BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 693 Page 1 Date of Hearing: April 25, 2011 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION Bonnie Lowenthal, Chair AB 693 (Huffman) - As Amended: April 28, 2011 SUBJECT : Department of Motor Vehicles: organ donation SUMMARY : Requires the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to provide an online option for drivers to connect to the California Organ and Tissue Donor Registry. Specifically, this bill : 1)Requires DMV to add a graphic hyperlink to the confirmation page of vehicle registrations processed online, providing the option for registrants to connect to the state-authorized Donate Life California online California Organ and Tissue Donor Registry. 2)Allows a person who has connected to the Registry via that hyperlink to make a voluntary contribution for the purpose of promoting and supporting organ and tissue donation. 3)Requires such a contribution to be treated as a voluntary contribution to the California Organ and Tissue Donor Registry and not as a fee for the issuance of vehicle registration. 4)Provides that online enrollment in the Registry constitutes a legal document under the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act and remains binding after the donor's death despite any express desires of next of kin opposed to the donation. 5)Allows information obtained by the Organ and Tissue Donor Registrar for these purposes to be used only for these purposes only and prohibits them from being disseminated further by the Registrar. 6)Provides immunity from liability to public entities and employees for any loss, detriment, or injury resulting directly or indirectly from false or inaccurate information contained in the enrollment form. EXISTING LAW : AB 693 Page 2 1)Requires the application for an original or renewal driver's license or ID card to contain a space for the applicant to enroll in the Donate Life California Organ and Tissue Donor Registry. 2)Requires DMV to inquire verbally of an applicant applying in person for an original or renewal driver's license or ID card at a DMV office as to whether the applicant wishes to enroll in the Donate Life California Organ and Tissue Donor Registry. Failure or refusal to answer this question or check a box on the application form may not be a basis for DMV to deny an applicant a driver's license or ID card. 3)Requires DMV to collect donor designation information on all applications for an original or renewal driver's license or ID card. 4)Requires DMV to print the word "DONOR" or another appropriate designation on the face of a driver's license or ID card to a person who has indicated on the application his or her intent to enroll in the organ donation program. 5)Requires DMV, on a weekly basis, to electronically transmit to Donate Life California, specified information from every application that indicates the applicant's decision to enroll in the organ donation program. 6)Allows a person who applies for an original or renewal driver's license or ID card to designate a voluntary contribution of $2 for the purpose of promoting and supporting organ and tissue donation. This contribution must be treated as a voluntary contribution to Donate Life California and not as a fee for the issuance of a driver's license or ID card. 7)Allows DMV to use those donations to cover its actual administrative costs incurred in administering the organ donation program. AB 693 Page 3 8)Requires DMV to deposit all the revenue remaining after deducting its administrative costs into the Donate Life California Trust Subaccount, which is continuously appropriated, without regard to fiscal years, to the Controller for allocation to Donate Life California and must be expended for the purpose of increasing participation in organ donation programs. 9)Requires the enrollment form to be posted on the Internet Web sites for DMV and the California Health and Human Services Agency. FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown COMMENTS : Over the past several years, the Legislature has established an active role for DMV in organ donation programs. Specifically, the department collects donor signups from driver's license applicants and verbally queries those applicants who fail to respond to the inquiry on the license application as to their willingness to be organ donors. Additionally, the DMV website contains an organ donation enrollment form. In consideration of DMV's expenditure of resources this program, the statue contains a provision allowing driver's license applicants to make a $2 donation to support organ donation programs, and authorizes DMV to recover its costs "off the top" from these donations. The remaining funds are allocated to Donate Life California and must be expended for the purpose of increasing participation in organ donation programs. This bill would require DMV to provide vehicle owners who have renewed their registrations online a link to Donate Life California. This should be a relatively simple and straightforward task and DMV, in fact, reports that it is in the process of accomplishing it. Vehicle owners would also be provided an opportunity to make contributions to the California Organ and Tissue Donor Registry, as driver's license applicants already are. This bill's sponsor, Donate Life California, notes that this bill is "designed to increase organ and tissue donor registration by allowing drivers additional opportunities to AB 693 Page 4 donate organs and tissue by giving them the option to register as an organ and tissue donor when they annually renew their vehicle registration online. Californians currently have the opportunity to enroll on the state donor registry when applying for or renewing their driver license or ID card. However, this opportunity comes only once every five years. AB 693 would allow Californians the annual opportunity to enroll as they register their vehicles." They further note that since partnering with DMV, nearly 8 million Californians have signed up for the program. "However, California still ranks amongst the lowest for those checking 'yes' to donation in comparison to other states. Just 33% of drivers are organ and tissue donors. By comparison, the top quartile of states averaged a 58% donor designation rate." The author adds, "Giving Californians an annual option to join the Donate Life California Registry will increase the number of donors and help save the lives of thousands of people who are awaiting life-saving transplants." Legislative history : AB 1132 (Jones) of 2010 would have required DMV to make information available about organ donation as part of the online vehicle registration renewal process and would have allowed an online contribution to be made during registration renewal for promoting and supporting organ and tissue donation. Additionally, it would have limited, to $300,000 annually, the amount of DMV's administrative costs that could have been be reimbursed from voluntary contributions made by driver's licensees. Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill, saying, "While I fully support the Donate Life program, this bill would cap the amount the Department of Motor Vehicles can recover for its administrative costs under the program and removes the flexibility of the Department to cover its future costs as inflation and other expenditures increase." REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION : Support Donate Life California (sponsor) Blood Centers of California California Transplant Donor Network Letters from five individuals AB 693 Page 5 Opposition None on file Analysis Prepared by : Howard Posner / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093