2009 Final Legislative Update- CA Commission on the Status of Women

2009 FINAL LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
(from Facebook message)

CALIFORNIA COMMISSION ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN
PRIORITY BILLS

The 2009 California legislative session has come to a close. The Legislature passed many of the Commission’s priority support bills before the end-of-session deadline and sent them to the Governor for his signature or veto. The following is a summary of Governor Schwarzenegger’s actions on those bills.

Signed into law:

AB 119 (Jones) – Health insurance; gender discrimination
Prohibits gender discrimination in pricing of health insurance policy premiums.

SB 54 (Leno) – Out-of-state same-sex marriages
Clarifies that same-sex couples who were married outside California have the same rights and responsibilities as different-sex spouses.

SB 118 (Liu) - Child welfare services; incarcerated parents
Seeks to improve outcomes between foster care youth and their incarcerated parents by requiring the child welfare system database to include information about whether a parent of a child in the child welfare system is, or has been, involved in the criminal justice system.

SB 148 (Oropeza) - Mammogram machines; posting of violations
Requires facilities that operate mammogram machines to post notices of "serious violations" of the federal Mammography Quality Standards Act in an area that is visible to patients.

Vetoed:

AB 56 (Portantino) - Health care coverage; mammograms
Requires health insurers to provide mammography coverage for breast cancer screening or diagnosis when it is ordered by a physician or designated health care professional.

AB 98 (De La Torre) – Health insurance; maternity coverage
Requires all health insurance policies to include coverage for maternity care services, including prenatal care, labor and delivery and postnatal care.

AB 324 (Beall) – Elder Economic Security Standard Index
Requires the California Department of Aging to update the Elder Economic Security Standard Index and requires the area agencies on aging to use the Index in their service planning.

AB 513 (DeLeon) - Health care coverage; breast-feeding
Requires health plans and policies to provide coverage to new mothers for certified lactation consultation and breast pump rental.

AB 685 (Davis) – Athletic equity; school facilities
Requires the California Department of Education to include, as part of its review of an application for new construction of a school athletic facility, a determination of whether the proposed plan would provide gender equitable access to the facility.

AB 793 (Jones) – Wage discrimination; statute of limitations
Clarifies when a cause of action accrues for the purpose of filing an employment wage discrimination claim.

AB 943 (Mendoza) – Employment; credit reports
Prohibits the use of a consumer credit report for employment purposes unless credit information is substantially job related or required to be obtained by law.

AB 988 (Brownley) – Human trafficking; peace officer training
Provides human trafficking training to law enforcement officers on the U visa which temporarily permits non-citizen human trafficking victims and their immediate families to remain in the country legally.

SB 248 (Oropeza) – Title IX; posting of rights
Requires school districts, community colleges, and California State University campuses to post a list of rights afforded to pupils under Title IX on their district or campus website.

SB 257 (Pavley) - Lactation accommodation; state employees
Requires state agencies and departments to inform female employees who are nearing maternity leave about their breastfeeding accommodation rights.


For a complete list of legislation tracked by the Commission this year, go to www.women.ca.gov and click on "Legislation" then "2009 Priority Bills”

(http://www.women.ca.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=72&Itemid=88)

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