BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 429|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 429
Author: Aroner (D) & Chan (D), et al
Amended: 7/20/01 in Senate
Vote: 27 - Urgency
SENATE FLOOR : 27-12, 7/22/01
AYES: Alarcon, Alpert, Bowen, Burton, Chesbro, Costa,
Dunn, Escutia, Figueroa, Johannessen, Karnette, Kuehl,
Machado, Murray, O'Connell, Ortiz, Peace, Perata,
Polanco, Romero, Scott, Sher, Soto, Speier, Torlakson,
Vasconcellos, Vincent
NOES: Ackerman, Battin, Brulte, Haynes, Johnson, Margett,
McClintock, McPherson, Monteith, Morrow, Oller,
Poochigian
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 54-22, 7/23/01 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Social services: Budget Trailer Bill
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill is the omnibus social services Budget
trailer bill, which makes changes to programs administered
by the State Department of Aging, the State Department of
Health and Human Services Agency Data Center, the State
Department of Rehabilitation, the State Department of
Alcohol and Drug Programs, the State Employment Development
Department, the State Department of Social Services, the
State Department of Child Support Services, the State
Department of Community Services and Development, the State
Franchise Tax Board, and the Office of Statewide Health
CONTINUED
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Planning and Development.
ANALYSIS : Existing law contains criminal record check
requirements of applicants for a license, special permit,
or certificate for a foster family home or certified family
home, and other persons, including nonclients who reside in
those homes and staff and employees.
This bill requires the State Department of Social Services
(DSS) to pay for required background checks for any persons
applying to adopt a child pursuant to specified provisions.
Existing law requires a local child support agency to
transfer child support delinquencies to the State Franchise
Tax Board (FTB) in the form and manner and at the time
prescribed by FTB. Existing law also provides that FTB has
responsibility for accounts receivable management of child
support delinquencies in support of the child support
activities of the State Department of Child Support
Services (DCSS) and local child support agencies.
This bill relieves FTB of the responsibility for accounts
receivable management of child support delinquencies in
support of these child support activities and would make
related changes. The bill also revises and recast
provisions relating to the transfer of child support
delinquencies to FTB.
Existing law authorizes FTB to collect child support
delinquencies in any manner authorized by law for the
collection of a delinquent personal income tax liability,
except by the issuance of an order and levy in the manner
provided for earnings withholding orders for taxes.
This bill authorizes FTB to collect child support
delinquencies in that manner until the California Child
Support Automation System is operational in all 58
counties.
The bill also requires FTB, with the concurrence of DCSS,
to establish a process whereby a local child support agency
may request and shall be allowed to withdraw, rescind, or
otherwise recall the transfer of a child support
delinquency account that has been transferred to FTB.
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Existing law establishes DCSS to implement the operation of
the child support enforcement program through local
agencies.
Existing law requires the Director of DCSS to establish
uniform forms, policies, and procedures for local child
support agencies, and imposes related regulatory
requirements, including various time deadlines for the
implementation of these regulatory requirements.
This bill extends certain regulatory implementation
deadlines applicable to the establishment of the above
uniform forms, policies, and procedures.
This bill creates the Child Support Collections Recovery
Fund, which is to be administered by DCSS, consisting of
all public moneys transferred by public agencies to the
department for deposit, as permitted by federal statutes
and regulations, and any accrued interest, and that would
be used, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for
purposes of making payments or advances to local child
support agencies of the federal share of administrative
payments for costs incurred pursuant to the child support
enforcement program.
Existing law requires DCSS to pay to each county a child
support incentive for child support collections, and allows
the department, after July 1, 2000, to implement an annual
incentive program to reward local child support agencies,
in accordance with specified criteria.
This bill revises the performance standards and other
criteria for the above incentive programs. This bill
requires DCSS, after July 1, 2001, to pay an additional
incentive, from specified county collections, to the
counties with the 10 best performance standards, as revised
by this bill, to be used by the counties for specified
child support-related activities.
