Assembly Business And Professions Committee

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Thank you. Thank you. Testing one, two, three. It's been a while since I've chaired a committee hearing in this room, but I think this is working. Jill, are we good? All right. Thank you. Good morning. Good afternoon, everyone yeah that plays welcome today today's meeting of the assembly business and professions committee to consider bills that have been re-referred to the committee pursuant to assembly rule 77.2 i'd like to start by thanking committee staff for all their heart i was going to do that at the end and you put that at the beginning you tricked me you tricked me you got me all right i guess we're gonna start by thanking committee staff i was gonna end by thinking committee staff but I'd like to start by thanking committee staff for all of their hard work throughout this past year that's on both sides of the aisle. Our committee staff do an incredibly large amount of work behind the scenes, in particular on all the bills, but in particular on the sunset bills that are really important, even if they're not always the sexiest bills in the world. And so really appreciate all the work that B&P staff have done this year and for the last five years or so that I've been chair. Before we begin with our agenda, I would like to remind everyone that the assembly has rules to ensure we maintain order and run an efficient and fair hearing. I can't believe you put that in my talking points. The prior thing, not this thing. I would like to remind everyone that the assembly has rules to ensure we maintain order and run an efficient and fair hearing. We apply these rules consistently to all people who participate in our proceedings, regardless of the viewpoint they express. in order to facilitate the goal of hearing as much from the public within the limits of our time. We will not permit conduct that disrupts, disturbs, or otherwise impedes the orderly conduct of legislative proceedings. That was an admonition for all my colleagues. No disrupting. For each of the measures being presented today, we will be allowing primary witnesses here in the room to speak for over two minutes each with up to two primary witnesses per side. You don't need that. Any additional witnesses will be limited to name, position on the bill, and organization they represent. And if any, for those wishing to provide further comments, we are accepting written testimony through the position letter portal on the committee's website. And with that, we are going to begin today's hearing. But before we begin today's hearing, I don't remember, Davies, come on up because you're first on the agenda. But we have a quorum, so we're going to establish a quorum. Mr. Secretary, please call the roll.

Johnson. Here.

Alanis. Here.

Caloza. Here.

El-Hawari.

Here.

Hart? Present.

Jackson? Here.

Macedo? No.

Pellerin?

All right. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Members, today I'm here to present AB 1707. I first want to thank committee staff for working with my staff on this bill. Members AB 1707 transfers authority over the certification of electricians from the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement to the Contractors State License Board beginning July 1st 2028 Shifting administration away from DLSC removes interagency bureaucracy consolidating testing licensing and compliance under a single roof Streamlining this license pipeline directly addresses our trades and labor shortage keeping critical commercial, residential, and green infrastructure projects on schedule across the state. This bill has received unanimous support, the entire process, and with me here to testify on behalf of the sponsors, IBEW Scott Welch, I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Mr. Chairman and members, Scott West, on behalf of the State Association of Electrical Workers, I'll just speak to the portion of the bill that was recently amended. When we sponsored the original electrician certification program during the Davis administration, we did not have an enforcement component. Two or three years later, we came back during the Davis administration. And at that time, the governor insisted that the enforcement be done by CSLB, not by the DIR. That's why this program has been bifurcated for all these years. Unfortunately, the Department of Industrial Relations has done an abysmal job of administering this program. It has been one problem after another. This culminated last year when they had an eight-month backlog on processing renewals. So what was happening is a journeyman would send in their $125 renewal and the paperwork and not get their license for eight months. And they were losing work. They were being turned away and told to go home because they didn't have this. It was a catastrophe. The administration stepped into it and redirected staff to get rid of the backlog. And as an outgrowth of that, they determined that this program would better be administered at CSLB. CSLB, that's what they do. They do licenses. They're very proficient at doing testing, at working with the industry to update tests. It makes sense that enforcement and administration be together. So for that reason, we would ask for an aye vote. Thank you.

Respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Yeah. You should be.

Aye.

Johnson? Aye.

Aarons?

Alanise?

Alanise, aye.

Bauer-Cahan, aye.

Aye.

Chen? Al-Hawari? Hadwick?

Hadwick, aye.

Aye.

Irwin?

Irwin, aye.

Aye.

Lowenthal?

Lowenthal, aye.

I do. I do. Never gets old. Never gets old hearing it. I think you're lying. Y'all good? I'm ready. Let's go. Well, thank you, Mr. Chair. Here presenting AB 1811, this bill would preserve HPSAs, which are health professional shortage areas that were eliminated under H.R. 1, essentially helping to make sure that we get health professionals going into areas that are more rural, that have fewer resources. this bill might sound new to many folks, not because it's a gut demand, but because the first time it came through this committee, it was on consent. And then on the floor, it was on consent. And then it went over to the Senate, was on consent. And then technical amendments pulled it into this committee because it added additional reporting requirements for boards of healing arts, licensees, and registrants from the administration. With that, I ask for an aye vote.

Got to make sure we get it right.

Got a second.

Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and members. Connie Delgado on behalf of the District Hospital Leadership Forum in support.

Thank you. Ms. Nett Short on behalf of Adventist Health and Peach representing Community Safety Net Hospitals.

Some of Rogers would like to close just with a stat for folks about 20 percent of the state's population lives in rural communities, only about 9 percent of its health professionals.

AB 1811, the motion is with recommendation that Senate amendments be concurred in.

Berman, aye. Johnson? Aye. Johnson, aye. Addis? Aye. Addis, aye. Ahrens? Aye. Ahrens, aye. Alanis? Aye. Alanis, aye. Baines? Aye. Baines, aye. Bauer-Cahan? Aye. Mahapan, aye.

I too find it offensive. Colosa, aye.

Aye. Chen, aye.

Aye. Hadwick, aye.

Aye. Hart, aye.

Aye. Irwin, aye.

Aye. Jackson, aye.

Aye. Lowenthal, aye.

Aye. Macedo, aye.

Very dramatic.

I heard a wee.

AB 1707 Davies, Baines. Baines, aye. Chen, aye. Chen, Aye.

Aye. Haney, Aye.

Aye. Macedo, Aye.

AB 1811 Rogers.

Aye. Haney, aye. Good to see you, sir. Thank you, brother.

We could.

Please take it from the top. AB 1707 Davies Pellerin? Aye. Pellerin, aye. AB 1811 Rogers Pellerin? Aye. Pellerin, aye.

In this room. In this room. I bet you did.

AB 1707 Davies, when? Aye. When, aye. AB 1811 Rogers, when? Aye. When, aye.