Capitol Briefs: Fireworks in the Assembly, PAGA reforms move to the gov

Assembly gets heated over outing protections bill: There was high drama in the Assembly on Thursday during debate over AB 1955, a bill that would bar schools from outing their LGBTQ+ students. Things got heated when Assemblymember Bill Essayli (R-Corona) stood to oppose the measure. When he brought up one of his own previous bills, Chair Jim Wood (D-Healdsburg) cautioned that he was out of order. That sparked a furious exchange between them, including Essayli accusing Wood of running the chamber like the “Chinese Communist party.” Things actually then got worse when Essayli said something that Assemblymember Corey Jackson (D-Moreno Valley) took offense to – great offense. So much so it took several other folks to hold him back from going after Essayli. Several members then formed a line between the two men, and Wood called a recess to allow cooler heads to prevail. Once returned almost an hour later, the measure passed easily along party lines. It moves now to Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has not publicly taken a position on the bill.

Ballot measure updates: Lawmakers on Thursday sent Gov. Gavin Newsom two bills to reform the Private Attorney Generals Act (PAGA), ensuring the proposed ballot measure to do so will not go before voters in November. Those measures – SB 92 and AB 2288 – collectively make a number of substantive changes to the law, including requiring plaintiffs to have actually experienced to violations in the litigation while also ensuring victorious plaintiffs receive a greater portion of the financial penalties. Lawmakers also sent Newsom ACA 8, which would ban any form of slavery in California, and AB 2927, which would require high school students to pass a financial literacy test as a condition of graduation. Newsom’s signature on ACA 8 will send the issue before voters in November; his endorsement on AB 2927 will result in a similar proposal being pulled from the ballot.

PBM regulation in Judiciary: The Assembly Health Committee earlier this week endorsed SB 966, a bill from Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) to more greatly regulate pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), which act as middlemen between drug makers and health care plans. Under Wiener’s proposal, PBMs would have to be licensed by the California Department of Insurance. PBMs would also, among several things, be barred from using “spread pricing,” where it charges a plan more for a drug than it pays a pharmacy. The bill is next scheduled to be heard on Tuesday July 2^nd in the Assembly Judiciary Committee.

Beaver restoration bill to suspense: The budget morass has a big furry rodent in its crosshairs. Assembly Bill 2196 would codify the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Beaver Restoration Program. The program was created through a budget allocation in 2022, and the only way to ensure it keeps going is to put it into statute. But while the estimated $1.4 million annual price tag is not much by Capitol standards, a budget year like this one has lawmakers looking to trim corners everywhere. So last week the Senate Appropriations Committee placed the measure onto the suspense file, leaving the beavers up the creek, so to speak, for at least a few months.

Hearing for AI bills: Artificial intelligence is all the buzz these says in just about everything under the Capitol dome. In that regard, there are two significant AI regulation measures coming up for hearing in the Assembly Committee on Privacy and Consumer Protection:

SB 892, which would require the Department of Technology to develop and create regulations to develop an AI risk management standard, to include a detailed risk management procedure for procuring automated decision systems (ADS) for appropriate risk controls and adverse incident monitoring procedures. SB 892 would also prohibit any state agency from entering into a contract for an ADS, unless that contract includes a clause requiring a completed risk assessment and lays out procedures for adverse incident monitoring.

SB 893, which would facilitate the creation of an AI Hub (The California Artificial Intelligence Research Hub) to serve as a centralized entity to facilitate collaboration between government institutions, private sector partners, and academic institutions to advance research in AI technologies. SB 893 seeks to use the AI Hub to build out public computing infrastructure and create more access for research and collaboration while protecting privacy.

Both measures are expected to be heard on July 2^nd.

Capitol Weekly interns Colleen Carbrey and Eamon Jahouach contributed to this story.