BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 2399
Author: John A. Pérez (D)
Amended: 4/24/14 in Assembly
Vote: 21
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE : 11-0, 6/17/14
AYES: DeSaulnier, Gaines, Beall, Cannella, Galgiani, Hueso,
Lara, Liu, Pavley, Roth, Wyland
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE : 7-0, 6/24/14
AYES: Jackson, Anderson, Corbett, Lara, Leno, Monning, Vidak
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 76-0, 5/19/14 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Driver's license information: organ and tissue
donor registry
SOURCE : Donate Life California
DIGEST : This bill authorizes an organ procurement
organization (OPO) to swipe a driver's license or identification
card in an electronic device to transmit information to the
Donate Life California Organ and Tissue Donor Registry
(Registry).
ANALYSIS : Existing law authorizes California's federally
designated OPOs to establish a nonprofit organization as the
California Organ and Tissue Donor Registrar. The OPOs
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established Donate Life California as the registrar, and Donate
Life California established and maintains the Registry.
Existing law requires an individual to indicate whether or not
he/she will be an organ donor as part of completing a driver's
license or identification card application or renewal form
through the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV); requires DMV to
print the word "DONOR" or appropriate designation on the face of
the driver's license or identification card of each individual
who signs up as a donor; DMV meets this requirement by printing
the word "DONOR" inside a pink dot embedded on the face of the
driver's license or identification card.
Existing law requires DMV to transmit electronically the
following information to Donate Life California, on a weekly
basis:
1.The applicant's true full name;
2.The applicant's residence or mailing address;
3.The applicant's year of birth; and
4.The applicant's California driver's license or identification
card number.
Existing law requires DMV to submit an annual report to Donate
Life California and to the Legislature, as well as quarterly
updates, detailing voluntary contributions it has collected and
a non-identifiable summary of applicants, as follows:
1.Date of application;
2.Method of application (e.g., field office, online, or mail);
3.ZIP code;
4.Gender; and
5.Year of birth.
Existing law requires Donate Life California to submit an annual
report to the state Public Health Officer and the Legislature
that includes:
1.The number of donors on the Registry;
2.The changes in the number of donors on the Registry; and
3.The general characteristics of donors as determined by the
information provided to Donate Life California by DMV.
Each driver's license and identification card includes a
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magnetic strip on the back that contains the same information
found on the front of the license or card. Existing law
authorizes a business to swipe a driver's license or
identification card in any electronic device for the following
purposes:
1.To verify the individual's age or the authenticity of the
driver's license or identification card;
2.To comply with a legal requirement to record, retain, or
transmit that information; and
3.To collect or disclose personal information required for
reporting, investigating, or preventing fraud, abuse, or
material misrepresentation.
Existing law defines "business" as a proprietorship,
partnership, corporation, or any other form of commercial
enterprise and provides that a business swiping a driver's
license or identification card for any other purpose is subject
to a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in county jail, a
fine of up to $10,000, or both.
This bill:
1.Authorizes an OPO to swipe a driver's license or
identification card in any electronic device to transmit
information to the Registry for purposes of allowing an
individual to identify himself/herself as a registered organ
donor.
2.Requires any information transmitted in this manner to comply
with the DMV Information Security Agreement.
3.Requires Donate Life California to include aggregated data of
donors, rather than general characteristics of donors, in its
annual report to the State Public Health Officer and the
Legislature.
Background
SB 108 (Speier, Chapter 740, Statutes of 2001) authorized the
establishment of an Organ and Tissue Donor Registry in the state
Health and Human Services Agency, but the agency never received
funding for the Registry. SB 112 (Speier, Chapter 405, Statutes
of 2003) transferred responsibility for establishing the
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Registry to a private, nonprofit organization administered by
the four federally designated OPOs: California Transplant Donor
Network (Northern California), Golden State Donor Services
(North Central California), Lifesharing: A Donate Life
Organization (Imperial and San Diego), and OneLegacy (Southern
California). SB 112 built on a provision of existing law at
that time requiring DMV to provide donor registration forms to
applicants for driver's licenses or identification cards.
Donate Life California found the system established by SB 112 to
be ineffective and sponsored SB 689 (Speier, Chapter 665,
Statutes of 2005) requiring DMV to collect organ and tissue
donor designation information on its driver's license and
identification card applications. In an attempt to further
increase organ donor signups, SB 1395 (Alquist, Chapter 217,
Statutes of 2010) requires an individual to indicate whether or
not he/she will be an organ donor in order to apply for or renew
a driver's license or identification card.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/6/14)
Donate Life California (source)
California Transplant Donor Network
Sierra Donor Services
OPPOSITION : (Verified 8/6/14)
California Right to Life Committee, Inc.
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : The author states that California is
46th in the nation in organ donor registration. As of January
2014, more than 120,000 individuals - about 18% of them
Californians - were on the National Organ Transplant Waiting
List. One organ donor can save up to eight lives, and one
tissue donor can improve the lives of up to 50 others.
The author states that OPOs often participate in community
events to encourage individuals to become organ donors. The use
of paper forms at these events, however, often slows down donor
registration due to the length of time to fill out the form by
hand, illegible handwriting, and similar problems. This bill
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enables a Donate Life California representative to sign up an
individual through a device attached to a smartphone. The
individual will complete an electronic signup sheet that
includes the same information collected by DMV when it signs up
a donor. The information will be encrypted on the device, and
deleted from the device once it is submitted to the Donate Life
California database. This bill will enable Donate Life
California to register donors more quickly and efficiently.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : The California Right to Life
Committee (CRLC) expresses numerous concerns, most of which
relate to existing law provisions authorizing organ donor signup
through the driver's license application. CRLC raises questions
as to whether OPO representatives educate potential donors as to
whether brain death is actually true death and whether OPO
representatives explain that organs may be removed from an
individual that is not actually clinically dead. CRLC also
questions whether, if an individual does not indicate "no" on
the driver's license application, the presumption will be that
the person actually meant to indicate "yes."
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 76-0, 5/19/14
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Bigelow, Bloom,
Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta, Bradford, Brown, Buchanan, Ian
Calderon, Campos, Chau, Chávez, Chesbro, Conway, Cooley,
Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dickinson, Donnelly, Eggman, Fong, Fox,
Frazier, Beth Gaines, Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon,
Gorell, Gray, Grove, Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Roger Hernández,
Holden, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Linder, Logue, Lowenthal,
Maienschein, Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Muratsuchi, Olsen, Pan,
Patterson, Perea, John A. Pérez, V. Manuel Pérez, Quirk,
Quirk-Silva, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Skinner,
Stone, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wieckowski, Wilk,
Williams, Yamada, Atkins
NO VOTE RECORDED: Mansoor, Nazarian, Nestande, Vacancy
JA:e 8/6/14 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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