As we ring in 2018, California will have a number of new laws that impact all of us. Below is a set of notable laws that went into effect January 1st that CALPIRG helped pass.
Protecting Public Health:
SB 27 (Hill, 2015) – Back in 2015 California enacted a groundbreaking new law to safeguard medically important antibiotics. Starting January 1, 2018, livestock and poultry farms in California have to abide by new antibiotic use restrictions.
AB 746 (Gonzalez Fletcher, 2017) – Community water systems are now required to conduct lead testing at a selection of drinking water fountains at each school site in California by July 1, 2019.
Health Care and Consumer Protections:
SB 17 (Hernandez, 2017) – Prescription drug companies are required to give purchasers 60-day advance notice for specified increases in the wholesale acquisition cost of a prescription drug. See our recent statement on this bill.
SB 33 (Dodd, 2017) – In response to the Wells Fargo scandal, the legislature passed this bill to prohibit the use of arbitration clauses in contracts fraudulently created by financial institutions, starting in 2018.
Modernizing our Elections and Disclosing Money in Politics:
SB 450 (Allen, 2016) – In 2018, several Northern California counties are moving forward with The Voters Choice Act, a new model for running elections in which all registered voters receive a ballot in the mail and will have the option to mail it in, drop it off, or show up to community vote centers to register and/or vote.
AB 1436 (Feuer, 2012) – Additionally, 2018 will be the first statewide election year in which every county will offer at least one “conditional voter registration” site where an eligible resident of the county can register and vote up to and on Election Day.
AB 249 (Mullin, 2017) – Starting in 2018, The California Disclose Act will improve disclosures on political ads to clearly state the top three funders of those ads.
