BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1527
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Date of Hearing: April 28, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON WATER, PARKS, AND WILDLIFE
Marc Levine, Chair
AB 1527
(Committee on Water, Parks, and Wildlife) - As Introduced March
18, 2015
SUBJECT: Fish and wildlife
SUMMARY: Makes technical changes to the Fish and Game Code
recommended by the California Law Revision Commission.
Specifically, this bill:
1)Makes numerous technical, nonsubstantive changes to the Fish
and Game Code to improve organization and clarity, remove
obsolete or redundant material, and make other technical
clarifications and corrections. Examples of the changes
include:
a) Removes superfluous references to parts of animals,
and clarifies, as a general rule of construction, that a
reference to an animal includes a reference to parts of
that animal, except where the context indicates
otherwise.
b) Corrects an inadvertent omission of any reference to
the parts of reptiles, clarifying that parts of reptiles
are not treated differently than parts of other types of
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regulated animals.
c) Amends for consistency various references to
reptiles and amphibians;
d) Clarifies that a provision of the code requiring
that reports be printed in the English language, does not
prohibit the unofficial translation of the reports into
other languages.
e) Makes numerous other changes to correct technical
errors, including cross-reference errors, obsolete agency
names, and grammatical errors, and to add clarity to
confusing language without changing its substance.
EXISTING LAW: The Fish and Game Code sets out the state laws
concerning fish and wildlife in California, including laws
regarding the conservation and management of fish and wildlife
resources, and laws governing the recreational and commercial
take of game and nongame species in the State. It also
specifies the duties, responsibilities and authorities of the
Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Fish and Game Commission
with regard to implementation of the code requirements.
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown
COMMENTS: This bill makes numerous technical changes to the
Fish and Game Code recommended by the California Law Revision
Commission. The California Law Revision Commission is
undertaking a comprehensive review and proposed recodification
of the Fish and Game Code which is a multi-year effort and a
work in progress. While that work continues, the Commission is
recommending this first set of technical corrections and minor
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improvements to the Code to be enacted this year. The Law
Revision Commission in its recommendation to the Legislature and
Governor states as follows:
"The Law Revision Commission is preparing draft legislation to
recodify the Fish and Game Code, in order to improve its
organization and clarity, remove obsolete or redundant material,
and correct technical errors. Because that work will involve
the reorganization of the entire code, the recodification
legislation will not be ready for presentation to the
Legislature until the study is completed.
However, some beneficial changes can be made more
quickly. As the larger study proceeds, the Law Revision
Commission will make note of technical corrections and minor
substantive improvements that can be made to the existing code,
without waiting for completion of the entire study. Such
improvements will be periodically compiled into recommendations
for submission to the Legislature. This recommendation is the
first such proposal.
This recommendation was prepared pursuant to Resolution
Chapter 63of the Statutes of 2014."
Prior and related legislation: ACR 98 (Wagner), Resolution
Chapter 108 of 2012, authorized the Law Revision Commission to
conduct a study to determine "Whether the Fish and Game Code and
related statutory law should be revised to improve its
organization, clarify its meaning, resolve inconsistencies,
eliminate unnecessary or obsolete provisions, standardize
terminology, clarify program authority and funding sources, and
make other minor improvements, without making any significant
substantive change to the effect of the law."
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SCR 83 (Monning), Resolution Chapter 63 of 2014, authorized the
Law Revision Commission to continue that work.
AB 1442 (Assembly Water, Parks & Wildlife Committee), Chapter
294, Statutes of 2009, was the last Fish and Game Code cleanup
bill authored by this committee. That bill was sponsored by the
Department of Fish and Game and made numerous changes to update,
correct and improve the Fish and Game Code. It also authorized
the department to sell voluntary warden stamps to support fish
and game wardens, and extended the sunset date on several
existing programs.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
None on file.
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by:Diane Colborn / W., P., & W. / (916)
319-2096
AB 1527
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