Current Issues

NAME OF BILL: SB 1453 – Speech-Language Pathologist Practice Efficiency

SPONSOR: Senator Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh

DESCRIPTION: A speech-language pathologist must have a written verification from a certified Otolaryngologist (ear, nose, and throat doctor), showing that the pathologist has performed a minimum of 25 supervised flexible trans nasal endoscopic procedures in order to preform a Flexible Endoscopic Evaluation of Swallowing on patients.

STATUS: Current California Law

For more information on this bill, click here.

NAME OF BILL: SB 1279 – Guardian Ad Litem

SPONSOR: Senator Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh

DESCRIPTION: Provide clarity and codify aspects of a guardian ad litem appointments that occur without clear guidance. Clarifies an “incapacitated person” for whom a guardian ad litem may be appointed to.

STATUS: Current California Law

For more information on this bill, click here.

NAME OF BILL: SB 1054 Multi-Disciplinary Teams Information Sharing 

SPONSOR: Senator Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh

DESCRIPTION: This bill would allow Adult Protective Services and Child Welfare Services staff to share information for the purposes of work for prevention, intervening, managing, and treating child or elder abuse. 

STATUS: Current California Law

For more information on this bill, click here.

NAME OF BILL: SB 1312 Car Rental Marketplace Facilitators 

SPONSOR: Senator Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh

DESCRIPTION: This bill aims to avoid complications in tax-compliance processes for car rental bookings by clearly identifying the marketplace seller as the tax-responsible party when going through an online travel company. 

STATUS: Signed by Governor Gavin Newsom

For more information on this bill, click here.

NAME OF BILL: SB 1405 – Lake Arrowhead Community Services CC&Rs

SPONSOR: Senator Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh

DESCRIPTION: Makes necessary statutory changes to allows the Lake Arrowhead Community Services District to voluntarily take over the enforcement of the Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions set in place by the people of Arrowhead Woods at the request of the Arrowhead Woods Architectural Committee.

STATUS: Passed and Signed

For more information on this bill, click here.

NAME OF BILL: AB 44 – California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System: tribal police

AUTHOR: Assembly-member James Ramos

DESCRIPTION: AB 44 would express the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation to facilitate greater self-governance in the area of law enforcement by tribal governments and tribal police by granting more consistent authority to tribal police to enforce state laws and by granting tribal police access to the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System. The bill also makes related findings and declarations.

STATUS: Passed Assembly, currently in the Senate.

For more information about this bill, click here.

NAME OF BILL: AB 46 – Personal income taxes: exclusion: Military Services Retirement and Surviving Spouse Benefit Payment Act

AUTHOR: Assembly-member James Ramos

DESCRIPTION: This bill for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2024, and before January 1, 2034, would exclude from gross income retirement pay received by a taxpayer from the federal government for service performed in the uniformed services, as defined, during the taxable year. The bill, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2024, and before January 1, 2034, would also exclude from gross income annuity payments received by a qualified taxpayer, as defined, pursuant to a United States Department of Defense Survivor Benefit Plan during the taxable year. The bill would make related findings and declarations.

STATUS: Passed Assembly, currently in the Senate.

For more information about this bill, click here.

NAME OF BILL: AB 81 – Indian children: child custody proceedings

AUTHOR: Assembly-member James Ramos

DESCRIPTION: This bill is in response to the pending Supreme Court decision regarding the Indian Children Welfare Act (ICWA). AB 81 seeks to reinforce California’s commitment to Indian children, families and tribes by acknowledging that federally recognized tribes are sovereign nations with inherent rights to self-governance, including the right to regulate domestic relations involving their citizens. Tribes have been protecting and caring for their children from time immemorial and tribes’ rights to remain involved in state proceedings involving their children’s welfare must be protected. Indian children continue to be disproportionately represented in California’s child welfare system and new research shows that tribes being involved in dependency cases as early as possible can reduce a child’s time in state care, so this proposed legislation is urgently needed to reinforce the State’s commitment to protecting essential tribal relations by recognizing a tribe’s right to protect the health, safety, and welfare of its citizens.

