5/2018 – Support

SB 835 by Senator Glazer seeks to ban smoking and disposal of cigar and cigarette waste at all state parks and permits the Director of Parks and Recreation to exempt designated areas of state parks from smoking ban. The measure is set to be heard in the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee on Tuesday, March 13.

SB 836 (Glazer) as amended on 3/5/2018 – Support

SB 836 by Senator Glazer seeks to ban smoking and disposal of cigar and cigarette waste at all state coastal beaches and permits the Director of Parks and to exempt designated areas of state coastal beach from the smoking ban. This measure is also set to be heard in the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee on Tuesday, March 13.