Special Notice / Hearing: None__
Vote Required: Majority
To: Honorable Board of Supervisors
From: Michael P. Callagy, County Executive
Connie Juarez-Diroll, Chief Legislative Officer
Subject: 2024 State and Federal Legislative Update #3
RECOMMENDATION:
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Accept this informational report on the 2024 State and Federal Legislative sessions.
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BACKGROUND:
Following the February 16, 2024, bill submission deadline, the California Legislature reported that 2,124 bills were introduced for the 2024 session. While many of these proposals are still being finalized, the Intergovernmental and Public Affairs (IGPA) unit has begun to track more than 310 bills of interest to the County. Policy committees have until April 26 to refer bills to the fiscal committees and until May 24 to pass bills introduced in their respective house.
In late February, the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) updated its revenue forecast for the 2024-2025 fiscal year and anticipated that the state would receive $24 billion less revenue than the Governor had projected in his January budget proposal. As a result, the LAO now estimates the state budget deficit to be $73 billion. On March 14, 2024, Senate leadership released “Shrink the Shortfall,” a budget proposal to address about $17 billion of the state’s estimated $38 to $53 billion budget deficit.
On March 9, 2024, President Biden signed H.R. 4366, the “Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024,” a six-bill, $460 billion spending package that includes funding for the following fiscal year 2024 appropriations measures: Agriculture, Commerce-Justice-Science; Energy-Water; Interior-Environment; Military Construction-Veterans Affairs, and Transportation-HUD. The package also included funding for Congressional Direct Spending requests, or “earmarks,” which include two County projects.
DISCUSSION:
The following is a list of new notable bills identified since the February 2024 legislative update:
Behavioral Health
• AB 2154 (Berman-D) would require involuntary detention facilities to provide specified information to family members of detained individuals.
• AB 2692 (Papan-D) would clarify when the diversion period would begin for defendants who are incompetent to stand trial.
• SB 1238 (Eggman-D) would authorize counties to designate a non-county employee to determine if an individual meets the criteria to be placed in an emergency involuntary psychiatric hold for mental illness.
Controlled Substances
• AB 1976 (Haney-D) would require workplace first aid kits to include nasal naloxone hydrochloride spray.
• AB 2871 (Maienschein-D) would authorize counties to establish interagency overdose fatality review teams to identify and review overdose fatalities.
• SB 1502 (Ashby-D) would increase penalties for the illicit use of xylazine.
Elections
• AB 3197 (Lackey-D) would authorize county elections officials to require proponents of a local initiative or referendum to use a standardized form to circulate petitions within the county.
Foster Youth
• AB 2237 (Aguiar-Curry-D) would require counties that receive foster youth from another county to assume financial responsibility to ensure that the individual receives timely access to specialty mental health services.
Health
• AB 1975 (Bonta-D) would require medically supportive food and nutrition interventions to be a covered benefit under Medi-Cal.
• AB 2956 (Boerner-D) would allow Medi-Cal enrollees to maintain coverage for 12 months if they have a change in income.
• SB 1143 (Allen-D) would establish extended producer responsibility for household hazardous waste.
• SB 1300 (Cortese-D) would require acute general care hospitals to provide additional notices before any proposed closures or elimination of supplemental inpatient psychiatric or maternity services.
Homelessness
• AB 1948 (Rendon-D) would repeal the sunset of provisions establishing homeless adult and family multidisciplinary teams that expedite the identification, assessment, and linkage to supportive services and add additional counties to the program.
Housing
• AB 2584 (Lee-D) would prohibit a business entity that owns more than 1,000 single-family residential properties from purchasing a single-family residence and subsequently leasing the property.
• SB 1210 (Skinner-D) would cap utility hookup fees for water, sewer, electrical, and gas on all new housing units.
• SB 1212 (Skinner-D) would prohibit investment firms and entities from purchasing single-family homes.
Human Services
• AB 2241 (Alvarez-D) would allow applicants and recipients of public benefits to report changes and provide verification requested by the county welfare office through email.
• AB 2459 (Wilson-D) would require status review hearings for foster care wards to include supplemental reports on one-on-one mentoring services for foster youth.
• SB 1254 (Becker-D) would require the entities that operate detention facilities to allow county eligibility workers into facilities to conduct interviews and assist individuals with enrollment applications for services.
Liability
• AB 2587 (Aguiar-Curry-D) would allow for additional claims seeking to recover damages suffered as a result of sexual assault that would otherwise be time-barred by current statute.
• AB 2693 (Wicks-D) would allow for additional claims seeking to recover damages suffered as a result of childhood sexual assault by an employee of a juvenile probation camp or detention facility owned and operated by the county that would otherwise be time-barred by current statute.
