BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                  AB 2270
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   April 14, 2010

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Felipe Fuentes, Chair

            AB 2270 (Committee on Agriculture) - As Introduced:  February  
                                      18, 2010 

          Policy Committee:                              AgricultureVote:8  
          - 0 

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program:  
          No     Reimbursable:              

           SUMMARY  

          This bill makes various changes to the Equine Medication  
          Monitoring Program (EMMP) as it relates to the assessment of  
          fees for horse show events lasting more than one day.  
          Specifically, this bill: 

          1)Requires event managers of horse shows to complete an  
            assessment report for the California Department of Food and  
            Agriculture (CDFA) for each registered event.

          2)Requires managers to keep event records for two years.

          3)Clarifies that an event held over multiple consecutive days  
            with the same manager and at the same site will be considered  
            one event for the purposes of fee assessment.

          4)Adds additional civil penalties for event managers that  
            violate the requirements of the EMMP.

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          Costs associated with this legislation are minor and would be  
          absorbable within the existing EMMP fund.

           COMMENTS  

           1)Rationale  . The sponsors of the bill, the California Horse  
            Council, believe that these changes to the EMMP will simplify  
            current law by clarifying how event managers should collect  
            drug fees for multi-day events.  In addition, this legislation  








                                                                  AB 2270
                                                                  Page  2

            will create a clear mechanism for CDFA to verify that  
            appropriate fees were collected and remitted under the  
            program. Under current law, event managers are only required  
            to complete an assessment report and submit the collected fees  
            to CDFA.  This bill would require them to maintain records  
            from their registered shows for two years which allows for  
            audit reviews and other verifications. 

           2)The Equine Medication Monitoring Program  .  The EMMP was  
            established in 1971, under the jurisdiction of the California  
            Department of Food and Agriculture.  The purpose of the  
            program was to prevent the abuse of medications in show and  
            sale horses. Each year, approximately 1,800 events register  
            with the EMMP drug testing program. Blood and urine samples  
            taken at events are submitted for chemical analysis to the  
            Kenneth L. Maddy Equine Analytical Chemistry Laboratory at  
            U.C. Davis. Horses are randomly selected for drug sampling  
            with the emphasis placed on class winners at shows. 

            The EMMP is overseen by an advisory committee made up of 19  
            members representing the horse show industry, academia,  
            veterinary professionals, and one public member. All of the  
            members of the advisory committee are appointed by the  
            Secretary of the California Department of Food and  
            Agriculture. 

            Funding for the program comes from a $5 fee per event fee  
            charged to the owner of every horse entered in a horse show in  
            the state. Generally, over $600,000 per year is collected to  
            fund the EMMP.


           Analysis Prepared by  :    Julie Salley-Gray / APPR. / (916)  
          319-2081