Below is a list and summary of the 2019 legislative bills.
AB 5 (Gonzalez) Workers status: independent contractors.
Current Text: Amended 5/24/2019 Bill Information
Status/location: 9/18/2019 – Signed by the governor.
Summary: This is a “legislative intent” measure, pertaining to a recent court case entitled, “Dynamex Operations West, Inc. vs. Superior Court of Los Angeles“.
CVMA Position: Support
AB 71 (Melendez) Employment standards: independent contractors and employees.
Current Text: Amended 2/25/2019 Bill Information
Status/Location: 2/26/2019 – Re-referred to Committee on Labor & Employment. Dead
Summary: In order to determine if a person is an employee or an independent contractor, this bill would require a specific multifactor test be utilized to determine whether the person to whom service is rendered has the right to control the manner and means of accomplishing the desired result and other factors.
CVMA Position: Watch
AB 128 (Gloria) Horses: protection.
Current Text: Amended 4/24/2019 Bill Information
Status/location: 10/12/2019 – Signed by the governor.
Summary:This bill pertains to Proposition 6 — the Prohibition of Horse Slaughter and Sale of Horsemeat for Human Consumption Act of 1998. The act makes it unlawful for any person to possess, to import into or export from the state, or to sell, buy, give away, hold, or accept any horse with the intent of killing, or having another kill, that horse, if that person knows or should have known that any part of that horse will be used for human consumption.
CVMA Position: Watch
AB 149 (Cooper) Controlled substances: prescriptions.
Current Text: Chaptered 3/11/2019 Bill Information
Status/location: 3/11/2019 – Signed by the governor.
Summary: This bill specifies that the format for the uniquely serialized number prescribed by the Dept. of Justice must meet state and federal requirements, must be utilizable as a scannable barcode, and must be compliant with National Council for Prescription Drug Program Standards (NCPDPS).
CVMA Position: Support
AB 171 (Gonzalez) Employment: sexual harassment.
Current Text: Amended 5/16/2019 Bill Information
Status/location: 10/12/2019 – Vetoed.
Summary:This bill would prohibit an employer from discharging, discriminating, or retaliating against an employee because of the employee’s status as a victim of sexual harassment.
CVMA Position: Watch
AB 366 (Bloom) Animals: blood, blood components, and biologics.
Current Text: Amended 3/21/2019 Bill Information
Status/location: 4/22/2019 – Pulled by author – Dead.
Summary: Would allow only veterinarians to engage in the production of dog and cat blood and blood component products or biologics if specified conditions are met. As written, would prohibit a non-veterinarian (e.g. a commercial entity) from engaging in this practice.
CVMA Position: Oppose
AB 476 (Rubio) DCA: task force: foreign-trained professionals.
Current Text: Introduced 2/12/2019 Bill Information
Status/location: 10/12/2019 – Vetoed.
Summary: This bill would require the Department of Consumer Affairs to create a task force to study and produce a report regarding findings and recommendations for the licensing of foreign-trained professionals with the goal of integrating foreign-trained professionals into the state’s workforce.
CVMA Position: Watch
AB 486 (Limon) Disaster preparedness: local government: animal wildfire evacuation plan.
Current Text: Amended 4/30/2019 Bill Information
Status/location: 5/16/2019 – Held in Assembly Appropriations. Dead
Summary: If a city or county requires a permit to keep an animal within its jurisdiction, this bill would require an animal owner, as a condition for obtaining the permit, to create and submit to the city or county an animal wildfire evacuation plan for any animal covered by the permit. .
CVMA Position: Watch
AB 528 (Low) Controlled substances: CURES database.
Current Text: Introduced 2/13/2019 Bill Information
Status/location: 10/9/2019 – Signed by the governor.
Summary: Would require a dispensing pharmacy, clinic, or other dispenser to report the information required by the CURES database no more than one working day after a controlled substance is dispensed. (Current law is 7 days to report.)
CVMA Position: Support
AB 544 (Brough) Professions and vocations: inactive license fees and accrued and unpaid renewal fees.
Current Text: Amended 3/21/2019 Bill Information
Status/location: 5/16/2019 – Held in Assembly B & P. Dead
Summary: This bill will affect most of the professions that are regulated by the Department of Consumer Affairs, pertaining to unpaid fees, etc.
CVMA Position: Watch
AB 588 (Chen) Animal shelters: disclosure: dog bites.
Current Text: Amended 5/22/2019 Bill Information
Status/location: 10/2/2019 – Signed by the governor.
Summary: Would require a shelter, spca, rescue group, etc. to inform a person who is obtaining the dog, if there is a bite history regarding that animal before the dog is sold, given away, or otherwise released.
CVMA Position: Approve
AB 611 (Nazarian) Sexual abuse of animals.
Current Text: Introduced 2/14/2019 Bill Information
Status/location: 10/8/2019 – Signed by the governor.
Summary: Prohibits sexual contact with any animal and would make the prohibition a misdemeanor.
