Current Legislative Updates and Board Legislative Positions as of March 1, 2024
2023–2024 LEGISLATIVE UPDATES
The Speech–Language Pathology and Audiology and Hearing Aid Dispensers Board took the following positions on pending legislation during the 2023–2024 legislative session.
AB 996 (Low) Elections: recounts.
Status: 6/11/2024–Read second time. Ordered to third reading.
Summary: Current law establishes procedures by which a voter may request a recount of the votes cast in an election following completion of the official canvass. Under current law, the voter or the campaign committee represented by the voter seeking the recount must, before the recount is commenced and at the beginning of each subsequent day, deposit with the elections official the amount of money required to cover the cost of the recount for that day. This bill would require any committee that provides a deposit to cover the cost of the recount, including a committee that is registered only with the Federal Election Commission, to identify the source of any contribution to that committee of at least $10,000 that is received during the period of the week before the recount and continuing through a week after the recount ends.
Position: Watch
AB 1028 (McKinnor) Reporting of crimes: mandated reporters.
Status: 9/1/2023–Failed Deadline pursuant to Rule 61(a)(11). (Last location was APPR. SUSPENSE FILE on 8/28/2023)(May be acted upon Jan 2024)
Summary: Would, on and after January 1, 2025, remove the requirement that a health practitioner make a report to law enforcement when they suspect a patient has suffered physical injury caused by assaultive or abusive conduct, and instead only require that report if the health practitioner suspects a patient has suffered a wound or physical injury inflicted by the person’s own act or inflicted by another where the injury is by means of a firearm, a wound or physical injury resulting from child abuse, or a wound or physical injury resulting from elder abuse.
Position: Watch
AB 1816 (Schiavo) Deceptive practices.
Status: 5/2/2024–Failed Deadline pursuant to Rule 61(b)(6). (Last location was PRINT on 1/11/2024)
Summary: The Consumers Legal Remedies Act makes unlawful certain unfair methods of competition and certain unfair or deceptive acts or practices undertaken by a person in a transaction intended to result or that results in the sale or lease of goods or services to a consumer, including representing that the consumer will receive a rebate, discount, or other economic benefit if the earning of the benefit is contingent on an event to occur subsequent to the consummation of the transaction. This bill would make a nonsubstantive change to those provisions.
Position: Watch
AB 1900 (Weber) Consumer refunds: nondisclosure agreements.
Status: 6/12/2024–From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 11. Noes 0.) (June 11).
Summary: Current law generally regulates the formation and enforcement of contracts, and also regulates consumer refunds specific to certain industries and under specified circumstances. This bill would make a provision in a contract or agreement that prohibits a consumer from publishing or making statements about the business as a condition of receiving a refund or other consideration or thing of value contrary to public policy and void and unenforceable.
Position: Watch
AB 1928 (Sanchez) Worker classification: employees and independent contractors.
Status: 4/25/2024–Failed Deadline pursuant to Rule 61(b)(5). (Last location was L. & E. on 2/12/2024)
Summary: Current law, as established in the case of Dynamex Operations W. v. Superior Court (2018) 4 Cal.5th 903 (Dynamex), creates a presumption that a worker who performs services for a hirer is an employee for purposes of claims for wages and benefits arising under wage orders issued by the Industrial Welfare Commission. Current law requires a 3–part test, commonly known as the “ABC” test, to determine if workers are employees or independent contractors for those purposes. Current law establishes that, for purposes of the Labor Code, the Unemployment Insurance Code, and the wage orders of the Industrial Welfare Commission, a person providing labor or services for remuneration is considered an employee rather than an independent contractor unless the hiring entity demonstrates that the person is free from the control and direction of the hiring entity in connection with the performance of the work, the person performs work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business, and the person is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, or business. This test is known as the “ABC” test, as described above. This bill would repeal the above–described provisions that codify the ABC test. The bill would declare that its purpose is to suspend and nullify the California Supreme Court’s decision in Dynamex and provide that this decision does not apply for purposes of California law.
Position: Watch
AB 1949 (Wicks) California Consumer Privacy Act of 2020: collection of personal information of a consumer less than 18 years of age.