Existing law gives the local child support agency the
authority to establish liability for child support against
the noncustodial parent in any case in which separation or
desertion of a parent or parents from a child or children
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results in aid under the CalWORKs program being granted.
This bill requires each local child support agency, on a
monthly basis, to remit to DCSS both the federal and state
public assistance child support payments received pursuant
to existing law. The imposition of this new duty upon
local agencies would result in a state-mandated local
program.
Under existing law, the State Department of Community
Services and Development (DCSD) is required to receive and
administer the federal Low-Income Home Energy Assistance
Program Block Grant, and allocate the funds from the grant.
Existing law also provides for a similar state program
funded by a specified appropriation.
This bill establishes the separate California Low-Income
Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), also to be
administered by DCSD. This bill provides that the program
be designed to increase energy conservation and reduce
demand for energy services in low-income households, and to
ensure that the most vulnerable households cope with high
energy costs. This bill provides for certain means of
accomplishing this, and would set certain income and other
criteria for program qualification. DCDS will distribute
grants to certain grantee agencies from funds appropriated
for that purpose.
This bill requires DCDS to report on an annual basis to
various committees of the Legislature regarding the
program.
Under existing law, the State Department of Social Services
(DSS) is responsible for regulating activity relating to
continuing care contracts, which are defined as contracts
that include promises to provide care to elderly residents
for the duration of their lives, or for a period in excess
of one year, in exchange for certain charges or fees.
This bill requires the Continuing Care Contracts Branch of
DSS to enter and review each continuing care retirement
community in the state at least once every three years to
evaluate the financial soundness of the provider, the
condition of the facility, and the facility's compliance
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with existing law. This bill also requires the branch to
issue guidelines that require each provider to adopt a
comprehensive disaster preparedness plan. This bill
requires the branch to respond to complaints by residents
within 15 days. This bill requires the branch to report on
the work of the Continuing Care Advisory Committee.
Existing law, until October 31, 2001, requires the State
Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs (DADP) to develop
and test a comprehensive, client-centered system of care
that is outcome-based and addresses the devastating costs
of substance abuse to individuals, families, and
communities.
This bill extends the operation of that provision to July
1, 2003, and requires DADP to provide the appropriate
committees of the Legislature with a report, by January 1,
2003, on how to apply the program on a statewide basis and
to include in the report various aspects of the program.
Existing law requires the Office of Statewide Health
Planning and Development (OSHPD), until January 1, 2002, to
charge a health facility a fee of not more than 0.035
percent of the gross operating cost of the health facility
for the previous fiscal year, for deposit into the
California Health Data and Planning Fund. Existing law
includes similar provisions, operative on and after January
1, 2002, requiring OSHPD to charge fees for health
facilities and freestanding ambulatory surgery clinics for
deposit into the fund. Existing law requires OSHPD to
establish the fee to produce revenues equal to the
appropriation to pay for the functions required to be
performed by the office, area and local planning agencies,
and the Advisory Health Council.
This bill revises the above provisions, including
specifying that the appropriation upon which the fee is
based is the appropriation in the annual Budget Act or
another statute to pay for functions required to be
performed by OSHPD and the California Health Policy and
Data Advisory Commission in accordance with specified law,
and other health-related programs administered by OSHPD.
Existing law requires specified employers to contribute 0.1
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percent of specified wages into the Employment Training
Fund (ETF). Under existing law, this requirement is
repealed on January 1, 2002.
This bill deletes this repeal date.
Existing law authorizes the Legislature to appropriate from
the ETF specified amounts in specified budget acts to fund
the local assistance portion of welfare-to-work activities
under the CalWORKs program.
This bill authorizes the Legislature to appropriate
$61,650,000 in the Budget Act of 2001 from the ETF to fund
the local assistance portion of welfare-to-work activities
under the CalWORKs program.
Existing law establishes the Employment Training Panel
(ETP) and requires this panel, among other duties, to
create a priority list of skills that are in such short
supply in this state that employers are choosing to not
locate or expand their businesses in the state or are
importing labor in response to these skills shortages.
