Landmark bills protecting digital privacy, greening energy use in the state, reining in health insurance abuses and expanding voter registration were among the good proposals signed by Gov. Jerry Brown as the 2015 legislative year drew to a close. Yet, in a year Californians called for bold, progressive action on gas prices, toxics regulation and ratepayer protection against back room dealings with regulated utilities, centrist saddling and tepid reforms dull the shine of those wins for the public.
The governor signed SB 350, which will increase the amount of energy produced from renewable sources by 2030 and double the energy efficiency of existing buildings. However, the legislation's centerpiece reform, reducing the state's petroleum use by 50% by 2030, was left on the cutting block after the governor's hands-off approach for most of the battle and a failure to challenge Big Oil head on. Bills to protect groundwater from fracking waste, demand transparency from oil companies manipulating the price and supply of oil, and shut down polluting facilities operating for decades without permits never got off the ground.
It's no wonder, considering the people advising Brown and who he's chosen to oversee California's environmental agencies. Governor Brown fired the head of the state Department of Conservation (DOC) and DOC's Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) after they warned, against Big Oil's dogma, that fracking would imperil groundwater. Last week he chose oil industry executive Bill Bartling to oversee the industry at DOGGR instead.
His last two appointments to the scandal-plagued Department of Toxics Substances Control have, at best, failed to clean up practices and culture at an agency that has let serial polluters off the hook at the expense of public health, and taxpayers' wallets. He refused to fire former PG&E CEO Michael Peevey from the top post at the Public Utilities Commission, even as the agency was engulfed in scandal over his close ties to his former industry. Not coincidentally, two former PG&E executives, Nancy McFadden and Dana Williamson, are Brown's most trusted advisors.
The big economic boon in the SB 350 legislation is for California’s investor owned utilities and the renewable energy sector, which includes among it energy pirates that have pillaged California before and during the energy crisis of 2000, such as Duke Energy, and billionaires like Warren Buffet, whose PacifiCorp is going to do very well doing the greater good of replacing fossil fuel energy productions. The investor-owned utilities, and parent companies, will be charging a premium for renewable energy delivery and transmission, just as many felt threatened by residential rooftop solar proliferation, now disfavored by the utilities' new friends in Sacramento and old amigos at the Peevey-impoverished PUC. Hat tip to Williamson and McFadden. They will no doubt be feted by the PG&Es, SoCal Edisons, and Sempras post-Brown administration.
Here's the Good, Bad and the Ugly of the bills that Governor Brown signed and vetoed this year:
Ugly - Public Utilities Commission Reform - Led by Assemblyman Anthony Rendon, and Senators Mark Leno and Jerry Hill, lawmakers fought to pass stricter rules for the PUC. The utility commission is facing federal and state investigations into alleged improper back-channel communications with utilities and CPUC regulators related to the deal. Regulators are also under scrutiny for secret communications with Pacific Gas & Electric Co., including over how much to fine PG&E for the 2010 explosion of a natural gas transmission line.
The package of bills would have tightened rules on private communications between utilities and regulator and conflict-of-interest rules as well as limiting the PUC president’s powers. They would also have increased open meeting requirements and created an “inspector general” with independent authority to investigate the CPUC. Brown vetoed all six bills.
Bad - Foster Care Prescription Use - Brown had a chance to stop the outrageous misuse of psychotropic medication, which has been well documented, on foster youth. According to the Quality Improvement Project, during fiscal year 2012-13, there were 104,688 pharmacy claim records for 12,025 children who received a paid claim for psychotropic medication. That’s nearly nine prescriptions per foster child in a single year. Despite opposition from various physician groups, and the governor's lackluster budget support, advocates and lawmakers were able to get three bills passed, which Brown signed. All are a good start in stopping the overprescribing. They will create better reporting and communication with counties, give better medical access to nurses overseeing foster youth and identify group homes that show a pattern of abuse.
Unfortunately, Brown's administration failed to fully fund one of the bills and allowed a fourth, the "linchpin" and that would have given the courts more oversight, to die. Hopefully next session, he'll get behind proposals backing not only more court oversight but also more disclosure of prescribers.