CVMA Position: Approve
AB 613 (Low) Professions and vocations: regulatory fees.
Current Text: Introduced 2/14/2019 Bill Information
Status/location: 5/8/2019 – Senate B & P. Hearing postponed. Dead
Summary: Would authorize each board under the Department of Consumer Affairs to increase every four years, any fee authorized to be imposed by that board by an amount not to exceed the increase in the California Consumer Price Index for the preceding 4 years. The DCA Director would also have authority to reject the fee increase, only under certain circumstances.
CVMA Position: Watch
AB 700 (Friedman) Public records: exceptions to disclosure: public postsecondary educational institutions: researchers.
Current Text: Amended 4/4/2019 Bill Information
Status/location: 4/24/2019 – Hearing postponed. Dead.
Summary: Would exempt from disclosure specific information relating to a researcher, or their research, at a public postsecondary educational institution, including trade secrets, unpublished research methods, and correspondence.
CVMA Position: Watch
AB 714 (Wood) Opioid prescriptions drugs: prescribers.
Current Text: Amended 6/17/2019 Bill Information
Status/location: 9/5/2019 – Signed by the governor.
Summary: Would exclude from the definition of “prescriber” a person licensed under the Veterinary Medicine Practice Act and would define other terms for purposes of those provisions..
CVMA Position: Neutral
AB 804 (Ting) Medical waste: sharps waste.
Current Text: Introduced 2/20/2019 Bill Information
Status/location: 2/28/2019 – Assembly Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials. Dead.
Summary: This is a “spot bill” pertaining to the submission to the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery or the posting of an annual plan, for home-generated sharps waste.
CVMA Position: Watch
AB 889 (Maienschein) Animal research.
Current Text: Amended 4/1/2019 Bill Information
Status/location: 4/9/2019 – Author cancelled hearing. Dead.
Summary: This bill repeals language stating that California’s “public health and welfare depend on the humane use of animals for scientific advancement in the diagnosis and treatment of human and animal diseases…” Would require annual approval from the Department of Public Health to use animals for diagnostic purposes, education, or research. Strikes current authority for research for animal cosmetics or laboratories, etc.
CVMA Position: Oppose
AB 973 (Irwin) Pharmacies: compounding.
Current Text: Amended 5/13/2019 Bill Information
Status/location: 9/3/2019 – Signed by the Governor.
Summary: Would require the compounding of drug preparations by a pharmacy for furnishing, distribution, or use to be consistent with standards established in the pharmacy compounding chapters of the United States Pharmacopeia-National Formulary, including relevant testing and quality assurance..
CVMA Position: Watch
AB 1040 (Muratsuchi) Protection of cetaceans: unlawful activity.
Current Text: Introduced 2/21/19 Bill Information
Status/location: 3/14/2019 – Author cancelled hearing. Dead
Summary: Would make it unlawful for a cetacean (whale, dolphin, and porpoise) to be held in captivity except under specific circumstances. The prohibition would not apply to a bona fide educational or scientific institution for rehabilitation after a rescue or for research purposes.
CVMA Position: Watch
AB 1125 (Cooley) Animal Control Officer Standards Act.
Current Text: Introduced 2/21/2019 Bill Information
Status/location: 10/8/2019 – Signed by the governor.
Summary: Would authorize the California Animal Welfare Association to develop and maintain standards for a program to certify animal control directors. The act would establish minimum standards as well as continuing requirements for a person to become a certified animal control director.
CVMA Position: Approve
AB 1230 (Quirk) Veterinary medicine: declawing animals.
Current Text: Revised 4/1/2019 Bill Information
Status/location: 4/23/2019 – Dead.
Summary: Would ban the declawing of cats unless it is performed for a therapeutic purpose for the animal. “Therapeutic purpose” is defined as addressing a physical medical condition of the animal such as an “existing or recurring illness, infection, disease, injury, or abnormal condition in the animal’s claw that compromises the animal’s health.” The bill also required a veterinarian, within 30 days of performing the surgery, to file a written statement with the Veterinary Medical Board regarding the need for the surgery.
CVMA Position: Oppose
AB 1529 (Low) Telephone medical advice services.
Current Text: Introduced 2/22/2019 Bill Information
Status/location: 10/12/2019 – Signed by the governor.
Summary: A telephone medical advice service would be required to ensure that all health care professionals who provide telephone medical advice services from an out-of-state location are operating consistent with the laws governing their respective licenses and would be required to comply with all directions and requests for information made by the respective healing arts licensing boards.
CVMA Position: Watch
AB 1553 (Fong) Animal impoundment.
Current Text: Introduced 2/22/2019 Bill Information
Status/location: 6/12/2019 – Signed by Governor.
Summary: This bill makes a series of technical, nonsubstantive changes to the codes pertaining to animal “pounds” by striking the “pound” reference and replacing the term with “animal shelters” instead. The bill makes additional clarifications.