Status: 5/29/2024–Referred to Com. on JUD.
Summary: The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2020 (CCPA) approved by the voters as Proposition 24 at the November 3, 2020, statewide general election, requires a consumer, as defined, to have various rights with respect to personal information, as defined, that is collected or sold by a business, as defined, including the right to direct a business that sells or shares personal information about a consumer to third parties to not sell or share the consumer’s personal information. The act prohibits a business from selling or sharing the personal information of a consumer if the business has actual knowledge that the consumer is less than 16 years of age, unless the consumer, or the consumer’s parent or guardian, as applicable, has affirmatively authorized the sale or sharing of the consumer’s personal information. This bill would remove the condition that the business have actual knowledge that the consumer is less than 16 years of age and would revise the above–described prohibition to prohibit a business from selling or sharing the personal information of a consumer less than 18 years of age, unless the consumer, or the consumer’s parent or guardian, as applicable, has affirmatively authorized the sale or sharing of the consumer’s personal information, as specified.
Position: Watch
AB 1991 (Bonta) Licensee and registrant records.
Status: 5/22/2024–Referred to Com. on B., P. & E. D.
Summary: Current law establishes uniform requirements for the reporting and collection of workforce data from health care–related licensing boards. Current law requires certain boards that regulate healing arts licensees or registrants to request specified workforce data from their respective licensees and registrants and requires the data to be requested at the time of electronic license or registration renewal, as specified. Current law provides that a licensee or registrant is not required to provide the specified workforce data as a condition for license or registration renewal, and that those individuals who do not provide that data are not subject to discipline. This bill would, instead, require certain boards that regulate healing arts licensees or registrants to collect workforce data from their respective licensees or registrants, and would require that data to be required at the time of electronic license or registration renewal, as specified.
Position: Watch
AB 2011 (Bauer–Kahan) Unlawful employment practices: small employer family leave mediation program: reproductive loss leave.
Status: 6/12/2024–From committee: Do pass and re–refer to Com. on APPR with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 5. Noes 0.) (June 12). Re–referred to Com. on APPR.
Summary: The California Fair Employment and Housing Act establishes the Civil Rights Department within the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency and sets forth its powers and duties relating to enforcement of civil rights laws with respect to housing and employment. Current law requires the department to create a small employer family leave mediation pilot program for the resolution of alleged violations of prescribed provisions on family care and medical and bereavement leave, applicable to employers with between 5 and 19 employees. Current law requires the department to generally initiate the mediation within 60 days following a request, prohibits an employee from pursuing a civil action until the mediation is complete or the mediation is deemed unsuccessful, and tolls the statute of limitations for the employee, including for all related claims not subject to mediation, from the date of receipt of a request to participate in the program until the mediation is complete or the mediation is deemed unsuccessful. Under current law, the mediation is deemed complete when one of specified events occurs, including that the mediator determines that the core facts of the employee’s complaint are unrelated to the specified family care and medical and bereavement leave provisions. Current law repeals the pilot program on January 1, 2025. This bill would expand the program to include resolution of alleged violations of prescribed provisions on reproductive loss leave. In relation to the above–described provisions Regarding the statute of limitations, the bill would additionally toll the statute of limitations applicable to an employee’s claim relating to an alleged violation of specified provisions on reproductive loss leave, as provided.
Position: Watch
AB 2269 (Flora) Board membership qualifications: public members.
Status: 6/10/2024–In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
Summary: Current law establishes specified boards, bureaus, and commissions in the Department of Consumer Affairs for the purpose of licensing and regulating various professions and vocations. Current law prohibits a public member or a lay member appointed to a board, as defined, from, among other things, having a specified relationship with a licensee of that board within 5 years of the public member’s or lay member’s appointment. This bill would prohibit a public member or a lay member of any board from having a specified relationship with a licensee of that board, for services provided pursuant to that license, within 3 years of the public member’s or lay member’s appointment.
Position: Watch
AB 2339 (Aguiar–Curry) Medi–Cal: telehealth.
Status: 5/29/2024–Referred to Com. on HEALTH.
