Council Urges Governor’s Signature on Key Bills, Including Hard-Fought Reform for Nurse Practitioners
After eight long years of focused advocacy, the Bay Area Council joined with other supporters in applauding the hard-fought passage of legislation (AB 890) to expand the authority of nurse practitioners to provide frontline healthcare services. It was a monumental achievement given the entrenched and influential opposition that fought to block this common-sense reform. A report by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute on the benefits of expanding practice authority for nurse practitioners played a key role in winning support. The Council is now urging Gov. Newsom to sign AB 890 along with a number of other important bills the Council sponsored or supported this year.
Legislation the Council sponsored to increase housing (AB 69, Ting, and AB 831, Grayson) and fast track sustainable transportation projects (SB 288, Weiner) are also currently sitting on Gov. Newsom’s desk and we are urging his signature before a Sept. 30 deadline. The Council is also advocating for the governor’s signature on a number of other key bills we support on homelessness and housing, transportation, and expanding paid family leave.
AB 890 (Wood) Full Practice Authority for Nurse Practitioners: Authorizes a nurse practitioner who meets certain education, experience, and certification requirements to perform, in certain settings or organizations, specified functions without standardized procedures.
SB 288 (Wiener) Fast Tracking Transportation Projects: Exempts a wide range of transit, bicycle and pedestrian improvement projects from review under the California Environmental Quality Act. Exempted projects would include: safer streets and facilities for walking and biking; faster, more efficient bus service with new bus rapid transit lines; and the installation of new zero emission bus charging infrastructure. Bay Area Council co-sponsored with Silicon Valley Leadership Group and SPUR.
AB 69 (Ting) New ADU Financing Tools: Establishes a new program in the state Treasurer’s Office to help homeowners finance additional housing units, including accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and junior accessory dwelling units, and authorizes the California Housing Finance Agency to issue revenue bonds to fund the program. Bay Area Council sponsored.
AB 831 (Grayson) Streamline Housing Projects: Makes changes to the process for development projects approved by the streamlined, ministerial process created by SB 35. The bill provides a path to modify approved development projects prior to the issuance of the final building permit required for construction and specifies that local governments must approve and construct public improvements provided in conjunction with the project in a manner that would not inhibit, chill, or preclude the development.
AB 725 (Wicks) Expanding Medium-Density Housing: Requires metropolitan and suburban jurisdictions, through their housing element process, to ensure that more land is zoned for medium-density housing typologies. It would do so by requiring at least 25% of the jurisdiction’s share of the regional housing need for moderate- and above moderate-income housing must be allocated to sites with zoning that allows at least four units of housing, with moderate income sites being capped at a density of 100 units per acre.
AB 1851 (Wicks) Housing on Church Land: Allows a religious institution to develop an affordable housing project at a place of worship owned by the religious institution even if the development requires the religious institution to reduce the number of religious-use parking spaces available at the place of worship.
AB 2345 (Gonzalez) Increasing Housing Density: Revises the Density Bonus Law to increase the maximum allowable density and the number of concessions and incentives a developer can seek.
AB 3182 (Ting): Requires common interest developments (CIDs) to allow at least 25% of owners to rent or lease out their units.
SB 1085 (Skinner) Affordable Housing Incentives: Creates additional density bonus incentives for affordable housing, allows greater market rate percentage for developments inclusive of very low income units, and applies density bonuses to student housing.
AB 2553 (Ting) Shelter Crisis Declarations: Expands the emergency shelter pilot program statewide and extends the sunset date to January 1, 2026. Communities would be able to build shelter housing for the homeless faster by allowing local jurisdictions to suspend certain ordinances, laws and/or regulations to expedite the process.
SB 1383 (Jackson) Paid Family Leave: Expands the scope of those provisions to instead prohibit an employer with 5 or more employees to refuse to grant an employee a request to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for family care and medical leave if the employee had 180 days of service with the employer.