Existing law requires this skills priority list to identify
those industries in which upgrade training is likely to
encourage hiring of the unemployed on a backfill basis.
This bill deletes the requirement that the skills priority
list identify those industries in which upgrade training is
likely to encourage hiring of the unemployed on a backfill
basis.
Existing law requires the ETP to prepare a budget to cover
necessary administrative costs of the panel, and authorizes
the panel to utilize funds in the ETF for, among other
expenditures, reasonable training costs and administrative
costs incurred by contractors performing services for the
panel. Existing law also authorizes the ETP to allocate up
to 10 percent of its annual training funds to fund training
projects that improve the skills and employment security of
frontline workers, as defined.
This bill clarifies that participants in these training
projects to improve the skills and employment security of
frontline workers are not required to meet specified
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additional requirements. This bill makes additional
technical and clarifying changes to these provisions.
The federal Workforce Investment Act allocates funds to
states and local areas for assessment and training of
employees.
This bill makes legislative findings regarding the use of
these federal funds.
Existing law requires that the status of every dependent
child of the court placed in foster care shall be reviewed
periodically by the court.
Existing law requires that the report resulting from the
periodic review by the court shall project a likely date by
which a child in foster care may be returned to, and safely
maintained in, the home or placed for adoption, legal
guardianship, or in another planned permanent living
arrangement.
This bill requires the court to consider and determine if
there is a substantial probability of the child's return to
his or her parent's safe home prior to the next six-month
status review hearing.
Existing law requires that the periodic report address what
plan, if any, for the return and maintenance of the child
in a safe home is recommended to the court by the county
welfare department social worker.
This bill requires the report also to address whether there
is a substantial probability of the child's return to his
or her parent's safe home prior to the next six-month
status review hearing.
By expanding the responsibilities of the counties in the
preparation of the report, this bill results in a
state-mandated local program.
Existing federal law provides for allocation of federal
funds through the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy
Families (TANF) block grant program to eligible states,
with California's version of this program being known as
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the CalWORKs program.
Existing federal law requires that a state receiving
federal participation for aid grants for TANF benefits
shall not use any part of the grant to provide assistance
for a minor child who has been, or is expected by a parent,
or parents, or other caretaker relative, of the child to be
absent from the home for a period of 45 consecutive days
or, at the option of the state, a period of not less than
30 and not more than 180 consecutive days, as the state may
provide for in the state plan. Existing federal law
authorizes a state to establish good cause exceptions to
that limitation that the state considers appropriate if the
exceptions are provided for in the state plan.
This bill requires the department to revise the state TANF
plan to incorporate the above-described federal option and
apply the good cause exceptions authorized by federal law.
By permitting a parent or parents to remain eligible for
aid for an increased period of time under certain
circumstances, the bill would increase aid payments,
thereby constituting an appropriation.
By permitting a parent or parents to remain eligible for
aid for an increased period of time under certain
circumstances, the bill increases aid payments and
administrative functions of counties, thereby creating a
state-mandated local program.
Existing law provides for the provision of payments to meet
the needs of recipients of aid under the State
Supplementary Program for Aged, Blind, and Disabled under
emergency or special circumstances.
This bill revises the scope of eligibility for emergency or
special circumstances aid and the circumstances for which
the payments would be made.
The bill increases limits on amounts of aid that may be
paid for certain special circumstances.
The bill authorizes counties to transfer funds from their
administrative allocation of special circumstance funding
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to their benefit allocations to the extent that
administrative savings are achieved.
Existing law requires persons responsible for the provision
of child welfare services to adopt a case plan and
specifies that a case plan for a child shall be included in
the court report and shall be considered by the court at
the initial hearing and each review hearing.
This bill specifies that when out-of-home services are used
with the goal of family reunification, the case plan shall
consider and describe the application of provisions of this
bill that require that a parent or parents of a needy child
shall be considered to be living with the needy child for a
certain period preceding the restoration of the family, for
purposes of determining aid under the CalWORKs program.
