On Thursday, August 13, the Senate and Assembly Appropriations Committees met to dispense with their Suspense Calendars, the process for sending to the Floor or holding bills with significant fiscal impacts to the state. As noted in the last newsletter, this year was expected to see increased scrutiny of higher-cost bills, and that expectation came to fruition.
On the Floor
SB 16 (Blakespear) – Sponsored by CSAP; Would require all 58 counties to implement a public procedure for 5150 designations.
SB 561 (Blakespear) – Sponsored by CSAP; Would create clearer requirements for communication and timeliness by public conservators/guardians.
AB 2011 (Hart) – Co-Sponsored by CSAP; Would strengthen the mental health parity statute in California regardless of changes made at the Federal level. You may recall in a previous newsletter that AB 2011 received a significant fiscal analysis from the state. Through productive discussion with them, the bill has been amended to retain the intent but porting the changes into statute in a way that does not conflict with existing implementation of the federal rules.
Held on Suspense
SB 1016 (Blakespear) – Sponsored by CSAP; the Bridge Act, which would have connected the CARE Act with LPS screenings. SB 1016 had fiscal estimates in the hundreds of millions.
SB 28 (Umberg) – Supported by CSAP; Senator Umberg’s CARE Act swan song which would have made some sweeping and much needed changes to the CARE Act. Considering this is Senator Umberg’s last year in the Legislature, this is perhaps the most shocking Suspense outcome of all in the behavioral health space.
AB 1825 (Krell) – Sponsored by CSAP; Would have provided some much-needed clarity to the Offenders with a Mental Health Disorder Program.
AB 2386 (Alvarez) – Opposed by CSAP; Through recent amendments, would have granted Mexican physicians who have completed two terms of the Mexico Pilot Program the ability to apply for full, unrestricted licensure in California in psychiatry and a few other specialties.