Good - Voter Registration Reform - Brown signed legislation to automatically register drivers to vote either when get their licenses for the first time or renew. Along with other bills signed, and some in line for next year, the election reform package could turn around California's abysmal voter turnout trend. He also signed legislation that would allow counties to offer conditional voter registration and provisional voting at satellite offices other than on election day; allows an eligible voter who is at least 16 to preregister to vote; and allows elections officials to set up secure drop boxes throughout a community where people can leave vote-by-mail ballots.
A caveat. One major bill is on deck for next year, SB 450, by Sen. Ben Allen, which would allow counties to change to an all-mailed ballot election and expand the days allowed to cast the ballot. If Brown makes this proposal a priority next year he may keep a good record on voting reform.
Good - Privacy - The governor obviously doesn't want anyone snooping around his digital communications. California has been leading the country in implementing privacy protections, and this is the latest. The governor signed a bill that forces police to get a warrant to access private electronic communications. He also increased protections against data breaches, voice recognition on connected televisions and license plate recognition systems.
Good/Bad - Department of Toxic Substances Control Reforms - Brown signed a package of bills to protect the fiscal health of taxpayers in toxic cleanups. The DTSC gets to write off small sums on uncollected bills; gets the right to financial information about the polluter's ability to pay; and now has the power to revoke permits of serial polluters after three serious violations in five years. It all sounds dandy.
But this is not a new problem. The agency is a mess, has been for years, and Brown has refused to install a reform-minded chief. Brown needs to make sure the DTSC uses its new tools to stop polluters from poisoning our environment. He should have done it five years ago; he should do it now.
Ugly - Transparency - The governor has never particularly liked transparency in government. He signed legislation that increased reporting about the special interests who pay for lawmakers' travel through nonprofits and expanded disclosure requirements for campaign pieces from independent groups, but he vetoed a bill that would have increased reporting on financial disclosure statements for lawmakers and signed a bill that allows lawmakers to skip reporting grants or other behested payments they helped arrange in cases when the source is a government agency. Transparency groups and the FPPC was opposed, but Brown signed it anyway.
Good - Healthcare - Brown approved legislation requiring rate review for large employee health care plans, and to prevent insurers from placing all of the prescription drugs to treat certain chronic conditions in the highest-cost tier of a drug formulary.
Ugly - Arbitration - The governor vetoed legislation to prohibit employers from forcing their workers to surrender their rights as a condition of employment by signing an arbitration agreement. Employers often include “forced arbitration” as a condition of employment, resulting in workers being fired or not hired if they don’t give up rights to resolve disputes in court.
See below for all the bills we were watching this year.
Healthcare
Signed 10/06/2015 - SB 238 (Sen. Holly Mitchell, D-Los Angeles): Will establish training, data reporting, and alert systems for prescribing to foster youth; it will identify risky practices; and it will alert counties so that they can act to reduce dangerous prescribing practices.
Signed 10/06/2015 - SB 319 ( Sen. Jim Beall, D-San Jose): Strengthens California’s Health Care Program for Children in Foster Care by explicitly giving public health nurses access to the information and authority needed to monitor and oversee thousands of California foster children who are medicated using psychotropic drugs.
Signed 10/06/2015 - SB 484 (Sen. Jim Beall, D-San Jose): Requires the identification of group homes suspected of using psychotropic medications inappropriately and specifies the factors to be used in pinpointing those facilities. Those group homes identified will be inspected to determine what policies or practices within the facility contribute to the misuse of psychotropic medications.
Signed 10/11/2015 - AB 1073 (Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco): Would require a pharmacist to use professional judgment to provide a patient with directions for use of a prescription that enhance the patient's understanding of those directions, consistent with the prescriber's instructions. The bill would also require a dispenser, excluding a veterinarian, upon the request of a patient or patient's representative, to provide translated directions for use as prescribed. The bill would authorize a dispenser to use translations made available by the California State Board of Pharmacy pursuant to those existing regulations.
Signed 10/06/2015 - AB 1337 (Assemblyman Eric Linder, R-Corona): Current law requires certain medical providers and medical employers to make a patient's records available for inspection and copying by an attorney, or his or her representative, who presents a written authorization. This bill would require a medical provider or attorney, as defined, to provide an electronic copy of a medical record that is maintained electronically upon request . The bill would also require a medical provider to accept a prescribed authorization form once completed and signed by the patient if the medical provider determines that the form is valid.
