2005 Bill Status

This is a summary of significant bills that FCL is following in the current legislative session. Bill status is shown as of October 26, 2005. The text, committee analyses, status and history of each bill may be found on-line or by contacting the author’s staff.

 To express your views on legislation, please write to the governor, your state senator, and your assembly member, with a copy to the bill’s author at “State Capitol, Sacramento, CA 95814.” You may find out who your legislators are by consulting the State Government pages of your local telephone directory.

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Bills are displayed in numeric order by the catagories below:

Budget and Revenue
Capital Punishment
Children and Youth
Criminal Justice and Imprisonment
Equality and Nondiscrimination
Health Care
Housing
Peace, Nonviolence

Budget and Revenue

AB 6 (Wilma Chan, D., Oakland) restores the top income tax rates on the highest incomes. FCL SUPPORTS. Assembly Floor.

Capital Punishment

AB 331 (Russ Bogh, R., Beaumont) prohibits state-funded travel to countries that refuse to comply with extradition warrants because of our state’s practice of capital punishment. FCL
OPPOSES. Assembly Public Safety Committee.

AB 1121 (Paul Koretz, D., Hollywood and Sally Lieber, D., Mountain View) places a moratorium on executions until reforms are implemented. FCL SUPPORTS. Assembly Public Safety Committee.

SB 378 (Bill Morrow, R., Oceanside) would lessen the current competency standards for the appointment of counsel in death penalty appeals and habeas corpus proceedings. FCL OPPOSES. Senate Public Safety Committee.

Children and Youth

AB 760 (Pedro Nava, D., Santa Barbara) as amended, allows a custodial parent who has been arrested to make two additional phone calls at no expense to arrange care for dependent children. FCL SUPPORTS. Chaptered.

AB 855 (Karen Bass, D., Los Angeles) provides that persons convicted of drugrelated felonies are not excluded from CalWORKS. FCL SUPPORTS. Vetoed.

AB 862 (Karen Bass, D., Los Angeles) requires that every prisoner who is a parent of a minor child receives information on child support modification as developed by the Department of Child Support Services. FCL SUPPORTS. Vetoed.

SB 520 (Roy Ashburn, R., Bakersfield) lower the age that minors can be prosecuted as adults for certain offenses from 16 to 14. FCL OPPOSES. Senate Public Safety Committee.

SB 609 (Gloria Romero, D., Los Angeles) as amended, expresses the Legislature’s intent to transfer Youth Authority parole supervision and services from the state to local governments. FCL SUPPORTS. Assembly Desk.

Criminal Justice and Imprisonment

AB 35 (Todd Spitzer, R., Orange) would eliminate the tiered classification of sex offenders and adds the name and address of a sex offender’s employer and the make, model and license plate number of the offender’s vehicle to the Department of Justice website. FCL OPPOSES. Held in Assembly Public Safety Committee.

AB 50 (Mark Leno, D., San Francisco) amends California’s “three strikes” law to prevent defendants with two prior convictions for serious or violent felonies from receiving a 25-year-to-life sentence unless the third conviction is for a serious or violent felony. FCL SUPPORTS. Assembly Public Safety Committee.

AB 96 (Rebecca Cohn, D., Saratoga) creates a five-year sentencing enhancement for high-risk sex offenders. FCL OPPOSES. Assembly Public Safety Committee.

AB 125 (Mervyn Dymally, D., Compton) eliminates the sentencing disparity for the possession of cocaine base and powdered cocaine for sale. FCL SUPPORTS. Assembly Inactive File.

AB 161 (Juan Vargas, D., San Diego) requires the Department of Corrections to employ at least one clergy member for every 500 inmates. FCL SUPPORTS. Held in Assembly Appropriations Committee.

AB 212 (Chuck DeVore, R., Irvine) would prohibit prisoners who have been convicted of violent felonies from receiving overnight family visits while incarcerated. FCL OPPOSES.
Held in Assembly Public Safety Committee.

AB 231 (Sharon Runner, R., Lancaster) as amended, makes kidnapping with the intent to commit rape and lewd and lascivious acts punishable with a life sentence and increases criminal penalties for other sex offenses. FCL OPPOSES. Assembly Public Safety Committee.

AB 308 (Jerome Horton, D., Inglewood) as amended, makes prisoners convicted of hate crimes ineligible for early release credits. FCL OPPOSES. Assembly Public Safety Committee.

AB 505 (Mark Leno, D., San Francisco) removes the “just cause” provision and requires that persons convicted of nonviolence offenses be released from parole after one year of good behavior. FCL SUPPORTS. Assembly Inactive File.

AB 561 (Cindy Montañez, D., San Fernando) requires the Department of Corrections to perform initial and subsequent annual educational assessments of each incarcerated person and grants the Superintendent of Correctional Education authority over the prison education budget. FCL SUPPORTS. Vetoed.

AB 627 (Tim Leslie, R., Tahoe City) authorizes members of the clergy or a spiritual advisor who has ministered to a prisoner while incarcerated to continue that relationship when the prisoner is paroled. FCL SUPPORTS. Chaptered.

AB 629 (Wilma Chan, D., Oakland) establishes a re-entry pilot program for parolees in Alameda County that would emphasize individual and structured case management and wraparound services. FCL SUPPORTS. Held in Assembly Appropriations Committee.

AB 698 (Ray Haynes, R., Murrieta) as amended, permits the news media to interview prisoners and prohibits retaliation against prisoners for participating in interviews. FCL SUPPORTS. Vetoed.

