BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES AND WATER
Senator Fran Pavley, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: AB 1527 Hearing Date: June 23,
2015
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|Author: |Committee on Water, | | |
| |Parks, and Wildlife | | |
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|Version: |March 18, 2015 Introduced |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant:|William Craven |
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Subject: Fish and wildlife.
BACKGROUND AND 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.
PROPOSED LAW
This bill 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, removes
obsolete or redundant material, and makes 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
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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
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.
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.
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT
None received.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION
None received.
COMMENTS
This bill makes numerous technical changes to the Fish and Game
Code recommended by the California Law Revision Commission
(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
improvements to the Code to be enacted this year.
The Law Revision Commission in its recommendation to the
Legislature and Governor states as follows:
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"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
63 of 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."
SCR 83 (Monning), Resolution Chapter 63 of 2014, authorized the
Law Revision Commission to continue that work.
SUPPORT
None Received
OPPOSITION
None Received
-- END --
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