Privacy
Signed 10/06/2015 - AB 964 (by Assemblyman Ed Chau, D-Arcadia): Defines encrypted for purposes of existing law that provides the regulation of entities that own or licenses computerized data that includes personal information to disclose a breach of the security of the system or data to any State resident whose unencrypted person information was, or is reasonably believed to have been, acquired by an unauthorized person.
Signed 10/06/2015 - AB 1116 (by the Committee on Privacy and Consumer Protection): Would prohibit the use of voice recognition in a connect television without notice.
Signed 10/06/2015 - SB 34 (by Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo): Provides protections on the use of data gathered by automated license plate recognition systems .
Signed 10/06/2015 - SB 570 (by Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara): Strengthens data breach notification requirements.
Environment
Signed 10/08/2015 - SB 43 (Sen. Ed Hernandez, D-West Covina): Would, for an individual or small group health care service plan contract or an individual or small group health insurance policy issued, amended, or renewed on or after January 1, 2017, prohibit limits on habilitative and rehabilitative services from being combined and would define essential health benefits to include the health benefits covered by particular benchmark plans as of the first quarter of 2014, as specified. The bill, for plan years commencing on or after January 1, 2016, would revise the definition of "habilitative services" to conform to federal regulations.
Signed 10/08/2015 - SB 282 (Sen. Ed Hernandez, D-West Covina): Current law requires the Department of Managed Health Care and the Department of Insurance to jointly develop a uniform prior authorization form for prescription drug benefits on or before July 1, 2012, and requires, 6 months after the form is developed, every prescribing provider to submit the request to the health care service plan or health insurer using the uniform form, and requires those plans and insurers to accept only the uniform form. This bill would authorize the prescribing provider to additionally use an electronic process developed specifically for transmitting prior authorization information that meets the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs' SCRIPT standard for electronic prior authorization transactions.
Signed 10/11/2015 - SB 546 (Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco): Requires rate review and prior approval of rates for health plans and insurers that sell coverage in the large group market.
Elections
Signed 10/10/2015 - AB 1461 (Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego): Every eligible Californian would be automatically registered to vote through transactions with the Department of Motor Vehicles.
Signed 10/10/2015 - SB 439 (Sen. Ben Allen, D-Santa Monica): Would allow counties to offer conditional voter registration and provisional voting at satellite offices other than on election day.
Signed 10/10/2015 - AB 1020 (Assemblyman Sebastian Ridley-Thomas, D-Los Angeles): Current law provides that a person is entitled to register to vote if he or she is a United States citizen, a resident of California, not in prison or on parole for the conviction of a felony, and at least 18 years of age at the time of the next registration. This bill would provide that a person is entitled to preregister to vote in an election if, among other things, that person is at least 16 years of age.
Signed 10/10/15 - SB 365 (Sen. Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills): Would allow elections officials to set up secure drop boxes throughout a community where people can leave vote-by-mail ballots.
Vetoed 10/10/2015 - (Veto message) AB 1301 (Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer, D-Los Angeles): Would establish a state preclearance system. Under this system, if a covered political subdivision, as defined, enacts or seeks to administer a voting-related law, regulation, or policy, as specified, that is different from that in force or effect on the date this act is enacted, the governing body of the covered political subdivision would be required to submit the law, regulation, or policy to the Secretary of State for approval. The bill would require the Secretary of State to approve the law, regulation, or policy only if specified conditions are met.
Consumer Protections
Signed 10/06/2015SB 501 and SB 641 (Sen. Bob Wieckowski, D-Fremont): SB 641 targets abusive tactics of debt collectors by giving a consumer the ability to ask a court to set aside default judgments and hear the case on the merits. SB 501 creates a tiered-garnishment rate to lower the high percentage of income currently taken from low-income workers’ paychecks and to recognize local minimum wage ordinances.
Vetoed 10/11/2015 - (Veto message) AB 465 (Assemblyman Roger Hernandez, D-West Covina): Prohibits employers from forcing their workers to surrender their rights as a condition of employment by signing an arbitration agreement. Employers often include “forced arbitration” as a condition of employment, resulting in workers being fired or not hired if they don’t give up rights to resolve disputes in court.
Public Utilities Commission
Vetoed 10/09/2015 - (veto message) AB 825 (Assemblyman Anthony Rendon, D-Lakewood) and (veto message) SB 660 (Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco): Appoints an inspector general in the state auditor’s office to oversee the California Public Utilities Commission. Tightens restrictions on communications between commissioners and the utilities they regulate.