SB 337 (Abel Maldonado, R., Santa Maria) as amended, requires state universities and community colleges to exclude students for one year who have been convicted of specified offenses and makes them ineligible for Cal Grants for two years. FCL OPPOSES. Held in Senate Education Committee.

SB 366 (Sheila Kuehl, D., Santa Monica) as amended, requires the Department of Corrections to post information concerning visiting hours and regulations on the internet and create children-friendly environments for visitations. FCL SUPPORTS. Held in Senate Appropriations Committee.

Equality and Nondiscrimination

AB 48 (Sally Lieber, D., Mountain View) raises California’s minimum wage from $6.75 per hour to $7.25 per hour effective July 1, 2006 and $7.75 per hour effective July 1, 2007. FCL SUPPORTS. Vetoed.

AB 930 (Hector De La Torre, D., South Gate) restructures the Naturalization Services Program to ensure that eligible immigrants have access to naturalization services. FCL SUPPORTS. Held in Assembly Appropriations Committee.

Health Care

AB 296 (Gloria Negrete McLeod, D., Chino) provides free, confidential testing and treatment to prisoners for the hepatitis C virus. FCL SUPPORTS. Chaptered.

AB 478 (Sally Lieber, D., Mountain View) provides that female prisoners who give birth in a community treatment program shall be given prenatal care, childbirth education, and infant care and prohibits the use of shackles during the birthing process. FCL SUPPORTS. Chaptered.

AB 772 (Wilma Chan, D., Oakland) and SB 437 (Martha Escutia, D., Whittier) creates the California Healthy Kids Program for children in households with incomes up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level. FCL SUPPORTS. Governor’s Desk and Senate Inactive File respectively.

AB 1677 (Paul Koretz, D., W. Hollywood) allows nonprofit and health care agency to distribute condoms to incarcerated persons. FCL SUPPORTS. Held in Assembly Appropriations Committee.

SB 556 (Carole Migden, D., San Francisco) rrequires that no more than 12 percent of Proposition 36 funds be spent on probation and allows the duration of treatment to be extended up to 24 months. FCL SUPPORTS. Senate Inactive File.

SB 803 (Denise Moreno Ducheny, D., San Diego) allows a judge to determine if a person convicted of a nonviolent drug offense is amenable to treatment and allows the use of incarceration when a person in treatment tests positive for drug use. FCL OPPOSES. Assembly Public Safety Committee.

SB 840 (Sheila Kuehl, D., Santa Monica) provides health care for all Californians with comprehensive benefits. FCL SUPPORTS. Assembly Rules Committee.

Housing

AB 438 (Nicole Parra, D., Hanford) and SB 277 (Jim Battin, R., La Quinta) would allow lessors of real property to deny a rental application and to evict persons convicted of sex offenses. FCL OPPOSES. Assembly Public Safety Committee.

AB 712 (Joe Canciamilla, D., Pittsburg) tightens the standard for triggering the requirement that a locality make certain findings before making density reductions. FCL SUPPORTS. Vetoed

SB 51 (Sheila Kuehl, D., Santa Monica) deletes the sunset clause on the requirement for an owner of a residential dwelling to give a tenant at least 60 days notice prior to the termination of a rental agreement. FCL SUPPORTS. Assembly Floor.

SB 277 (Jim Battin, R., La Quinta), would permit owners of residential property to use information from the Attorney General’s website to evict a person who has been convicted of a sexual offense and/or to deny a rental application. As amended, no longer of concern to FCL.

SB 575 (Tom Torlakson, D., Antioch) strengthens anti-NIMBY law by prohibiting the denial of a permit to build low and moderate income housing unless a jurisdiction has met or exceeded its share of low and moderate-income housing. FCL SUPPORTS. Chaptered.

Peace, Nonviolence

AB 101 (Rebecca Cohn, D., Saratoga) allows all people excepting persons convicted of felonies, minors, and persons addicted to narcotics to purchase stun guns for selfdefense. FCL OPPOSES. Assembly Appropriations Committee.

AB 352 (Paul Koretz, D., W. Hollywood) expands the definition of unsafe handguns to include semiautomatic pistols that are not designed and equipped with a micro-stamping that allows law enforcement to trace the use of a handgun. FCL SUPPORTS. Senate Inactive File.

AB 448 (Jay La Suer, R., La Mesa) repeals California’s ban on assault weapons. FCL OPPOSES. Assembly Public Safety Committee.

AB 944 (Mark Ridley-Thomas, D., Los Angeles) requires gun dealers to post warnings to consumers that guns in the home are more likely to be used to injure or kill a family member than to protect against an attacker. FCL SUPPORTS. Senate Public Safety Committee.

AB 1179 (Leland Yee, D., San Francisco) prohibits the sale, rental, and distribution of violent video games to persons under age 17. FCL SUPPORTS. Chaptered.

AB 1218 (Mark Wyland, R., Del Mar) requires elementary and secondary students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance each day during the school year. FCL OPPOSES. Assembly Education Committee.

AB 1237 (Mark Leno, D., San Francisco) prohibits the public sale and possession of tasers and requires law enforcement agencies to track and report their use to the Department of Justice. FCL SUPPORTS. Assembly Inactive File.

SB 5 (Bill Morrow, R., Oceanside) requests the UC Regents and CSU Trustees to develop guidelines and to implement the Student Bill of Rights. FCL OPPOSES. Senate Education Committee.