BILL ANALYSIS ------------------------------------------------------------ |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2130| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |1020 N Street, Suite 524 | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ------------------------------------------------------------ THIRD READING Bill No: AB 2130 Author: Huber (D), et al Amended: 8/18/10 in Senate Vote: 21 SEN. BUS., PROF. & ECON. DEV. COMMITTEE : 7-0, 6/28/10 AYES: Negrete McLeod, Aanestad, Calderon, Corbett, Correa, Florez, Yee NO VOTE RECORDED: Wyland, Walters SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8 ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 74-3, 6/3/10 - See last page for vote SUBJECT : Professions and vocations: sunset review SOURCE : Author DIGEST : This bill abolishes the Joint Committee on Boards, Commission, and Consumer Protection and would instead make eligible agencies, as defined, subject to review by the Joint Sunset Review Committee. Initially specifies five agencies which would be subject to review and have a sunset date of December 2012. Requires the Joint Sunset Review Committee to report to the public and the Legislature on whether an agency should be terminated, or continued, or whether its functions should be revised or consolidated with those of another agency, and include any other recommendations as necessary to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the agency and any proposed CONTINUED AB 2130 Page 2 legislation to carry out its recommendations. Senate Floor Amendments of 8/18/10 make technical changes and corrections. NOTE: This bill is a companion measure to AB 1659 (Huber). The provisions of this bill will not become operative unless AB 1659 is enacted and establishes the Joint Sunset Review Committee. ANALYSIS : Existing law, the Business and Professions code: 1.Establishes the Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) within the State and Consumer Services Agency, and provides that DCA is under the control of the Director of DCA who is appointed by the Governor, subject to Senate confirmation. 2.Provides that the boards under DCA are made up of appointees of the Governor and the Legislature who perform, among their duties, licensing and regulatory functions such as appointment of an executive officer, setting educational and experience requirements for licensing and regulatory activities, and taking enforcement and disciplinary actions against licensees for violations of law or their individual practice acts. These boards are considered as separate and independent from the control of DCA. 3.Established in 1994, the Joint Legislative Sunset Review committee, and in 2004 changed the name to the Joint Committee on Boards, Commissions and Consumer Protection (Joint Committee). 4.Specifies that the Joint Committee shall consist of three members appointed by the Senate Rules Committee and three members appointed by the Speaker of the Assembly. No more than two of the three members appointed from the Senate or the Assembly shall be form the same party. The Joint Rules committee shall appoint the chairperson of the Joint Committee. The Joint Committee is authorized to act until January 1, 2012, at which time the AB 2130 Page 3 committee's existence shall terminate. 5.Provides that all boards under DCA that are scheduled to become inoperative and repealed on a specified date or established pursuant to initiative act, or certain specified bureaus or other programs of DCA, are subject to review by the Joint Committee. 6.Provides that in the event that any board becomes inoperative or is repealed (sunsets) that DCA shall succeed to and is vested with all the duties, powers, purposes, responsibilities of that board, and provides that when the regulatory program is taken over by DCA, that program shall be designated as a "bureau." 7.Provides, as of January 1, 2004, all administrative or regulatory boards, commissions, committees, councils, associations, or other authorities who have appointed membership, are subject to review by the Joint Committee. Existing law, the Government Code: 1.Provides that the Legislature finds and declares that California's multilevel, complex governmental structure today contains more than 400 categories of administrative or regulatory boards, commissions, committees, councils, associations, and authorities and that these governmental entities have been established without any method of periodically reviewing their necessity, effectiveness or utility and as a result the Legislature and residents of California cannot be assured that these existing or proposed governmental entities adequately protect the public health, safety and welfare. 2.Provides that it is the intent of the Legislature that all existing state boards be subject to review every four years to evaluate and determine whether each has demonstrated a public need for its continued existence in accordance with enumerated factors and standards. 3.Requires the Joint Committee to review all state boards every four years and to evaluate and make determinations as specified. AB 2130 Page 4 This bill: 1.Abolishes the current "Sunset Review" process and the ability of the Joint Committee to review boards and bureaus under DCA. [It is intended that the review of boards scheduled for sunset will now be the responsibility of the Senate and Assembly Business and Professions committees. The same evaluative and review process performed by the former Joint Committee will be continued jointly by these committees as part of their oversight function.] 