BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2130|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 2130
Author: Huber (D), et al
Amended: 8/18/10 in Senate
Vote: 21
SEN. BUS., PROF. & ECON. DEV. COMMITTEE : 7-0, 6/28/10
AYES: Negrete McLeod, Aanestad, Calderon, Corbett, Correa,
Florez, Yee
NO VOTE RECORDED: Wyland, Walters
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 74-3, 6/3/10 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Professions and vocations: sunset review
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill abolishes the Joint Committee on
Boards, Commission, and Consumer Protection and would
instead make eligible agencies, as defined, subject to
review by the Joint Sunset Review Committee. Initially
specifies five agencies which would be subject to review
and have a sunset date of December 2012. Requires the
Joint Sunset Review Committee to report to the public and
the Legislature on whether an agency should be terminated,
or continued, or whether its functions should be revised or
consolidated with those of another agency, and include any
other recommendations as necessary to improve the
effectiveness and efficiency of the agency and any proposed
CONTINUED
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legislation to carry out its recommendations.
Senate Floor Amendments of 8/18/10 make technical changes
and corrections.
NOTE: This bill is a companion measure to AB 1659 (Huber).
The provisions of this bill will not become operative
unless AB 1659 is enacted and establishes the Joint Sunset
Review Committee.
ANALYSIS :
Existing law, the Business and Professions code:
1.Establishes the Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA)
within the State and Consumer Services Agency, and
provides that DCA is under the control of the Director of
DCA who is appointed by the Governor, subject to Senate
confirmation.
2.Provides that the boards under DCA are made up of
appointees of the Governor and the Legislature who
perform, among their duties, licensing and regulatory
functions such as appointment of an executive officer,
setting educational and experience requirements for
licensing and regulatory activities, and taking
enforcement and disciplinary actions against licensees
for violations of law or their individual practice acts.
These boards are considered as separate and independent
from the control of DCA.
3.Established in 1994, the Joint Legislative Sunset Review
committee, and in 2004 changed the name to the Joint
Committee on Boards, Commissions and Consumer Protection
(Joint Committee).
4.Specifies that the Joint Committee shall consist of three
members appointed by the Senate Rules Committee and three
members appointed by the Speaker of the Assembly. No
more than two of the three members appointed from the
Senate or the Assembly shall be form the same party. The
Joint Rules committee shall appoint the chairperson of
the Joint Committee. The Joint Committee is authorized
to act until January 1, 2012, at which time the
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committee's existence shall terminate.
5.Provides that all boards under DCA that are scheduled to
become inoperative and repealed on a specified date or
established pursuant to initiative act, or certain
specified bureaus or other programs of DCA, are subject
to review by the Joint Committee.
6.Provides that in the event that any board becomes
inoperative or is repealed (sunsets) that DCA shall
succeed to and is vested with all the duties, powers,
purposes, responsibilities of that board, and provides
that when the regulatory program is taken over by DCA,
that program shall be designated as a "bureau."
7.Provides, as of January 1, 2004, all administrative or
regulatory boards, commissions, committees, councils,
associations, or other authorities who have appointed
membership, are subject to review by the Joint Committee.
Existing law, the Government Code:
1.Provides that the Legislature finds and declares that
California's multilevel, complex governmental structure
today contains more than 400 categories of administrative
or regulatory boards, commissions, committees, councils,
associations, and authorities and that these governmental
entities have been established without any method of
periodically reviewing their necessity, effectiveness or
utility and as a result the Legislature and residents of
California cannot be assured that these existing or
proposed governmental entities adequately protect the
public health, safety and welfare.
2.Provides that it is the intent of the Legislature that
all existing state boards be subject to review every four
years to evaluate and determine whether each has
demonstrated a public need for its continued existence in
accordance with enumerated factors and standards.
3.Requires the Joint Committee to review all state boards
every four years and to evaluate and make determinations
as specified.
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This bill:
1.Abolishes the current "Sunset Review" process and the
ability of the Joint Committee to review boards and
bureaus under DCA. [It is intended that the review of
boards scheduled for sunset will now be the
responsibility of the Senate and Assembly Business and
Professions committees. The same evaluative and review
process performed by the former Joint Committee will be
continued jointly by these committees as part of their
oversight function.]