STATUS: Passed Assembly, currently in the Senate.

For more information about this bill, click here.

NAME OF BILL: AB 226 – University of California: California Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 2001

AUTHOR: Assembly-member James Ramos

DESCRIPTION: This bill would urge the University of California to, on or before June 30, 2024, and annually thereafter, report each University of California campus’s progress towards completing repatriation pursuant to the California Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 2001. The bill would urge the office of the President of the University of California to provide available funding to sufficiently support those efforts.

STATUS: Passed Assembly, currently in the Senate.

For more information about this bill, click here.

NAME OF BILL: AB 273 – Foster care: missing children and nonminor dependents

AUTHOR: Assembly-member James Ramos

DESCRIPTION: AB 273, among other things, would additionally require the social worker or probation officer, when they determine that a child or nonminor dependent is absent from foster care, to provide notification immediately, or in no case later than 24 hours from receipt of the information, to specified persons, including the child’s parents and the local law enforcement agency, and would require the next status review hearing to be held in an expedited manner. The bill would require the social worker or probation officer to also serve notice of the hearing and to provide a report at the hearing and any subsequent hearings describing their efforts to locate, place, and stabilize the child or nonminor dependent, as specified. The bill would define “absent from foster care” to mean when the whereabouts of a child receiving child welfare services, including dependents or wards in foster care and nonminor dependents, who is placed in foster care are unknown to the county child welfare agency or probation department taking into account the age, intelligence, mental functioning, and physical condition of the child or nonminor dependent.

STATUS: Passed Assembly, currently in the Senate.

For more information about this bill, click here.

NAME OF BILL: AB 341 – Gambling: local moratorium

AUTHOR: Assembly-member James Ramos

DESCRIPTION: AB 341 would re-enact the prohibition on the California Gambling Control Commission from issuing a new cardroom a license for a gambling establishment that was not licensed to operate on December 31, 1999, except as specified or the expansion of existing facilities beyond the growth allowed in the measure.

STATUS: Current California Law

For more information about this bill, click here.

NAME OF BILL: AB 349 – Patton State Hospital: lease: housing and mental health services for homeless

AUTHOR: Assembly-member James Ramos

DESCRIPTION: This bill would authorize Patton State Hospital, located in San Bernardino County to enter into an agreement with a nonprofit corporation or local government to provide housing and provide mental health services to the Inland Empire’s homeless population.

STATUS: Passed Assembly, currently in Senate

For more information about this bill, click here.

NAME OF BILL: AB 389 – Native American Heritage Commission

AUTHOR: Assembly-member James Ramos

DESCRIPTION: AB 389 would allow for the Native American Heritage Commission to enter into closed sessions when considering matters related to the inclusion or removal of a Native American tribe, person, or entity on the tribal contact list maintained by the commission. This bill would also ask for the Native American Heritage Commission, to make recommendations for County Coroners to require them to notify the Commission should they discover remains that are unrelated to their investigations among other things.

STATUS: Passed Assembly, currently in Senate

For more information about this bill, click here.

NAME OF BILL: AB 461 – Student safety: fentanyl test strips

AUTHOR: Assembly-member James Ramos

DESCRIPTION: AB 461 requires California Community Colleges and the California State Universities to stock fentanyl test strips at a campus health center as well as provide information about how to properly use them. This bill would also request the Regents of the University of California to do so.

STATUS: Passed Assembly, currently in Senate

For more information about this bill, click here.

NAME OF BILL: AB 462 – Overdose response teams

AUTHOR: Assembly-member James Ramos

DESCRIPTION: AB 462 would create a fund in the State Treasury for providing grants to counties to establish and implement overdose response teams with the sheriff’s departments of those counties. AB 462 would require the teams to respond to and investigate overdose deaths and nonfatal overdoses including those involving juveniles and multiple victims, with a focus on overdose deaths related to fentanyl.

STATUS: Currently in Assembly’s Public Safety Committee

For more information about this bill, click here.

