August 24, 2018 Edition
Registration for the 2018 CHEAC Annual Meeting closes next week on September 1. This year’s meeting will be held from October 17 – October 19 and will provide local health department professionals representing a wide variety of disciplines throughout California with networking and learning opportunities.
Members are encouraged to stay at the Hyatt Regency as all conference programming will occur at this location. Availability remains in CHEAC’s room block at the Hyatt Regency, though CHEAC’s discounted room rate has very limited availability. Rooms will be offered at the Hyatt’s prevailing room rate when CHEAC’s rate is not available.
More information on this year’s CHEAC Annual Meeting, including registration, is available here.
With one week remaining in the 2017-2018 legislative session, a flurry of activity continues in Sacramento. The Senate, with over 600 bills to work through as of Monday, convened daily floor sessions this week. Meanwhile, the Assembly with approximately 400 bills, convened floor sessions on three days.
Notably this week, the Legislature approved a measure, SB 10 by Senator Hertzberg, to end California’s cash bail system and replace it with a pretrial risk assessment system. After nearly two years of negotiations on the topic, a deal was struck late last week that could make California the first state in the country to entirely end cash bail for individuals awaiting trial. The measure heads to Governor Brown.
Also of note, the Legislature continues negotiations to California’s wildfire liability laws. Late last week, Senator Bill Dodd, Co-Chair of the Conference Committee on Wildfire Preparedness and Response, announced that changes to the existing inverse condemnation law are off the table. CSAC, among other stakeholders, lobbied significantly against changes to inverse condemnation, which stood to adversely impact counties and residents that have been victims to wildfires. The conference committee continues its work and will release a conference report of its recommendations next week.
Below, we highlight significant actions from this week of interest to CHEAC Members. For a full update, the CHEAC Weekly Bill Chart is available here.
Environmental Health
AB 626 (E. Garcia) as amended August 21, 2018 – Oppose
AB 626 by Assembly Member Eduardo Garcia is on the Senate Floor where it is expected to be taken up early next week. Recall, AB 626 would create a new type of food facility defined as a “microenterprise home kitchen” in the California Retail Food Code and allow the sale of potentially hazardous foods directly to consumers in private homes. These entities would be provided a significant number of exemptions related to enforcement, health, and sanitation provisions. CHEAC remains opposed to the measure and strongly encourages members to contact your senator(s) expressing concerns with and opposition to the measure.
Chronic Disease Prevention and Wellness Promotion
AB 1871 (Bonta) ordered to engrossing and enrolling August 23, 2018 – Support
The Legislature passed AB 1871 by Assembly Member Rob Bonta this week. The measure would require charter schools to provide needy pupils with one nutritionally adequate free or reduced-price meal per school day beginning with the 2019-20 school year. AB 1871 is expected to be presented to Governor Brown next week.
SB 1192 (Monning) as enrolled August 23, 2018 – Support
The Legislature passed SB 1192 by Senator Bill Monning. The measure would require restaurants selling a children’s meal to make the default beverage with that meal either water or milk/milk alternative. SB 1192 requires the beverage listed or displayed on restaurant menus and advertisements for children’s meals to be one of the default beverages, and it does not prohibit the sale of an alternative beverage upon request. The measure is now with Governor Brown.
Drug and Alcohol Services
AB 2760 (Wood) ordered to engrossing and enrolling August 23, 2018 – Support
AB 2760 by Assembly Member Jim Wood was passed this week and now heads to Governor Brown’s desk. The measure would require prescribers to offer a prescription for naloxone or another FDA-approved drug for reversal of opioid depression to their patients when they have a high opioid dosage amount, when they are also prescribed concurrently with benzodiazepine, or when the patient presents an increased risk of overdose. The prescriber would also be required when prescribing an opioid to provide education on overdose prevention and the use of an opioid antagonist to patients and the patients’ designee(s).
Health Coverage/Health Care Reform
AB 2275 (Arambula) as amended July 2, 2018 – Support
AB 2275 by Assembly Member Joaquin Arambula was approved by the Senate this week and is back in the Assembly for concurrence on amendments. The measure would require DHCS to establish a quality assessment and performance improvement program for all Medi-Cal managed care plans. AB 2275 is one of the few remaining bills in play proposed by the Assembly Select Committee on Health Care Delivery Systems and Universal Coverage.
Maternal, Child, and Adolescent Health
AB 2785 (Rubio) as amended August 17, 2018 – Support
Assembly Member Blanca Rubio’s AB 2785 was approved by the Senate and is back in the Assembly for concurrence on Senate amendments. The measure would require all California Community Colleges and the California State University to provide reasonable accommodations on all campuses for a lactating student to express breastmilk, breastfeed an infant, or address other breastfeeding needs. The bill also specifies that a student shall not incur an academic penalty as a result of using these accommodations and shall be provided an opportunity to make up missed work.
Public Health Emergency Preparedness
SB 1495 (Senate Health Committee) as amended on June 14, 2018 – Support
SB 1495 by the Senate Health Committee was approved in the Assembly and is back in the Senate for concurrence on Assembly amendments. The measure would, among other actions, extend the period of time county board of supervisors or city councils, as appropriate, must review the need for a locally-declared health emergency from 14 days to 30 days.
This week, the California State Senate confirmed the appointments of Michael Wilkening to Secretary and Michelle Baass to undersecretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency (CHHS). Governor Brown announced the appointments of both Mr. Wilkening and Ms. Baass in May of this year following the appointment of former Secretary Diana Dooley to Executive Secretary in the Office of Governor Brown.
Mr. Wilkening served as undersecretary of HHSA since 2008 and has also held key positions within the California Department of Finance from 1995 to 2008. Ms. Baass served as deputy secretary of the Office of Program and Fiscal Affairs since 2017 and served the California State Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review in key positions from 2012-2017.
Governor Brown also announced the appointment of Keely Bosler as Director of the California Department of Finance (DOF). Ms. Bosler served as Cabinet Secretary in the Office of the Governor since 2016 and as chief deputy director for budget at the Department of Finance from 2013 to 2016. She also served as the staff director for the California State Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee from 2010 to 2013 and as a consultant from 2004 to 2009. Ms. Bosler succeeds Michael Cohen whose appointment to the University of California Board of Regents was also confirmed by the Senate this week.
The 2019 North American Cannabis Summit will be held on January 28-30, 2019, in Los Angeles. The summit, co-sponsored by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), is not intended for cannabis industry representatives, but for public health, environmental health, researchers, and policymakers. The event will focus on public health, health disparities, and health equity in policy and practice. The 2019 Summit will offer six tracks:
- Public safety
- Prevention and education
- Emerging research and epidemiological data
- Governance, federal law, and emerging policy
- Health effects
- Regulatory issues
Early bird registration is set to end next week, and a call for presentation proposals has a due date of September 13. Additional information, including registration, is available here.