BILL ANALYSIS Ó SB 1270 Page 1 Date of Hearing: August 3, 2016 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Lorena Gonzalez, Chair SB 1270 (Galgiani) - As Introduced February 18, 2016 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Policy |Agriculture |Vote:|9 - 0 | |Committee: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No SUMMARY: This bill extends the sunset from January 1, 2017 to January 1, 2022, for the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) to establish a fee schedule to recover the reasonable costs associated with animal health services that do not provide a benefit beyond the payer. FISCAL EFFECT No additional state costs. SB 1270 Page 2 COMMENTS: Purpose and Background. CDFA's Animal Health Branch (AHB) focuses on protecting livestock populations from devastating diseases that require statewide coordination. AHB investigates known or suspected cases of specified diseases, conducts animal disease surveillance and traceability programs, and prepares and executes emergency response planning. Examples of disease surveillance programs include tuberculosis, brucellosis, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease), and avian diseases. AHB also permits and monitors over 2 million animals entering California annually. A trailer bill to the Budget Act of 2011, Chapter 133, Statutes of 2011 (AB 120), authorized CDFA to establish a fee schedule in order to recover costs associated with animal health services that do not provide a benefit beyond the payer, among other provisions. This includes a service that is required for a personal matter, is not related to a suspected animal health disease outbreak, and there are no private veterinarians certified by CDFA to perform the service. The author notes that such instances may occur in remote, where there are no private veterinarians certified by CDFA to do specific regulated work, such as test cattle for tuberculosis or administer a vaccine for brucellosis. In these rare instances, the only veterinary service available in the area is a CDFA field veterinarian. The service fee may not exceed $500 for a particular license, permit, registration, product, or service. This authority is set to sunset on January 1, 2017. Analysis Prepared by:Luke Reidenbach / APPR. / (916) 319-2081 SB 1270 Page 3