CALSAFE 2024 LEGISLATIVE ACTIVITY

State Budget Update September 2024

• The Governor signed legislation in late June reflecting the final budget agreement with the Legislature, delivering a budget that is balanced over the next two fiscal years while maintaining investments in core programs.
• The budget addresses a $46.8 billion shortfall through a balanced package of solutions, including spending reductions of $16 billion.
• It avoids deep program cuts, maintaining service levels for several priority issues including Proposition 98 funding for education and investments in Medi-Cal expansion, encampment resolution grants, nonprofit security grants, summer food assistance, updated foster care rates and more.
• Including a one-time allocation of $103 million for Victims Assistance Grants, which aim to backfill the loss of federal VOCA funds.

AB 2730 (Lackey) – Sexual Assault: Medical Evidentiary Examinations

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB2730

This bill would revise the definition of a qualified health care professional as it pertains to a physician assistant and nurse or nurse practitioner by removing the requirement that the consulting physician and surgeon conduct examinations or provide treatment. It would also define a licensed and certified nurse-midwife who is working in consultation with a licensed physician and surgeon as a qualified health care professional.

Lead Sponsor: CALSAFE (SUPPORT)

Supporters: Board of Registered Nursing C CA Chapter of The American College of Emergency Physicians

Opposition: None

Bill Status: 7/15/24- Approved by Governor and Chaptered

AB 2843 (Petrie-Norris) – Health care coverage: rape and sexual assault.

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB2843

• This bill would require a health care service plan or health insurance policy that is issued, amended, renewed, or delivered on or after January 1, 2025, to provide coverage without cost sharing for emergency room medical care and follow-up health care treatment for an enrollee or insured who is treated following a rape or sexual assault.
• The bill would prohibit a health care service plan or health insurer from requiring, as a condition of providing coverage:
  • an enrollee or insured to file a police report,
  • charges to be brought against an assailant,
  • or an assailant to be convicted of rape or sexual assault.
• Because a violation of the bill by a health care service plan would be a crime, the bill would impose a state- mandated local program.
•  

CALSAFE Position: NEUTRAL

Bill Status: 9/14/24 Approved by Governor and Chaptered

AB 3127 (McKinnor) – Reporting Crimes: Mandated Reporters

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB3127

This bill would amend Penal Code 11160 to remove the requirement that a health practitioner make a report to law enforcement when they suspect a patient has suffered physical injury that was caused by assaultive or abusive conduct. Instead, this bill requires the health practitioner to:

• Provide counseling, education, or other support;
• Offer to make a direct connection between the patient and a survivor advocate; and
• Offer a referral to domestic violence or sexual violence advocacy services.

Lead Sponsor: Futures Without Violence

Cal SAFE Position: OPPOSED unless amended

Bill Status: Senate Appropriation- DIED

SB 989 (Ashby & Rubio) – Domestic Violence: Deaths

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB989

This bill would amend section 129 of the Code of Civil Procedure and amend section 27491 of the Government code, and add section 679.07 to the penal code to:

1. Authorize a family member in a case where there is an identifiable history of domestic violence to provide the coroner with written authorization for use or potential use of a copy, reproduction, or facsimile in a civil action or proceeding that relates to the death of that person.
2. Requires the coroner to inquire into and determine the circumstances, manner, and cause of certain deaths, including all known or suspected homicides, suicides, or accidental poisonings.
3. Specify the above-described suicides to include suicides where the deceased has a history of domestic violence.
4. Authorize the coroner, if the circumstances surrounding a death known or suspected as due to suicide afford a reasonable basis to suspect that the death was caused by or related to the domestic violence of another, to conduct the inquiry in consultation with a board-certified forensic pathologist.
5. Require that a death where there is an identifiable history of domestic violence be presumed suspicious for the purposes of investigation, scene documentation, coroner evaluation, and interviews of witnesses.
6. Require family members of the decedent to be interviewed prior to any findings being made as to the manner and cause of death.
7. Require that a complete autopsy be conducted where there is an identifiable history of domestic violence and specified conditions are present, including that the decedent died prematurely.
8. Allow a family member of the decedent to request an independent review of the findings of a local law enforcement agency be made by another law enforcement agency in the county.

CALSAFE POSITION: SUPPORT (Provided Letter)

Bill Status: 9/27/24- Approved by Governor and Chaptered

SB 998 (S. Rubio) – Dependency: victims of human trafficking.

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB3127

This bill would authorize a child who is or was a victim of human trafficking, and whose parent or guardian has failed or was unable to protect the child, to be adjudged a dependent of the juvenile court, thereby expanding the bases on which a child can be adjudged a dependent child of the juvenile court to explicitly include children who are victims of labor trafficking.

It would make various related changes to reflect this expansion, including, among other things, revising a requirement relating to the case plan for a child or nonminor dependent who is, or who is at risk of becoming, the victim of commercial sexual exploitation, to instead apply to a child or nonminor dependent who is, or who is at risk of becoming, the victim of human trafficking. By expanding county duties, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

CALSAFE Position: SUPPORT (Provided Letter)

Bill Status: 5/16/24- DIED in committee

SB 1128 (Portantino) – Sex Offender Registration: Unlawful Sexual Intercourse with a Minor

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB1128

This bill would require offenders guilty of engaging in an act of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor who is more than 3 years younger than the offender, or, if the offender was 21 years of age or older, engaging in an act of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor who is under 16 years of age, to register for 10 years as a tier one offender under the Act.

The bill would require an individual who was required to register for a violation described above, to register for life under the Act if they are subsequently convicted in a separate proceeding of engaging in an act of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor who is more than 3 years younger than the offender, or, if the offender was 21 years of age or older, engaging in an act of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor who is under 16 years of age.

It would also authorize a court to order the defendant to pay a restitution fine for violation of provisions regarding unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor when the violation is with a minor under the age of 14 years.

CALSAFE Position: SUPPORT (Provided Letter)

Bill Status: 8/15/24     Held in Assembly Appropriations and DIED