Existing law creates the Aid to Families with Dependent
Children-Foster Care (AFDC-FC) program, under which a
combination of federal, state, and county funds are used to
provide reimbursement to families and facilities providing
foster care to eligible children.
Existing law also requires each county to provide child
welfare services.
Existing law also provides, until October 1, 2003, for the
establishment in all counties, at the county's option and
subject to the approval of DSS, a pilot project to continue
the provision of intensive wraparound services, as defined,
to eligible children in foster care or at imminent risk of
this placement.
This bill indefinitely extends these provisions.
Existing law requires DSS to establish programs to provide
food assistance and cash assistance for noncitizens who,
due to their immigration status, are not eligible for
federal food stamps and for SSI/SSP benefits, and specifies
that an applicant who is otherwise eligible for the program
but entered the United States after August 22, 1996, and
who is not otherwise exempt, shall be eligible for
assistance for the period beginning on October 1, 1999, and
ending September 30, 2001.
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This bill deletes the termination date of eligibility under
these assistance programs. This bill revises the rules and
regulations governing these assistance programs related to
the period of deeming of a sponsor's income and resources.
Because these programs are administered by each county, the
bill creates a state-mandated local program.
Existing law requires DSS and the Health and Welfare Data
Center to design, implement, and maintain a statewide
fingerprint imaging system for use in connection with the
determination of eligibility for benefits under the Aid to
Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program.
This bill requires the Bureau of State Audits to submit, on
or before January 1, 2003, to the appropriate committees
and the fiscal committees of both houses of the
Legislature, an audit of the statewide fingerprint imaging
system of DSS.
Under existing law, the Kinship Guardianship Assistance
Payment (Kin-GAP) Program provides for financial assistance
to children who, after being adjudged dependent children of
the juvenile court, are placed in legal guardianship with a
relative. Existing law exempts children in receipt of
Kin-GAP benefits from any CalWORKs requirements so long as
the exemption would not jeopardize federal financial
participation in the payment.
This bill exempts a person who is a kinship guardian under
the Kin-GAP Program from the statewide fingerprint imaging
system, unless the guardian is also an applicant for, or
recipient of, benefits under the CalWORKs or Food Stamp
program.
Existing law provides that during such times as the federal
government provides funds for the care of a needy relative
with whom a needy child is living, aid to the child for any
month includes aid to meet the need of that relative, if
CalWORKs payments are made with respect to the child for
that month, except as prescribed.
This bill provides that the parent or parents shall be
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considered living with the needy child or needy children
for a period of up to 180 consecutive days of the needy
child's or children's absence from the family assistance
unit when the child is receiving child protective services
and the county has determined that the provision of
assistance is necessary for family reunification.
Existing law appropriates funds for the CalWORKs program
and makes provision for the allocation of funds to counties
for that program.
This bill appropriates $3,587,000 from General Fund to
appropriations for the CalWORKs program in the Budget Act
of 2001, and reappropriate certain unspent amounts from
specified CalWORKs appropriations for the 2000-01 fiscal
year, to specified items of the Budget Act of 2001 for the
purpose of making allocations to under equity counties, as
determined by DSS.
Existing law requires that each county shall establish and
maintain a case record for each public social services case
and shall retain the record for a period of 3 years.
Existing law requires that the records shall be retained
beyond the 3-year retention period when the county is
notified by DSS or the State Department of Health Services
(DHS), whichever has jurisdiction over the records, to
retain records for a longer period of time.
This bill requires each county to retain records necessary
to determine the number of months each adult recipient has
received aid applicable to the time limits required for the
CalWORKs program and federal law for a period of time
established by DSS.
The bill also requires counties to provide certain record
information to the department for tracking time a recipient
receives aid under the CalWORKs program, and imposes
penalties on counties that fail to provide the information.