Public Safety
• AB 2020 (Bonta-D) would enact the Survivors of Human Trafficking Support Act to develop a statewide survivor passport program and authorize counties to establish a Human Trafficking Survivor Board.
• AB 2943 (Zbur-D) would clarify the application of grand theft charges to acts committed against multiple victims or in counties other than the county of the current offense.
• SB 982 (Wahab-D) would extend organized retail theft crime crimes indefinitely.
Public Records
• AB 2715 (Boerner-D) would authorize legislative bodies to hold closed sessions to consider or evaluate matters that pose a threat to the security of essential public services, including cybersecurity, as long as any actions are taken in open session.
Public Works & Infrastructure
• AB 1999 (Irwin-D) would enact a cap on fixed-rate utility fees generated by income-graduated fixed utility charges.
• SB 1193 (Menjivar-D) would ban the sale of leaded aviation fuel at California airports.
The attached 2024 Legislative Activity Report lists some of the bills tracked this session. Future IGPA legislative updates will provide your Board with additional measures of note, including amended spot bills and actions taken by the County.
State Budget Update
In a press release, Senate President pro Tem Mike McGuire and Senate Budget Chair Scott Wiener described “Shrink the Shortfall” as an early action plan to tackle the state’s estimated $38 billion to $53 billion budget shortfall. The package includes $17.1 billion in current year (2023-24) and budget year (2024-25) solutions intending to shrink the state budget deficit to a more manageable $9-24 billion. The proposed solutions include program reductions, revenue borrowing, fund shifts, delays, and deferrals-approaches first proposed by the Governor in January. In addition, the Senate’s budget plan proposes to use $12.2 billion from the state’s Rainy Day Fund. Included in the Senate’s budget plan, and of note to counties, is a proposal to delay supplemental Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention (HHAP) Grant Program Round 5 funding by $260 million in 2023-24.
Governor Newsom released a statement in support of the Senate proposal, and Assembly Budget Committee Chair Jesse Gabriel indicated that his House had not taken a position on the new Senate budget proposal. The legislature has already begun preliminary budget hearings, and the Governor is expected to release his budget revision in May. The budget deadline is June 15.
Federal Update
The agencies and programs funded under the recently passed Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2024 generally remain flat. However, there are slight increases for programs within the Energy-Water and Transportation-HUD bills. The Interior-Environment measure would see the most significant percentage cut (over three percent), mainly due to reductions to the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget. Congressional Democrats successfully rejected several controversial policy riders, and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) had to rely on Democratic support to advance the bill.
The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2024 included funding for the following County projects:
• $3M for the Half Moon Bay Farmworker Homeownership Project Expansion, which will allow for the purchase of up to 20 mobile home units for farmworker housing and the development of a public recreational space for the residents, enhancing their quality of life. Congresswoman Anna Eshoo and Senators Dianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla supported this request.
• $1M for the San Mateo County’s Coyote Point Recreation Area, which will help to replace the existing playground with a new, all-abilities playground. Congressman Kevin Mullin supported this request.
The County is thrilled to receive this much-needed funding and will send our members official thank-you letters from your Board.
The remaining six bills-Homeland Security, Labor-Health and Human Services-Education, Defense, Financial Services, Legislative Branch, and State Foreign Operations-must be passed by March 22, 2024. Several measures, particularly the Homeland Security appropriations bill, are considered more controversial and will prove more challenging to pass. However, as of the writing of this report, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) had told GOP lawmakers in a meeting that he was considering putting a yet-to-be-unveiled final fiscal 2024 appropriations package on the floor on Friday, March 22, in a race to limit the damage of a brief funding lapse this weekend. Even if the House could pass the package, the Senate would still need to take it up over the weekend in a best-case scenario. However, a short stopgap extension to avoid any funding gap has not yet been ruled out.
In response to county advocacy, the state’s congressional delegation members have been working to overturn a FEMA policy that could cost California counties millions of dollars in unreimbursed COVID-19-era claims. The policy, announced in October 2023 by FEMA Region 9, would significantly limit the federal reimbursement that counties can receive for implementing the state’s Project Roomkey Initiative. On February 20, 2024, Senators Alex Padilla (D-CA) and Laphonza Butler (D-CA) sent a letter to President Biden urging him to rescind FEMA’s policy change. In the House, 36 members of the state’s congressional delegation (including members of the San Mateo County delegation) sent a similar letter to FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell on March 11. The County will continue to work closely with the California State Association of Counties (CSAC) to advocate for full reimbursement of the County’s estimated $803,000 in pending FEMA claims.