BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó




                   Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
                            Senator Kevin de León, Chair


          SB 747 (DeSaulnier) - Public Health Impact Assessments.
          
          Amended: January 16, 2014       Policy Vote: Health 5-2
          Urgency: No                     Mandate: No
          Hearing Date: January 23, 2014                          
          Consultant: Brendan McCarthy    
          
          SUSPENSE FILE.
          
          
          Bill Summary: SB 747 would authorize the Department of Public  
          Health to request manufacturers of products contributing to a  
          recognized public health epidemic to provide information to the  
          Department on the public health impacts of the products.

          Fiscal Impact: 
              Likely one-time costs of about $900,000 to develop  
              regulations governing the program (General Fund) and create  
              parameters for determining products to be assessed.

              Likely ongoing costs of about $900,000 per year to  
              determine which products and manufacturers would be subject  
              to the requirements of the bill (General Fund).

              Likely ongoing costs in the tens of thousands per year to  
              review submitted assessments, offset by fees paid by  
              manufacturers (new special fund).

          Background: Under current law, the Department of Public Health  
          is required to regulate various consumer products, such as food  
          and drugs.

          Proposed Law: SB 747 would authorize the Department of Public  
          Health to request manufacturers of products contributing to a  
          recognized public health epidemic to provide information to the  
          Department on the public health impacts of the specific  
          products.

          Specific provisions of the bill would:
              Define a "contributing product" to a recognized public  
              health epidemic;
              Authorize the Department to submit a request to the largest  








          SB 747 (DeSaulnier)
          Page 1


              manufacturers of products the Department has determined  
              contribute to a recognized public health epidemic;
              Require a written response to include an analysis of the  
              product and mitigation strategies (however, the bill does  
              not actually require manufacturers to respond to the  
              Department's request);
              Authorize the Department to assess a fee up to $20,000 per  
              manufacturer to cover the Department's costs to review the  
              information submitted by a manufacturer.


          Staff Comments: The bill would authorize the Department to  
          assess a fee to recover the costs to review information  
          submitted by manufacturers. Other costs that are likely to be  
          incurred by the Department in the implementation of the bill,  
          such as the development of regulations and the identification of  
          qualifying products, would not be covered by fee revenues and  
          would be a General Fund obligation.

          At this time it is not clear how many recognized public health  
          epidemics there are, as staff has been unable to find a  
          consolidated list established by the federal agencies identified  
          in the bill. Furthermore, there could be a great number of  
          contributing products to each public health epidemic. For  
          example, the causes of obesity, a widely recognized public  
          health problem, are multiple and in some cases controversial.  
          The cost estimates above represent a conservative estimate by  
          committee staff of the amount of staff time the Department would  
          need to review the scientific literature and other published  
          reports to identify contributing products and their  
          manufacturers.