The bill requires counties to expend funds for any money
lost from the county allocation as a result of the
imposition of the penalties.
By expanding the responsibilities of counties in the
administration of aid programs, this bill resuls in a
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state-mandated local program.
Existing law provides for the county-administered In-Home
Supportive Services (IHSS) program, under which qualified
aged, blind, and disabled persons are provided with
services in order to permit them to remain in their own
homes and avoid institutionalization.
Existing law permits services to be provided under the IHSS
program either through the employment of individual
providers, a contract between the county and an entity for
the provision of services, the creation by the county of a
public authority, or a contract between the county and a
nonprofit consortium.
Existing law provides that when any increase in provider
wages or benefits is negotiated or agreed to by a public
authority or nonprofit consortium, the county shall use
county-only funds for the state and county share of any
increase in the program, unless otherwise provided in the
Budget Act or appropriated by statute.
Existing law provides that the state shall participate in
funding the IHSS program in certain amounts.
This bill revises the schedule for state participation in
wage increases for individual providers and provider
employees of public authorities and nonprofit consortiums.
Existing law establishes a formula with regard to provider
wages or benefits increases negotiated or agreed to by a
public authority or nonprofit consortium, and specifies the
percentages required to be paid by the state and counties,
for the 2000-01 fiscal year, with regard to the nonfederal
share of any increases.
This bill specifies the percentages required to be paid by
the state and counties, for the 2001-02 fiscal year, with
regard to the nonfederal share of any increases.
Existing law provides for a state system of social services
including in-home supportive services, information and
referral services, protective services, and out-of-home
care services.
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This bill deletes information and referral services from
the range of services provided, and would limit out-of-home
care services to children.
Existing law provides a schedule for the allocation of
federal block grant funds for certain social service and
health care programs when there is a reduction in federal
funds, and specifies that the allocations shall include
funding for the IHSS program services component, child
welfare services, protective services and foster care
services for adults, and in-home supportive services
administration.
Existing law also requires the counties, in expending the
County Services Block Grant allocations, to provide
protective services and foster care services for adults,
information and referral services, and transportation to
and from health care facilities under specified
circumstances.
This bill eliminates expenditures, from both the allocation
schedule and the County Services Block Grant allocation,
for foster care services for adults, for information and
referral services, and for the transportation to and from
health care facilities.
Existing law requires DSS to promulgate regulations
relating to the protective services for adults, including
foster care services and information and referral services.
This bill deletes foster care services for adults and
information and referral services as components
necessitating regulation by DSS.
Existing law expresses the intent of the Legislature that
the annual Budget Act appropriate state and federal funds
in a single allocation to the counties for the support of
administrative activities undertaken by the counties to
provide benefit payments to CalWORKs recipients and to
provide required work activities and supportive services in
order to efficiently and effectively carry out the purposes
of that program.
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Existing law also requires DSS and the County Welfare
Directors Association to develop the specific components of
the budget methodology, and requires the Welfare Reform
Steering Committee to review the efficacy of the proposed
methodology and make recommendations for modifications to
the methodology.
Existing law also expresses the intent of the Legislature
that limited-term housing assistance be considered as part
of the cost-based allocation methodology, where
appropriate.
This bill requires, beginning in the 2002-03 fiscal year,
that any adjustments to the county's CalWORKs single
allocations reflect the most recent available county
expenditures of funds caused by an overlap pertaining to
both the United States Department of Labor Welfare-to-Work
Grant funds and state matching funds, including data
regarding the expenditures of the funds that offset the
funds the counties would have spent from the CalWORKs
single allocation.
Existing law also requires that funds appropriated annually
from the Budget Act, for support services under CalWORKs
welfare-to-work activities for persons with mental or
emotional health disabilities, or a substance abuse
problem, be made in a separate allocation to the counties.
