This past week, the California Legislature reached its Constitutional “End of Session”, which means that the State Assembly has debated and voted on all of the bills passed by the State Senate (SBs) and the Senate has done the same for all of the bills passed by the State Assembly (ABs). The Governor then has 30 days to sign or veto any SB or AB that has passed the California Legislature.

If no action is taken on a particular bill, it automatically becomes law.

“The Legislature passed several great bills that I either authored or joint-authored. I hope to see some good legislation signed by Governor Newsom,” said 9th District State Assemblyman Heath Flora. “There were also plenty of bills that I didn’t author myself, but still voted in favor of when they were brought before the State Assembly.”

Here is a look at some of the bills awaiting action or already signed into law.

AB 1557 (Flora) – Governor Newsom signed this bill into law on Sept. 1, 2023. AB 1557 makes permanent a temporary waiver that gave health facilities and pharmacists the flexibility to perform medication chart reviews remotely as needed. It improves access to medication especially in rural and underserved areas that are facing personnel shortages.

“I am very happy to see this bill be signed by the Governor. This bill will be helpful to the people in my district,” Flora said.

One of the other bills that received a lot of attention that Flora supported was SB 14 (Grove) which would add human trafficking to the list of “serious felonies” under California law. This bill was initially met with opposition from the majority party, but after public outcry, it was passed by both the Senate and the Assembly.

“Obviously there were some pretty bad bills that passed as well, but we’re going to keep this announcement positive,” noted Flora. “There were a couple of my bills that we worked pretty hard on that we’ll have to keep working on next year.”

AB 1254 (Flora) – Would require the state to pay state firefighters a wage that more closely-aligns with the average pay of city and county firefighters. This must still be implemented through collective bargaining, and establishes pay benchmarks for firefighters similar to what is currently in place for police. This bill was made into a two-year bill.

AB 1447 (Flora) – Increases the speed limit for motorized scooters with a seat from 15 miles per hour to 20 miles per hour. Allows seated scooters to operate at the same speed as electric bicycles and under similar regulations; thus expanding personal mobility options. This bill was also made into a two-year bill.

For more information on any legislation, go to California Legislative Information https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/ to look up any bill language along with summary analyses.

Flora serves the communities of Acampo, Copperopolis, Del Rio, Denair, Empire, Escalon, Farmington, Galt, Hickman, Hughson, Ione, La Grange, Lathrop, Linden, Lockeford, Lodi, Manteca, Oakdale, Rancho Murieta, Ripon, Riverbank, Salida, Waterford, and Wilton

More information is available on the website: https://ad09.asmrc.org/

Along with an office at the State Capitol in Sacramento, Floras has a District Office at 578 N. Wilma Ave., Suite B in Ripon, CA.