The California Partnership is supporting the following bills in 2006.

For up to date information about how ANY bill is progressing through the legislature click here


AB 1835 (Lieber) - Raising the state’s minimum wage to $7.75.
AB 1835 will increase the income for low income families, including families participating in the state’s CalWORKs program by raising the state’s minimum wage to $7.75 an hour and indexing it for cost of living increases.  An increase in the minimum wage is particularly important for CalWORKs families because the 2005-06 budget suspended the cost of living increase for the next two budget years. With grants frozen, the only way for a CalWORKs family to increase their income is by working. 

AB 2192 (Bass) - Support for Families in Recovery

AB 2192 would restore CalWORKs eligibility to people who have prior felony drug convictions. Currently, California bans for life all adults with a prior drug felony from ever receiving CalWORKs.  Under AB 2192, persons whose conviction was based on possession or use could receive CalWORKs if they are enrolled in or have completed a government recognized treatment program.  

AB2536 (Montañez) - Household Worker Equity Bill
AB 2536 would provide equal employment benefits and government assistance for household workers.  Household workers should have equal overtime protection; protection of health and safety; guaranteed a safe and secure workplace; and ensured accountability for employers hiring household workers. 

AB 2961 [Nunez] - CalWORKs Homeless Assistance Enhancements
AB 2961 proposes to provide homeless assistance enhancements at a relatively modest increase in costs and with broader benefits related to helping CalWORKs families maintain employment and increase their incomes.  AB 2961 would revise the statutory definition of “homeless” to include CalWORKs families who have received an official notice of eviction as a result of nonpayment of rent.  This bill increases CalWORKs Temporary Homeless Assistance benefit from $40 per night for a family of four plus $10 per additional person up to a maximum of $80 per night, to $65 per night for a family of four, an additional $15 per person, up to a total of $125. 

SB 1267 (Cedillo) - Office of Immigrant Affairs

SB 1267 would establish within the Department of Community Services and Development an Office of Immigrant Affairs to ensure that state government agencies and California communities are aware of the needs of immigrants and that immigrants receive appropriate assistance to quickly achieve and maintain self-reliance and full integration into our society.

AB 2060 (De La Torre) - The New Californians Act
AB 2060 would assist eligible Californians to naturalize.  The New Californians Act (AB 2060) strengthens the ability of immigrants to contribute to their communities as new citizens upon naturalization by: offering critical programs and services toward citizenship while emphasizing civic participation and skills building; Coordinating services through collaborative, community-based models that have the capacity to reach California’s diverse immigrant communities. AB 2060 will provide services to assist eligible immigrants to naturalize through a process that can be difficult and expensive. 

AB 2281 (Chan) -  High Deductible Health Plan Consumer Protection
AB2281 would protect consumers who have high deductible health insurance by limiting out-of-pocket expenses (including deductibles, co-pays and coinsurance) to $5,000 for an individual and $10,000 for a family, by requiring health plans to create a consumer guide that would allow patients to shop around for care based on cost and quality, and by requiring high-deductible plans to cover preventive care.

SB840 (Kuehl)- Creating a single payer healthcare system in California.
SB840 would make all California residents eligiblefor specified health care benefits under the California Health Insurance System, which would, on a single-payer basis, negotiate for or set fees for health care services provided through the system and pay claims for those services