In a year when the coronavirus pandemic upended every aspect of normal life, the impact in the California Capitol was also dramatic. Lawmakers took an unprecedented two-month hiatus in the spring, when Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a statewide order for people to stay home to prevent the spread of the virus. They returned to the Capitol in May, passed a state budget shrunken by the pandemic-induced recession, and began setting aside hundreds of bills that would no longer make the cut in this truncated year. Faced with less time to hold hearings and less money to spend on new initiatives, lawmakers jettisoned an estimated three-quarters of the bills introduced at the beginning of the year.
Abandoned or rejected along the way were bills requiring police to intervene if they see officers using excessive force, allow homeowners to request a forbearance on their mortgages during the pandemic, and launch a “Green New Deal” to fight climate change.
But even with their reduced workload, lawmakers tackled numerous thorny issues, passing legislation that could impact life in California for years to come — to allow more workers to take paid family leave, make it easier to get mental health care, and ban flavored tobacco, among others.
Now it’s up to the governor to decide if their ideas should become law. Below are some of the most interesting decisions he faces. We’ll be tracking their fate through the bill-signing period, which ends Sept. 30.
Expanding role of nurse practitioners
WHAT THE BILL WOULD DO
AB 890 would expand the role of nurse practitioners and allow them to practice independently in some settings, without a supervising physician. Assemblymember Jim Wood, a Democrat from Healdsburg, has pitched this bill as a way to help the state’s provider shortage.
WHO SUPPORTS IT?
Nurse practitioners have been trying to lift restrictions on their scope of practice for years. The nurses’ union as well as the state’s hospital association are among the bill’s supporters.
WHO’S OPPOSED?
California’s doctor lobby argues that this bill is a threat to patient safety and that it doesn’t necessarily guarantee growth in the provider workforce.
WHY IT MATTERS: Nurse practitioners are highly trained nurses with a master’s degree, who work largely in primary care, an area of great need in the state. By some projections, California would need about 8,200 more primary care doctors by 2030.
GOVERNOR’S CALL
Unknown at this time.
Regulating debt collectors
WHAT THE BILL WOULD DO
SB 908 would create the Debt Collection Licensing Act, which would license and regulate debt collectors, overseen by the Department of Business Oversight. The department would also license collections attorneys. The bill by Sen. Bob Wieckowski, a Fremont Democrat, builds on the 1977 national Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, which sought to eliminate abusive debt collection practices, but required debtors to file lawsuits themselves.
WHO SUPPORTS IT?
Consumer advocacy organizations, nonprofits that work with debtors and both the California Association of Collectors and the Receivables Management Association International, two trade organizations representing debt collectors.
WHO’S OPPOSED?
Banks and credit unions oppose the bill unless it’s amended to remove them from being regulated by the Department of Business Oversight. The bill doesn’t require them to be licensed as debt collectors, but they could be subject to enforcement for violating debt collection laws. The California Creditors Bar Association opposes the licensure of collections attorneys.
WHY IT MATTERS
California is one of 16 states that doesn’t regulate debt collectors. The pandemic and accompanying recession has increased household debt of many Californians. The bill, supported by the debt collection industry, would compel debt collectors to undergo a background check by the state Department of Justice.
GOVERNOR’S CALL
Unkown at this time.