2.Repeals provisions which allow a board to become a bureau under the DCA in the event that any board becomes inoperative or is repealed (sunsets). [This will require the Legislature to take an affirmative action to decide on the appropriate changes and continuation of the board prior to its sunset date.] 3.Abolishes the authority granted to the Joint Committee in January of 2004, to review all existing state boards and other entities every four years. 4.Makes instead all "eligible agencies," as defined, subject to review by the new Joint Sunset Review Committee (JSRC) which would be established pursuant to AB 1659. 5.Specifies that the following four agencies would be subject to review by the JSRC in its first year of operation and would have sunset dates of January 1, 2013: A. The State Race Track Leasing Commission. B. The Capitol Area Committee. C. The Continuing Care Advisory Committee. D. The California Recreational Trails Committee. 6.Provides that the JSRC shall make a report available to the public and the Legislature or whether an agency should be terminated, or continued, or whether its functions should be revised or consolidated with those of AB 2130 Page 5 another agency, and include any other recommendations as necessary to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the agency. 7.Provides that if the JSRC deems it advisable, the report may include proposed bill to carry out its recommendations. 8.Specifies that the provisions of this bill will not become operative unless AB 1659 is enacted and establishes the JSRC. Background The "Sunrise" of Sunset Review in California . The concept of sunset review law first began back in the 1970's. There are now about 35 states which have some sort of sunset review law on the books. Basically, the genesis behind all sunset laws is to place a termination date on a particular program or agency, and in the meantime, review it to determine if it is still operating in an effective and efficient manner, and whether it should continue. When one talks about sunset or sunrise laws, they are usually referring to a review of regulatory licensing agencies. There are certainly other specific programs which may be subject to sunset, but the idea of subjecting an agency to a more formalized review process, before allowing it to continue, or be established in the first place, is unique to this type of law. California was sort of a "Johnny-come-lately" to this process. There had been prior attempts by the Legislature to pass a sunset law, but in those instances the legislation would have sunset both the board and the licensing program of the particular profession. The law which was passed in 1994, only sunsets the board - not the licensing of the occupation. There are basically two reasons for this, the first is obvious - in most instances there is a continued need to license those professions currently regulated by boards under DCA. To automatically terminate the licensing requirements would have provided no benefit to the review of these boards under the sunset law. The second reason, however, is more important. Throughout AB 2130 Page 6 1993 and 1994, both the Senate Business and Professions Committee and the Assembly Consumer Protection Committee began a review of some of the 32 regulatory boards under the Department. There was more concern with the boards' operation and activities (or lack thereof) than whether there was a need to continue the licensing of a particular profession. A number of problems with these boards were identified and a report was issued by Senate Business and Professions Committee Subcommittee on Efficiency and Effectiveness in State Boards and Commissions titled, Reforming and Restructuring California's Regulatory Agencies which detailed a number of changes and recommendations regarding these boards and also strongly recommended the establishment of a Joint Legislative Sunset Review Committee to provide specific review criteria and minimum standards of evaluation for legislative and state agency use, and subject all licensing agencies and regulatory programs of the Department to periodic review and sunset. For all these reasons and more, both the Legislature and the Administration believed the more immediate task at hand was to review these consumer boards at regular intervals. If it was determined the board should sunset, then there would be adequate time to determine if the entire licensing program should be eliminated as well. (It should be noted that the Hoover Commission and the LAO at that time both recommended establishing a sunset review process for all regulatory consumer boards.) In 1994, SB 2036 was signed into law which established the Joint Legislative Sunset Review Committee. The Joint Committee reviewed all boards and other programs under the Department for a period of 10 years on an ongoing basis, until its final review in 2005. Brief Description of the Sunset Review Process . The law, which went into effect on January 1, 1995, set in place a schedule for review of all of the 32 independent boards and programs under DCA. It allowed