This bill requires DSS, in consultation with stakeholders
and other specified departments, to develop the allocation
methodology for these funds, including the specific
components to be considered in allocating the funds, by no
later than September 1, 2001.>
Existing law provides that each county establish an
emergency response adult protective services program
through which DSS is to provide in-person response
immediately to reports of imminent abuse or danger to an
elder or dependent adult or within 10 days to all other
reports of danger to an elder or dependent adult in other
than a long-term care facility.
Existing law requires that DSS submit a report to the
Legislature regarding specified circumstances of the
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program, on or before April 1, 2001, and that specified
subdivisions are to become inoperative on January 1, 2001.
This bill deletes the requirement that specified
subdivisions are inoperative on January 1, 2001, and
requires DSS to submit the report of specified
circumstances of the program to the Legislature on or
before April 1, 2001, and annually thereafter.
Existing law provides for the allocation of funds for
benefits administration and employment services based on
certain factors, and requires the Welfare Reform Steering
Committee to review the efficacy of the existing
methodology and make recommendations, if any, for
modification of the methodology by November 1, 2002.
This bill eliminates the requirement that the Welfare
Reform Steering Committee make the review and make
recommendations, and would, beginning in the 2002-03 fiscal
year, revise the methodology of funding support for all
components of the CalWORKs program and all state programs
funded with federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
program funds based on an accounting methodology developed
by DSS.
Existing law requires the State Department of
Rehabilitation (DOR) to provide assistance and funding to
independent living centers for individuals with
disabilities. Existing law provides a formula for the
allocation of funds appropriated by the Legislature to
independent living centers and a nonprofit contractor
selected by the department for the purpose of providing
assistive technology services.
This bill revises the formula for the allocation of funds
pursuant to this provision.
Existing law authorizes the Director of the State
Department of Finance (DOF) to approve transfers from the
federal TANF block grant to, and in augmentation of, any
program for which those funds have been appropriated in the
Budget Act.
This bill requires DOF, by October 1, 2001, to establish a
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process whereby county welfare departments may request
funds from the federal TANF reserve as appropriated in the
Budget Act of 2001, for CalWORKs program services and
administration.
Existing law provides that in order to provide counties
with additional incentive to move CalWORKs recipients to
employment, each county shall receive the state share of
savings, subject to amounts appropriated in the annual
Budget Act, resulting from specified outcomes.
Existing law, the State Budget Act of 2000, provides that
of certain funds appropriated to DSS for local assistance
for CalWORKs services, an amount not to exceed $250,000,000
shall be for payment of county incentives. Existing law
requires that these funds be used first for any prior year
county incentives are earned but not paid, with any
remaining amount prorated for payment of new claims
received.
This bill deletes the above requirement and would prohibit
any amount from funds appropriated DSS for local assistance
for CalWORKs services from being used for payment of county
incentives.
The bill authorizes DSS to adopt emergency regulations in
order to implement specified provisions of the bill.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: Yes Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
ASSEMBLY FLOOR :
AYES: Alquist, Aroner, Briggs, Calderon, Canciamilla,
Cardenas, Cardoza, Cedillo, Chan, Chavez, Chu, Cohn,
Corbett, Correa, Diaz, Dickerson, Dutra, Firebaugh,
Florez, Frommer, Goldberg, Havice, Horton, Jackson,
Keeley, Kehoe, Kelley, Koretz, Liu, Longville, Lowenthal,
Matthews, Migden, Nakano, Nation, Negrete McLeod,
Oropeza, Papan, Pavley, Pescetti, Reyes, Salinas,
Shelley, Simitian, Steinberg, Strom-Martin, Thomson,
Vargas, Washington, Wayne, Wesson, Wiggins, Wright,
Hertzberg
NOES: Aanestad, Ashburn, Bates, Bogh, Bill Campbell, John
Campbell, Cogdill, Cox, Daucher, Harman, Hollingsworth,
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Leach, Maldonado, Mountjoy, Robert Pacheco, Rod Pacheco,
Richman, Runner, Strickland, Wyland, Wyman, Zettel
DLW:cm 8/1/01 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: NONE RECEIVED
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