CVMA Position: Watch
AB 1586 (Kalra) Pupil instructions: animal dissection.
Current Text: Introduced 2/22/2019 Bill Information
Status/location: 5/1/2019 – Failed Assembly Education. Dead.
Summary: Would prohibit a pupil in any California private or public school in kindergarten and grades 1 through 12, from performing animal dissection or viewing the act of dissection.
CVMA Position: Disapprove
SB 64 (Chang) Dogs & cats: microchip implants.
Current Text: Amended 3/20/2019 Bill Information
Status/location: 9/27/2019 – Vetoed.
Summary: Would prohibit an animal control agency or shelter, spca, humane society, or rescue group from releasing a dog or cat to an owner seeking to reclaim it, or adopting out, selling or giving away a dog or cat to a new owner, unless the dog or cat is microchipped.
CVMA Position: Watch
SB 135 (Jackson) Disability compensation: paid family leave.
Current Text: Amended 3/25/2019 Bill Information
Status/location: 5/16/2019 – Senate Floor. Dead
Summary: This bill is the State’s legislative intent to enact legislation to strengthen California’s family leave laws and to expand it to six-months leave.
CVMA Position: Watch
SB 202 (Wilk) Animal blood donors.
Current Text: Amended 8/12/2019 Bill Information
Status/location: 10/13/2019 – Vetoed.
Summary: This bill was amended to pertain to the banning of commercial blood banks that use colony/captive animals.
CVMA Position: Support
SB 258 (Hertzberg) Community service: homeless shelters: pets & veterinary services.
Current Text: Amended 5/17/2019 Bill Information
Status/location: 8/30/2019 – Assembly – held in committee.
Summary: Would appropriate $5 million from the General Fund to the Department of Community Services for the purpose of awarding grants to homeless shelters for the provision of shelter, food, and basic veterinary services for pets owned by homeless people.
CVMA Position: Approve
SB 312 (Leyva) Veterans: service dog assistance.
Current Text: Amended 4/22/2019 Bill Information
Status/location: 5/24/2019 – Assembly – held at desk. Dead.
Summary: Would require the Department of Rehabilitation, in conjunction with the Department of Veterans Affairs, to establish a program to provide assistance for the cost of service dogs to veterans with disabilities.
CVMA Position: Approve
SB 313 (Hueso) Wild & exotic animals: prohibition on use in circuses.
Current Text: Amended 4/25/2019 Bill Information
Status/location: 10/12/2019- Signed by the governor.
Summary: Would prohibit a person from using a wild or exotic animal in a traveling animal act.
CVMA Position: Watch
SB 397 (Glazer) Public transit operators: passengers with pets: evacuation orders.
Current Text: Introduced 2/20/2019 Bill Information
Status/location: 10/9/2019 – Signed by the governor.
Summary: Would require a public transit operator to develop best practices for allowing pets on public transit vehicles serving areas subject to an evacuation order and then subsequently require an operator to allow passengers to board with their animals.
CVMA Position: Approve
SB 522 (Hertzberg) Taxation.
Current Text: Introduced 2/21/2019 Bill Information
Status/location: 3/7/2019 – Senate Rules. Dead.
Summary: State’s legislative intent to modernize and restructure the state’s tax system, including imposing a sales tax on services.
CVMA Position: Watch
SB 627 (Galgiani) Medicinal cannabis & medicinal cannabis products: veterinary medicine.
Current Text: Amended 4/30/2019 Bill Information
Status/location: 5/24/2019 – Assembly – held at desk. Dead.
Summary: Would authorize veterinarians to “recommend” cannabis and cannabis products to an animal owning client if the veterinarian first takes a continuing education course on the subject matter.
CVMA Position: Support
SB 639 (Mitchell) Medical services: credit or loan.
Current Text: Introduced 4/11/2019 Bill Information
Status/location: 10/13/2019 – Signed by the governor.
Summary: This bill seeks to prohibit a licensee or employee or agent of that licensee from charging treatment or costs to an open-end credit or loan that is extended by a third party and that is arranged for, or established in, that licensee’s office before the date on which the treatment is rendered or costs are incurred without providing that plan or list. It would additionally prohibit a licensee or employee or agent of that licensee from offering an open-end credit or loan that contains a deferred interest provision and prohibit a licensee or the licensee’s employee or agent from arranging for or establishing credit or a loan that is extended by a third party for a patient in a treatment area where medical treatment is administered.This bill would remove the deferred interest option for companies that provide financing services to clients, such as Care Credit. This would effectively remove this choice for clients of health care licensees, including veterinarians.
CVMA Position: Neutral
SB 711 (Glazer) Cemetery and Funeral Act.
Current Text: Introduced 2/22/2019 Bill Information
Status/location: 5/16/2019 – Assembly B & P. Dead.
Summary: This is a “spot” bill and could potentially relate to the animal cremation issue that was raised by the Veterinary Medical Board.
CVMA Position: Watch