for an initial review of all boards beginning in 1995 and ending in 1998. A re-review of these boards was required after four or more years from the initial review, and began in 1999 and ended in 2005. All 32 boards and certain other programs and AB 2130 Page 7 bureaus of DCA were reviewed and re-reviewed during the10-year period. The sunset date for each board allowed enough time for the board to be reviewed by the Joint Committee, and for legislation to be passed to extend the sunset date of the board and make appropriate changes. The actual review process for the Joint Committee began with sending boards a detailed questionnaire and a request for information which covered every aspect of the board's operation for four years. The boards were required to respond to this request by September 1 of the year they were scheduled for review. During this time, staff of the Joint Committee, Senate Business and Professions Committee, Assembly Consumer Protection Committee, and the LAO worked together to prepare an analysis and report on each board. (Staff also met with boards to review documents and information provided, and seek input from various consumer groups, and the Health and Budget committees of the Legislature.) The report provided a brief overview of the board's functions and programs, identified issues or problem areas concerning each board, and included preliminary recommendations for members of the Joint Committee to consider. This included whether each board scheduled for review should be terminated, continued, or reestablished, and whether its programs or functions should be restructured or revised. The Joint Committee then conducted public hearings to review the issues and preliminary recommendations. The boards were provided an opportunity to respond, along with the regulated industry, consumer groups and the public. DCA participated in these hearings as well. After the hearings, the Joint Committee provided DCA with copies of all testimony and analyses prepared by staff. DCA then had 60 days to provide its own recommendations to the Joint Committee. Once received, the Joint Committee then met to review the recommendations of DCA and make final recommendations to the Legislature. FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes Local: No ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author's office, AB 2130 Page 8 this bill serves as the implementation bill for the JSRC created by her companion bill AB 1659 which creates the JSRC and outlines its duties and responsibilities in reviewing "eligible agencies," as defined in AB 1659. As indicated by the author's office, this bill seeks to establish accountability and oversight for government entities by requiring systematic review and evaluation of state entities. Under current law, as explained by the author's office, the Joint Committee is granted the power to hold public hearings at specified times and to evaluate whether a board or regulatory program under DCA has demonstrated a need for its continued existence, and to also review all other 400 plus categories of administrative or regulatory boards, commissions, committees, councils, associations, and authorities. Joint Committee members have not been appointed to this committee since 2006, and the Joint Committee never implemented their new authority granted to it in 2004, to review all other types of appointed governmental entities. The author's office further indicates that this bill would abolish the Joint Committee and move the functions of the Joint Committee as it relates to review of appointed governmental entities to the JSRC. The JSRC would not, however, review those boards and bureaus under DCA. As earlier indicated, these agencies would continue to be reviewed and evaluated by the Business and Professions committees of the Senate and the Assembly. However, if at any time these committees no longer reviewed these agencies, then the JSRC would have the authority to continue such reviews. As stated by the author's office, "the purpose of AB 1659 and AB 2130 is to establish a long term process through which the state can conduct routine reviews of entities and determine if they are still necessary. It is not the intention of AB 1659 or AB 2130 to prohibit standing committees from conducting their own periodic reviews of boards and commissions under their jurisdiction." ASSEMBLY FLOOR : AYES: Adams, Ammiano, Bass, Beall, Bill Berryhill, Blakeslee, Block, Blumenfield, Bradford, Brownley, AB 2130 Page 9 Buchanan, Caballero, Charles Calderon, Carter, Chesbro, Conway, Cook, Coto, Davis, De La Torre, De Leon, DeVore, Emmerson, Eng, Evans, Feuer, Fletcher, Fong, Fuentes, Fuller, Furutani, Gaines, Galgiani, Garrick, Gilmore, Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Hayashi, Hernandez, Hill, Huber, Huffman, Jeffries, Jones, Lieu, Logue, Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma, Mendoza, Miller, Monning, Nava, Nestande, Niello, Nielsen, Norby, V. Manuel Perez, Portantino, Ruskin, Salas, Saldana, Silva, Skinner, Smyth, Solorio, Swanson, Torlakson, Torres, Torrico, Tran, Villines, Yamada, John A. Perez NOES: Anderson, Arambula, Knight NO VOTE RECORDED: Tom Berryhill, Audra Strickland, Vacancy JJA:cm 8/19/10 Senate Floor Analyses SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: NONE RECEIVED **** END ****