Bill Text: CA AB476 | 2019-2020 | Regular Session | Enrolled
Bill Title: Department of Consumer Affairs: task force: foreign-trained professionals.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Vetoed) 2020-01-21 - Consideration of Governor's veto stricken from file. [AB476 Detail]
Download: California-2019-AB476-Enrolled.html
|
Enrolled
September 16, 2019 |
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Passed
IN
Senate
September 10, 2019 |
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Passed
IN
Assembly
September 11, 2019 |
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Amended
IN
Senate
September 06, 2019 |
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
2019–2020 REGULAR SESSION
Assembly Bill
No. 476
| Introduced by Assembly Member Blanca Rubio |
February 12, 2019 |
An act to add Section 110.5 to the Business and Professions Code, relating to professions and vocations.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 476, Blanca Rubio.
Department of Consumer Affairs: task force: foreign-trained professionals.
Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of various professions and vocations by boards within the Department of Consumer Affairs. Existing law establishes the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act, which requires state boards, commissions, and similar state-created multimember bodies to give public notice of meetings and conduct their meetings in public unless authorized to meet in closed session.
This bill, the California Opportunity Act of 2019, would require the Department of Consumer Affairs to create a task force, as specified, to study and write a report of its findings and recommendations regarding the licensing of foreign-trained professionals with the goal of integrating foreign-trained professionals into the state’s workforce, as specified. The bill would authorize the task force to hold hearings and invite testimony from
experts and the public to gather information. The bill would require the task force to submit the report to the Legislature no later than July 1, 2022, as specified.
The bill also would require the task force to meet at least once each calendar quarter, as specified, and to hold its meetings in accordance with the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act. The bill would require each member of the task force to receive a per diem and reimbursement for expenses incurred, as specified, and would require the task force to solicit input from a variety of government agencies, stakeholders, and the public, including, among others, the Little Hoover Commission and the
California Workforce Development Board.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NOBill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
This act shall be known as the California Opportunity Act of 2019.SEC. 2.
Section 110.5 is added to the Business and Professions Code, to read:110.5.
(a) The Department of Consumer Affairs shall create a task force to study, and write the report described in subdivision (c) regarding, the licensing of foreign-trained professionals with the goal of integrating foreign-trained professionals into the state’s workforce.(b) The task force shall consist of the following 15 members:
(1) The Director of Consumer Affairs, or the director’s designee, who shall serve as the chair of the task force.
(2) One member appointed by the Governor.
(3) One
member appointed by the President pro Tempore of the Senate.
(4) One member appointed by the Speaker of the Assembly.
(5) One member appointed by the President of the University of California.
(6) One member appointed by the Chancellor of the California State University.
(7) One member
appointed by the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges.
(8) Four members appointed by the Governor who are representatives of the private sector from diverse regions in the state.
(9) Four members appointed by the Governor who are representatives of nonprofit organizations that serve the immigrant community from diverse regions in the state.
(c) (1) The task force shall write a report of its findings and recommendations regarding the licensing of foreign-trained professionals, that include, but are not limited to, the following:
(A) Strategies to integrate foreign-trained professionals
and methods of implementing those strategies, including those recommended by the Little Hoover Commission in its October 2016 report entitled Jobs for Californians: Strategies to Ease Occupational Licensing Barriers (Report #234).
(B) Identification of state and national licensing regulations that potentially pose unnecessary barriers to practice for foreign-trained professionals, corresponding changes to state licensing requirements, and opportunities to advocate for corresponding changes to national licensing requirements.
(C) Identification of best practices learned from similar efforts to integrate foreign-trained professionals into the workforce in other states.
(2) The task force may include in the report guidelines
for full licensure and conditional licensing of foreign-trained professionals.
(3) The task force may hold hearings and invite testimony from experts and the public to gather information.
(4) The Department of Consumer Affairs may enter into a contract with a third-party vendor to complete the report required pursuant to paragraph (1).
(d) The task force shall submit the report described in subdivision (c) to the Legislature no later than July 1, 2022, and in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government Code.
(e) The following shall also apply:
(1) The task force shall meet at least once each calendar quarter. The task force shall meet at least once in northern California, once in central California, and once in southern California to facilitate participation by the public.
(2) A majority of the appointed task force shall constitute a quorum. Task force meetings shall be held in accordance with the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act (Article 9 (commencing with Section 11120) of Chapter 1 of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code).
(3) (A) Each member shall receive a per diem of one hundred dollars ($100) for each day actually spent in the discharge of official duties, and shall be reimbursed for traveling and other expenses
necessarily incurred in the performance of official duties.
(B) Notwithstanding any other law, a public officer or employee shall not receive per diem salary compensation for serving on the task force on any day when the officer or employee also received compensation for their regular public employment.
(4) The task force shall solicit input from a variety of government agencies, stakeholders, and the public, including, but not limited to, the following:
(A) The Little Hoover Commission.
(B) The California Workforce Development Board.
(C) The Department of Industrial Relations.
(D) In- and out-of-state licensing entities.
(E) Professional associations.
(F) Labor and workforce organizations.
