BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2034
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Date of Hearing: April 20, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Lorena Gonzalez, Chair
AB
2034 (Salas) - As Amended March 17, 2016
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY:
This bill deletes the January 1, 2017, sunset for Caltrans to
waive its 11th Amendment right to sovereign immunity from
lawsuits brought in federal court, so that Caltrans can
continue, indefinitely, to assume the role of the U.S.
Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) for National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) decision making.
AB 2034
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FISCAL EFFECT:
Based on results to date (see below), Caltrans should continue
saving considerable time, and thus related costs, on projects
requiring NEPA review, while also incurring limited legal costs.
COMMENTS:
1)Background. Federal legislation enacted in 2005 established
the Surface Transportation Project Delivery Pilot Program
(later called the NEPA Assignment). California was designated
as one of five states eligible to participate in a multi-year
program delegating the responsibilities of the U.S. Department
of Transportation and U.S. Federal Highway Administration
(FHWA) under NEPA to those states. The states were subjected
to the same procedural and substantive requirements as if they
were carried out by U.S. DOT, including making Caltrans the
lead agency for environmental reviews for projects subject to
NEPA.
To participate in the NEPA Assignment, participating states
were required to accept the financial costs associated with
the delegated authority, as well as full liability for
lawsuits filed under NEPA in federal court. Therefore,
participating states were required to obtain a limited waiver
of their 11th Amendment sovereign immunity, thereby allowing
them to be sued in federal court and providing them the
ability to defend against claims that may be brought against
the NEPA document. AB 1039 (Núñez), Chapter 31, Statutes of
2006, in part granted the necessary waiver of sovereign
immunity to Caltrans until January 1, 2009, and subsequent
legislation twice extended the expiration of this waiver.
In reports to the Legislature and the FHWA regarding this
AB 2034
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program, Caltrans has reported that the NEPA assignment has
been successful in reducing the amount of time for reviews and
approvals of NEPA documents and also resulted in streamlining
the environmental review process for joint NEPA/CEQA
documents. With regard to litigation, thus far Caltrans' has
been involved in a seven minor NEPA lawsuits and has expended
minimal time, comparatively, addressing these lawsuits. With
respect to cost and time savings achieved by NEPA Assignment,
the benefits have clearly outweighed the costs.
2)Purpose. According to the author, by allowing Caltrans to
continue the NEPA Assignment program indefinitely, will create
circumstances by which transportation projects can continue to
be delivered more quickly.
Analysis Prepared by:Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916)
319-2081