2.Repeals provisions which allow a board to become a bureau
under the DCA in the event that any board becomes
inoperative or is repealed (sunsets). [This will require
the Legislature to take an affirmative action to decide
on the appropriate changes and continuation of the board
prior to its sunset date.]
3.Abolishes the authority granted to the Joint Committee in
January of 2004, to review all existing state boards and
other entities every four years.
4.Makes instead all "eligible agencies," as defined,
subject to review by the new Joint Sunset Review
Committee (JSRC) which would be established pursuant to
AB 1659.
5.Specifies that the following four agencies would be
subject to review by the JSRC in its first year of
operation and would have sunset dates of January 1, 2013:
A. The State Race Track Leasing Commission.
B. The Capitol Area Committee.
C. The Continuing Care Advisory Committee.
D. The California Recreational Trails Committee.
6.Provides that the JSRC shall make a report available to
the public and the Legislature or whether an agency
should be terminated, or continued, or whether its
functions should be revised or consolidated with those of
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another agency, and include any other recommendations as
necessary to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of
the agency.
7.Provides that if the JSRC deems it advisable, the report
may include proposed bill to carry out its
recommendations.
8.Specifies that the provisions of this bill will not
become operative unless AB 1659 is enacted and
establishes the JSRC.
Background
The "Sunrise" of Sunset Review in California . The concept
of sunset review law first began back in the 1970's. There
are now about 35 states which have some sort of sunset
review law on the books. Basically, the genesis behind all
sunset laws is to place a termination date on a particular
program or agency, and in the meantime, review it to
determine if it is still operating in an effective and
efficient manner, and whether it should continue.
When one talks about sunset or sunrise laws, they are
usually referring to a review of regulatory licensing
agencies. There are certainly other specific programs
which may be subject to sunset, but the idea of subjecting
an agency to a more formalized review process, before
allowing it to continue, or be established in the first
place, is unique to this type of law.
California was sort of a "Johnny-come-lately" to this
process. There had been prior attempts by the Legislature
to pass a sunset law, but in those instances the
legislation would have sunset both the board and the
licensing program of the particular profession. The law
which was passed in 1994, only sunsets the board - not the
licensing of the occupation. There are basically two
reasons for this, the first is obvious - in most instances
there is a continued need to license those professions
currently regulated by boards under DCA. To automatically
terminate the licensing requirements would have provided no
benefit to the review of these boards under the sunset law.
The second reason, however, is more important. Throughout
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1993 and 1994, both the Senate Business and Professions
Committee and the Assembly Consumer Protection Committee
began a review of some of the 32 regulatory boards under
the Department. There was more concern with the boards'
operation and activities (or lack thereof) than whether
there was a need to continue the licensing of a particular
profession. A number of problems with these boards were
identified and a report was issued by Senate Business and
Professions Committee Subcommittee on Efficiency and
Effectiveness in State Boards and Commissions titled,
Reforming and Restructuring California's Regulatory
Agencies which detailed a number of changes and
recommendations regarding these boards and also strongly
recommended the establishment of a Joint Legislative Sunset
Review Committee to provide specific review criteria and
minimum standards of evaluation for legislative and state
agency use, and subject all licensing agencies and
regulatory programs of the Department to periodic review
and sunset.
For all these reasons and more, both the Legislature and
the Administration believed the more immediate task at hand
was to review these consumer boards at regular intervals.
If it was determined the board should sunset, then there
would be adequate time to determine if the entire licensing
program should be eliminated as well. (It should be noted
that the Hoover Commission and the LAO at that time both
recommended establishing a sunset review process for all
regulatory consumer boards.)
In 1994, SB 2036 was signed into law which established the
Joint Legislative Sunset Review Committee. The Joint
Committee reviewed all boards and other programs under the
Department for a period of 10 years on an ongoing basis,
until its final review in 2005.
Brief Description of the Sunset Review Process . The law,
which went into effect on January 1, 1995, set in place a
schedule for review of all of the 32 independent boards and
programs under DCA. It allowed for an initial review of
all boards beginning in 1995 and ending in 1998. A
re-review of these boards was required after four or more
years from the initial review, and began in 1999 and ended
in 2005. All 32 boards and certain other programs and
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bureaus of DCA were reviewed and re-reviewed during
the10-year period.
