BILL ANALYSIS
SB 769
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Date of Hearing: August 19, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Kevin De Leon, Chair
SB 769 (Alquist) - As Amended: July 14, 2009
Policy Committee: Health Vote:18-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill requires federal funding received pursuant to the 2009
Supplemental Appropriations Act (Public Law 111-32) for public
health activities to be:
1)Subject to appropriation in the annual Budget Act or other
statute for allocation by the California Department of Public
Health (DPH).
2)Allocated pursuant to the federally approved state-local plan
and in the same proportion as stipulated in the 2008-09
federally approved state-local plan (30%-70%).
3)Used by the California Department of Public Health (DPH) to
expand the California Health Action Network and other
communication networks to improve emergency communication with
hospitals and primary clinics during a public health
emergency.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)A one-time allocation of $28 million in federal funding from
the federal Public Health and Social Services Fund related to
pandemic flu generally and the H1N1 virus specifically, to be
shared 30%-70% (state/county) between DPH and local public
health agencies.
2)Unknown future distributions of federal funding in the 30%-70%
sharing ratio. At this time, an additional $5.8 billion of
federal funds nationally has been set aside by Congress to
support additional public health activities related to
pandemic flu.
SB 769
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COMMENTS
1) Rationale . This bill is sponsored by the Health Officers
Association of California (HOAC). HOAC represents physician
health officers in each county statewide. According to the
author and sponsor, this bill allows the local health
jurisdictions (LHJ) statewide to continue their work,
including accumulating necessary medical supplies, diagnosing
infectious disease, and continuing surveillance efforts as the
state heads into the flu season in the fall and winter. The
author intends to add an urgency clause to this bill to
facilitate the smooth flow of funding as federal allocations
are released. This bill continues the reliance on the
state-local plan used in earlier distributions of federal
emergency funding related to bioterrorism and other potential
public health emergencies. Because California's health and
human services system is county-administered, most of the work
addressed by the federal funding in question supports local
agencies.
2) Pandemic Flu . Influenza A (H1N1) is a type of influenza
A and the most common cause of flu in people. In 2006, H1N1
caused approximately half of all human flu. This year, the
World Health Organization (WHO) declared that a new strain of
swine-origin was responsible for a global flu pandemic. The
WHO has declared an alert level phase 6, indicating widespread
human infection. This is the first time it has raised the
alert level this high in 40 years. The H1N1 isolated in
American patients has been found to be a genetic mixture of
four strains: including avian, swine, and human genetic
characteristics.
3) Related Legislation . SB 678 (Ortiz), Chapter 35,
Statutes of 2004 allocated $18 million in federal funding for
implementing bioterrorism and smallpox preparedness measures
by DPH and LHJ.
SB 406 (Ortiz), Chapter 393, Statutes of 2002 established
requirements with respect to allocation of federal emergency
funding and the state-local plan referenced in SB 769.
Analysis Prepared by : Mary Ader / APPR. / (916) 319-2081