NAME OF BILL: AB 516 – Mitigation fees: fees for improvements: reports and audits

AUTHOR: Assembly-member James Ramos

DESCRIPTION: AB 516 aims to increase transparency in the Mitigation Fee Act. It requires that in a local agency’s annual report of the fees that they include such information as reasons for delays and when construction might resume. AB 516 also requires that a local agency informs a person paying a fee of their right to request an audit of the funds.

STATUS: Currently in Assembly’s Public Safety Committee

For more information about this bill, click here.

NAME OF BILL: AB 553 – Department of Justice: Bureau of Gambling Control

AUTHOR: Assembly-member James Ramos

DESCRIPTION: This bill would require the Department of Justice, by no later than June 1, 2024, to develop and implement a formal time tracking policy and procedure for employees assigned to the Bureau of Gambling Control to track those hours and other expenses that can be charged to the Indian Gaming Special Distribution Fund. Commencing January 1, 2025, this bill also requires quarterly audits of timekeeping to ensure that only those hours and expenses directly related to tribal gaming are charged to the fund.

STATUS: Currently in Assembly’s Public Safety Committee

For more information about this bill, click here.

NAME OF BILL: AB 630 – Department of Transportation: contracts: tribes

AUTHOR: Assembly-member James Ramos

DESCRIPTION: Existing law allows the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) to enter contracts with federally recognized Indian tribes for the purposes of off-reservation traffic impact mitigation projects on or connecting to the state highway system, among other purposes. But the law does not allow Caltrans to enter agreements with entities owned by federally recognized Indian tribes. This limits Caltrans’ ability to collaborate with those entities on shared priorities for traffic impact mitigation.

STATUS: Currently in Assembly’s Public Safety Committee

For more information about this bill, click here.

NAME OF BILL: AB 685 – Workforce training: CaliforniaVolunteers: youth job corps

AUTHOR: Assembly-member James Ramos

DESCRIPTION: The #CaliforniansForAll Youth Jobs Corps is an innovative partnership between the State of California and local government to help underserved youth find employment. By expanding the program throughout all of California, young people in all areas of the State, but particularly in underserved and rural areas will gain critical job skills while making a positive, lasting impact in their communities.

STATUS: Waiting to be assigned committee in the Assembly

For more information about this bill, click here.

NAME OF BILL: AB 791 – Postconviction bail

AUTHOR: Assembly-member James Ramos

DESCRIPTION: This bill seeks to improve public safety by establishing a presumption that post-conviction bail is unavailable for persons facing a life sentence, unless one of the qualifying exceptions are satisfied.

STATUS: Passed assembly, currently in Senate

For more information about this bill, click here.

NAME OF BILL: AB 854 – Tribal gaming: compact ratification

AUTHOR: Assembly-member James Ramos

DESCRIPTION: This bill would ratify the Gaming Compact entered into between the State of California and the Redding Rancheria of California.

STATUS: Waiting for floor vote

For more information about this bill, click here.

NAME OF BILL: AB 1041 – Wildlife: white sage: taking and possession

AUTHOR: Assembly-member James Ramos

DESCRIPTION: This bill would extend prohibitions to white sage and would subject a violation of those prohibitions. The bill, with respect to state and local property, would exempt the harvest and use of white sage for traditional tribal, cultural, or spiritual purposes by a member of a Native American tribe, as specified.

STATUS: In Assembly Water, Parks, and Wildlife Committee

For more information about this bill, click here.

NAME OF BILL: AB 1284 – Tribal ancestral lands and waters: cogovernance and comanagement agreements

AUTHOR: Assembly-member James Ramos

DESCRIPTION: This bill would allow federally recognized Tribes in California to enter into co-governance and management agreements with the Natural Resources Agency and give the authority for the agency to do so as well.

STATUS: In Assembly Appropriations Committee

For more information about this bill, click here.

NAME OF BILL: AB 1459 – State Capital: mural honoring Native Americans

AUTHOR: Assembly-member James Ramos

DESCRIPTION: This bill would require that a mural honoring California Native Americans be incorporated in one of the main hearing rooms in the newly constructed state capitol building annex.

STATUS: Passed Assembly, currently in Senate

For more information about this bill, click here.

