August is the final month of the 2011- 2012 Legislative Session. Final adjournment of the two year session is on August 31, 2012. Several key issues impacting the food processing industry will be decided in these final weeks. The end of session always promises political maneuvering with last minute proposals springing to life with a total disregard for a formal public hearing process.
CLFP has been engaged on many legislative measures this session that are still "alive" and moving through the process. These measures include labor and workplace bills, regulatory reform bills, AB 32 cap-and-trade Program bills, energy bills, and water board bills. CLFP’s high priority bills are listed below.
Most of the bills that CLFP is working on will be considered by the Assembly and Senate Appropriations Committees before moving to their respective floors. CLFP staff will be working hard to hold the bills that the League opposes on the Senate and Assembly Appropriations Suspense Files, thus preventing them from moving to the floor for a vote. For those bills that do move out of the Appropriations Committees, CLFP staff will be working with other organizations to lobby against them before they come up for a vote on the Senate and Assembly Floors.
In addition to working on the existing high priority bills, there will undoubtedly be several measures that are introduced in the last remaining weeks, days and hours of the legislative session. These measures are commonly referred to as "gut and amend" bills, where the existing content of a bill is deleted – essentially "gutted" and then replaced with brand new language on a completely different subject matter. This is often done on highly controversial issues as a tactic to avoid the public review process. It is a constant chore for staff to keep up with these bills, assess their impact on the industry and work to lobby for or against them.
Needless to say, CLFP staff will be spending countless hours at the State Capitol over the next several weeks working to defeat legislation that will place burdensome and costly mandates on the food processing industry and supporting measures that will contribute to a healthier and more vibrant economic climate in California.
CLFP LEGISLATIVE PRIORITY LEGISLATION
AUGUST, 2012
|
Bill |
Description |
Position |
Staff Contact |
|
AB 723 (Bradford) Energy: public goods charge |
Extends a tax, commonly referred to as the Public Goods Charge, on electricity ratepayers in the investor-owned utility territories an additional eight years. |
Oppose |
John Larrea |
|
AB 1186 (Skinner) - California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006: investor-owned utilities: school energy efficiency. |
Increases energy costs on consumers and businesses by allocating funds that should be used to mitigate ratepayer impact from the state’s cap-and-trade program to fund unnecessary and duplicative energy efficiency programs. |
Oppose |
John Larrea |
|
AB 1313 (Allen) - Overtime for agricultural workers |
Drives up food costs to consumers by removing the existing overtime exemption allowed for agricultural employers. |
Oppose |
Allyson Rathkamp |
|
AB 1450 (Allen) - Employment Discrimination: status as unemployed |
Prevents employers from legitimately inquiring into an applicant's employment history, out of fear of being charged with discrimination. |
Oppose |
Allyson Rathkamp |
|
AB 1532 (J. Perez) California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006: Greenhouse Gas Reduction Account |
Attempts to seize control of the AB 32 cap-and-trade auction funds from the sale of allocations for disbursement. (See SB 1572 (Pavley)). This bill already picks winners and losers for receipt of the auction funds. |
Oppose |
John Larrea |
|
AB 1999 (Brownley) - Familial status protection |
Increases the burden on California employers to conduct business and exposes them to a higher risk of litigation by expanding the Fair Employment and Housing Act to include a protected classification for a "family caregiver," or a "perceived family caregiver." |
Oppose |
Allyson Rathkamp |
|
AB 2099 (Cedillo) - Employment: wage and hour violations |
Increases the statutory fine for employers and any supervisor or employee of the employer that "neglects" to comply with the Labor Code or Industrial Welfare Commission Orders. |
Oppose |
Allyson Rathkamp |
|
AB 2346 (Butler) - Agricultural employee safety: heat-related illness |
Could increase the price of food by creating excessive, unnecessary new rules regarding heat illness prevention with unreasonable consequences for violations. |
Oppose |
Trudi Hughes Allyson Rathkamp |
|
SB 535 (De Leon) California Communities Healthy Air Revitalization Trust |
Increases energy costs, including fuel prices, on consumers and businesses by allocating funds from an illegal tax to various programs that are not necessary to cost-effectively implement the market-based trading mechanism under AB 32. |
Oppose |
John Larrea |
|
SB 965 (Wright) Administrative Procedures Act: State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) and California regional water quality control boards |
Provides a long-overdue reform of the SWRCB regional water quality control boards to remove the void left in the communication process by the current ex-parte interpretation that prevents water board leaders from learning firsthand about industry issues. As amended, this bill now follows an onerous PUC model for ex parte communications. We are asking for the bill to amended to its original form. |
Support if amended |
Trudi Hughes |
|
SB 1018 (Budget Bill) Clean-up Effort |
Industry coalition seeking modifications to recently enacted SB 1018. As enacted the bill fails to expressly provide mitigation costs to all electricity customers who will bear the responsibility of paying for the program beginning January 1, 2013. |
Support pending clean-up language |
John Larrea |
|
SB 1099 (Wright) Regulations |
Creates more predictability and certainty for businesses by requiring that all regulations filed with the Secretary of State become effective on either January 1 or July 1. It also requires that the Office of Administrative Law to post on its website links to the text of all enacted regulations. |
Support |
Trudi Hughes |
|
SB 1572 (Pavley) California Global Warming Reduction Act of 2006: Greenhouse Gas Reduction Account |
This bill is similar to AB 1532 in establishing the GHG Reduction Account however, this bill requires the Governor to draw up an expenditure plan for the auction funds. It also provides for CARB to consider other rules or regulations for achieving the 1990 reduction goal should the cap-and-trade be discontinued. |
Oppose |
John Larrea |
California League Of Food Producers