Summary: Under current law, subject to federal approval, in–person, face–to–face contact is not required under Medi–Cal when covered health care services are provided by video synchronous interaction, asynchronous store and forward, audio–only synchronous interaction, remote patient monitoring, or other permissible virtual communication modalities, when those services and settings meet certain criteria. Current law defines “asynchronous store and forward” as the transmission of a patient’s medical information from an originating site to the health care provider at a distant site. This bill would expand that definition, for purposes of the above–described Medi–Cal provisions, to include asynchronous electronic transmission initiated directly by patients, including through mobile telephone applications.
Position: Watch
AB 2862 (Gipson) Department of Consumer Affairs: African American applicants.
Status: 6/5/2024–Referred to Coms. on B., P. & E. D. and JUD.
Summary: Current law establishes the Department of Consumer Affairs, which is composed of specified boards that license and regulate various professions. This bill would require those boards to prioritize African American applicants seeking licenses under these provisions, especially applicants who are descended from a person enslaved in the United States. The bill would repeal those provisions on January 1, 2029.
Position: Watch
AB 2908 (Chen) Shareholders’ meetings: remote communication.
Status: 5/1/2024–Referred to Coms. on B. & F.I. and JUD.
Summary: The General Corporation Law authorizes corporations not governed by other specified state laws to conduct a meeting of shareholders by electronic transmission by and to the corporation, electronic video screen communication, conference telephone, or other means of remote communication if the corporation implements reasonable measures to provide shareholders and proxyholders a reasonable opportunity to participate and vote, among other conditions. Current law authorizes a corporation to conduct a meeting by means of electronic communication in the absence of consent of all shareholders, on or before December 31, 2025, if the meeting includes a live audiovisual feed for the duration of the meeting. This bill would delete the above–described deadline of December 31, 2025, thereby making this provision operative indefinitely.
Position: Watch
AB 3127 (McKinnor) Reporting of crimes: mandated reporters.
Status: 6/11/2024–From committee: Do pass and re–refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 4. Noes 1.) (June 11). Re–referred to Com. on APPR.
Summary: Current law requires a health practitioner, as defined, to make a report to law enforcement when they suspect a patient has suffered physical injury that is either self–inflicted, caused by a firearm, or caused by assaultive or abusive conduct, including elder abuse, sexual assault, or torture. A violation of these provisions is punishable as a misdemeanor. This bill would remove the requirement that a health practitioner make a report to law enforcement when they suspect a patient has suffered physical injury caused by assaultive or abusive conduct. The bill would instead require that a health practitioner make a report when the injury is life threatening or results in death, as specified, or is the result of child abuse or elder or dependent adult abuse. The bill would require the health practitioner to additionally make a report when a person is seeking care for injuries related to domestic, sexual, or any nonaccidental violent injury if the patient requests a report be sent, as specified.
Position: Watch
SB 802 (Roth) Licensing boards: disqualification from licensure: criminal conviction.
Status: 7/14/2023–Failed Deadline pursuant to Rule 61(a)(10). (Last location was B. & P. on 5/4/2023)(May be acted upon Jan 2024)
Summary: Current law provides for the licensure and regulation of various professions and vocations by boards within the Department of Consumer Affairs. Current law authorizes a board to deny a license on the grounds that the applicant or licensee has been subject to formal discipline, as specified, or convicted of a crime substantially related to the qualifications, functions, or duties of the business or profession for which the application is made, as specified. Current law requires a board to notify the applicant in writing, as specified, if a board decides to deny an application for licensure based solely or in part on the applicant’s conviction history. This bill contains other existing laws.
Position: Watch
SB 1526 (Committee on Business, Professions and Economic Development) Consumer affairs.
Status: 6/11/2024–From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re–referred to Com. on B. & P.
Summary: Current law establishes the Department of Consumer Affairs in the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency. Current law establishes various entities within the department for the licensure, regulation, and discipline of various professions and vocations. Current law establishes the Professions and Vocations Fund in the State Treasury, which consists of specified special funds and accounts. Other existing law, the Naturopathic Doctors Act, establishes the Naturopathic Doctor’s Fund in the State Treasury. This bill would include the Naturopathic Doctor’s Fund in those special funds and accounts in the Professions and Vocations Fund.
Position: Board Sponsored