NAME OF BILL: AB 1508 – Department of Housing and Community Development: California Statewide Housing Plan

AUTHOR: Assembly-member James Ramos

DESCRIPTION: This bill directs the Department of Housing and Community Development to develop a plan, within the California Statewide Housing Plan to increase homeownership of first-time-home buyers who have been disproportionately impacted by California’s ongoing housing crisis.

STATUS: Passed Assembly, currently in Senate

For more information about this bill, click here.

NAME OF BILL: AB 1748 – Logistics use projects: sensitive receptors

AUTHOR: Assembly-member James Ramos

DESCRIPTION: This bill will provide a requirement for local agencies to implement a 300 foot minimum setback for qualifying logistic facilities and other landscape buffer requirements next to sensitive receptors (commonly referred to as a good neighbor policy or sustainability ordinance) in the Inland Empire.

STATUS: In Assembly Appropriations Committee

For more information about this bill, click here.

As the home to the largest number of veterans in the nation, it is time California honors their service and sacrifice. This legislation by Assemblyman James Ramos, would exclude from gross income retirement pay received for service in the uniformed services and annuity payments received from a Survivor Benefit Plan. As a result, beginning in 2023, this income would not be subject to California State Income Tax.

As a Gold Star Spouse, Supervisor Rowe has a direct and personal understanding of the positive impact this legislation would have on veterans and their survivors. Supervisor Rowe is proud to offer her strong endorsement of this much-needed bill and thanks Assemblyman Ramos for leading this effort.

The Asian Citrus Psyllid (ACP) is an insect that feeds on citrus plants and can spread a deadly plant disease called Huanglongbing (HLB), which has been found in San Bernardino County. While the disease is not harmful to people or pets, once a citrus tree is infected it will die. This disease has had a devastating impact on the citrus industries in Florida and Texas, so this threat to local growers has been monitored closely over the past few years. Recently, populations of ACP were detected near commercial groves in Highland, Mentone, and Redlands, which has resulted in the Proclamation of an Emergency Program from the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

ACP, and the disease it can carry, threaten loss and damage to not only citrus crops but also backyard citrus trees and food supplies. The recommended treatment plan for the ACP detections will be implemented within a 250-meter radius of each ACP detection site. Residents in the treatment area will be contacted by the California Department of Food and Agriculture, which will complete the treatments at no cost. 

To learn more visit: CaliforniaCitrusTreat.org

The San Bernardino County Microbusiness COVID-19 Relief Grant is designed to assist businesses that have experienced economic barriers due to the global pandemic. The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors approved $2,500 to be disbursed to qualified businesses. Businesses and Non-Profits that quality for this grant must be located within the San Bernardino County boundaries, have been started before December 31, 2019, have five or less full-time employees, and have gross revenues of less than $50,000 in 2019 and 2020. 

To apply or find out more about this program, please click here.

The San Bernardino County Transportation Authority (SBCTA), in cooperation with the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), is proposing to extend the eastbound truck climbing lane on Interstate 10 from the existing EB off-ramp at Live Oak Canyon Road located in the City of Yucaipa, to just east of the existing County Line Road EB off-ramp at the Riverside County line in the City of Calimesa. The existing truck climbing lane will be extended for an additional three miles along a steep uphill portion of I-10. The Project will improve traffic operations by separating trucks from faster moving passenger vehicles. Construction is anticipated to be completed in the Spring of 2024. 

For more information please click here.

For the next few weeks crews will continue to work on retaining wall construction on Alabama Street and the I-10 off-ramps, performing paving at the off-ramps, and working on underground utilities. At times work throughout the corridor may be loud and cause vibration. Please remember all construction is dynamic and the schedule is weather-permitting and subject to change. When finished, this project will Reduce congestion, improve safety, and improve traffic operations along Alabama Street between Orange Tree Lane and Industrial Park Avenue. Construction should be completed by the end of 2022.  

For up-to-date information and alerts, please click here.

The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors have approved a road rehabilitation and reconstruction project that will improve 32 miles of roads within Redlands, Mentone, and Yucaipa areas. Construction is anticipated to start in September 2022. To see a map of roads included in the project, please click here.