The sunset date for each board allowed enough time for the
board to be reviewed by the Joint Committee, and for
legislation to be passed to extend the sunset date of the
board and make appropriate changes. The actual review
process for the Joint Committee began with sending boards a
detailed questionnaire and a request for information which
covered every aspect of the board's operation for four
years. The boards were required to respond to this request
by September 1 of the year they were scheduled for review.
During this time, staff of the Joint Committee, Senate
Business and Professions Committee, Assembly Consumer
Protection Committee, and the LAO worked together to
prepare an analysis and report on each board. (Staff also
met with boards to review documents and information
provided, and seek input from various consumer groups, and
the Health and Budget committees of the Legislature.) The
report provided a brief overview of the board's functions
and programs, identified issues or problem areas concerning
each board, and included preliminary recommendations for
members of the Joint Committee to consider. This included
whether each board scheduled for review should be
terminated, continued, or reestablished, and whether its
programs or functions should be restructured or revised.
The Joint Committee then conducted public hearings to
review the issues and preliminary recommendations. The
boards were provided an opportunity to respond, along with
the regulated industry, consumer groups and the public.
DCA participated in these hearings as well. After the
hearings, the Joint Committee provided DCA with copies of
all testimony and analyses prepared by staff. DCA then had
60 days to provide its own recommendations to the Joint
Committee. Once received, the Joint Committee then met to
review the recommendations of DCA and make final
recommendations to the Legislature.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author's office,
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this bill serves as the implementation bill for the JSRC
created by her companion bill AB 1659 which creates the
JSRC and outlines its duties and responsibilities in
reviewing "eligible agencies," as defined in AB 1659. As
indicated by the author's office, this bill seeks to
establish accountability and oversight for government
entities by requiring systematic review and evaluation of
state entities. Under current law, as explained by the
author's office, the Joint Committee is granted the power
to hold public hearings at specified times and to evaluate
whether a board or regulatory program under DCA has
demonstrated a need for its continued existence, and to
also review all other 400 plus categories of administrative
or regulatory boards, commissions, committees, councils,
associations, and authorities. Joint Committee members
have not been appointed to this committee since 2006, and
the Joint Committee never implemented their new authority
granted to it in 2004, to review all other types of
appointed governmental entities.
The author's office further indicates that this bill would
abolish the Joint Committee and move the functions of the
Joint Committee as it relates to review of appointed
governmental entities to the JSRC. The JSRC would not,
however, review those boards and bureaus under DCA. As
earlier indicated, these agencies would continue to be
reviewed and evaluated by the Business and Professions
committees of the Senate and the Assembly. However, if at
any time these committees no longer reviewed these
agencies, then the JSRC would have the authority to
continue such reviews.
As stated by the author's office, "the purpose of AB 1659
and AB 2130 is to establish a long term process through
which the state can conduct routine reviews of entities and
determine if they are still necessary. It is not the
intention of AB 1659 or AB 2130 to prohibit standing
committees from conducting their own periodic reviews of
boards and commissions under their jurisdiction."
ASSEMBLY FLOOR :
AYES: Adams, Ammiano, Bass, Beall, Bill Berryhill,
Blakeslee, Block, Blumenfield, Bradford, Brownley,
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Buchanan, Caballero, Charles Calderon, Carter, Chesbro,
Conway, Cook, Coto, Davis, De La Torre, De Leon, DeVore,
Emmerson, Eng, Evans, Feuer, Fletcher, Fong, Fuentes,
Fuller, Furutani, Gaines, Galgiani, Garrick, Gilmore,
Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Hayashi, Hernandez, Hill, Huber,
Huffman, Jeffries, Jones, Lieu, Logue, Bonnie Lowenthal,
Ma, Mendoza, Miller, Monning, Nava, Nestande, Niello,
Nielsen, Norby, V. Manuel Perez, Portantino, Ruskin,
Salas, Saldana, Silva, Skinner, Smyth, Solorio, Swanson,
Torlakson, Torres, Torrico, Tran, Villines, Yamada, John
A. Perez
NOES: Anderson, Arambula, Knight
NO VOTE RECORDED: Tom Berryhill, Audra Strickland, Vacancy
JJA:cm 8/19/10 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: NONE RECEIVED
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