At least thirty-seven states, the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico have introduced legislation to support state action related to COVID-19. Several resolutions adjourn legislative sessions or adopt temporary rules to allow governing bodies to meet or vote electronically. Many bills appropriate funds or focus on health topics such as insurance coverage, medical costs or telehealth services. Others involve paid leave, unemployment benefits, guidance for schools, or workforce protections for those in quarantine or isolation. Some bills address price gouging or eligibility for public services, temporarily prohibit evictions and ensure utility services, or extend certain legal deadlines. Below are some resources to track COVID-19 related legislation.
California
California Stay at Home Executive Order (pdf)
Executive Order N-28-20 Residential Evictions moratorium
SB 89 Appropriates $500 million from the General Fund for purposes related to the COVID-19 Proclamation of Emergency. Allows the appropriation to be increased in $50 million increments up to a total to not exceed $1 Billion. Enacted.
AB 196 Defines “injury,” for certain employees who are employed in an occupation or industry deemed essential in the Governor’s Executive Order, except as specified, or who are subsequently deemed essential, to include COVID-19 that develops or manifests itself during a period of employment of those persons in the essential occupation or industry. Pending.
SB 117 Appropriates $100 million for local education agencies to purchase protective equipment and supplies and labor related to cleaning school sites. Enacted.
AB 664 Relates to county employees’ retirement; defines “injury” to include being exposed to or contracting a communicable disease including COVID-19; creates a conclusive presumption that the injury arose out of and in the course of employment. Pending.
AB 828 Provides a temporary moratorium on foreclosures and unlawful detainer actions during the COVID-19 emergency and until 15 days after the state of emergency has ended. Pending.
AB 860 Imposes a state-mandated local vote by mail program; requires county elections officials to mail a ballot to every registered voter for the November 3, 2020 statewide general election. Pending.
SB 893 Defines injury, for a hospital employee who provides direct patient care in an acute care hospital, to include infectious and respiratory diseases. Creates rebuttable presumptions that these injuries that develop or manifest in a hospital employee who provides direct patient care in an acute care hospital arose out of and in the course of employment. Pending.
SB 915 Prohibits the management of a mobilehome park from terminating or attempting to terminate the tenancy of a resident who is impacted by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic during a declared state of emergency or local emergency related to the COVID-19 pandemic; provides that a resident impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic shall have a certain amount of time to notify the management of their need for additional time to pay rent, utilities or other charges. Pending.
SB 932 Requires the State Department of Public Health and each local health officer to collect data relating to the sexual orientation and gender identity of individuals who are diagnosed with COVID-19. By imposing new duties on local health officers, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Pending.
SB 939 Makes it unlawful to evict the tenant of a commercial property during the COVID-19 Emergency. Pending.
SB 943 Authorizes wage replacement benefits to workers who take time off work to care for a minor child whose school has been closed due to the COVID-19 virus outbreak. Pending.
SB 950 (Jackson; D-Santa Barbara) Expansion of CEQA. Would expand the California Environmental Quality Act’s existing requirements by adding costly new mandates that will burden local agencies, add substantial time and costs to the CEQA process and provide project opponents with new legal arguments to delay or block housing and other projects.
SB 1088 Would require a city, county, or continuum of care to use at least 12% of specified homelessness prevention or support moneys for services for domestic violence survivors experiencing or at risk of homelessness. Addresses increase in domestic violence incidents as a result of the states shelter-in-place order. Pending.
AB 1107 Expands the scope of payments from the Unemployment Disability Compensation Fund until March 1, 2021. Pending.
SB 1159 Defines, until an unspecified date, “injury” for a critical worker, as described, to include illness or death that results from exposure to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) under specified circumstances. Creates a disputable presumption, as specified, that an injury that develops or manifests itself while a critical worker is employed arose out of and in the course of the employment. Pending.
SB 1163 Amends the Elections Code; clarifies that during a state of emergency due to an epidemic or other contagious disease, only certain persons are authorized to return a voter’s vote by mail ballot. Pending.
SB 1276 Eliminates the requirement for local domestic violence centers to provide cash or in-kind matches for funds they receive from non-state sources, in response to funds received from federal, COVID-19 stimulus. Pending.
SB 1322 Authorizes a notary public to apply for registration with the Secretary of State to be a remote online notary public, while promoting physical distancing during the COVID-19 outbreak, so long as there is a declaration of a state emergency by the Governor related to the COVID-19 virus. Pending.
SB 1399 (Durazo; D-Los Angeles) Increased Costs and Liability on Employers. Imposes unfair and onerous burdens on any essential business in the apparel industry, including a $600,000 bond to operate, which will force businesses to reduce their workforce or close down their business, given the financial strain they are already under from this pandemic.
SB 1410 Establishes the COVID-19 Emergency Rental Assistance Program. Pending.
SB 1435 Requires the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development, in cooperation with the Office of Planning and Research, to track specified information regarding California opportunity zone investments and to post some of that information on the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development’s internet website, in recognition of the COVID-19 public health crisis, the importance of keeping people housed to curb the spread of diseases, and to anticipate the need for affordable housing following major job losses during the COVID-19 emergency. Pending.
SB 1447 Extends certain protections of the California Homeowner Bill of Rights until January 1, 2023, including circumstances where a tenant is unable to pay rent due to a reduction in income resulting from the novel coronavirus. Pending.
AB 1667 Provides that an electronic will is validly executed if it is executed in compliance with the provisions applicable to written wills, in recognition that social distancing makes executing a paper will more difficult. Pending.
AB 1839 Creates the California COVID-19 Recovery Deal; States the intent of the Legislature that the state adopt a policy framework with principles and goals committed to accomplish specified economic, environmental, and social objectives and priorities as part of the state’s COVID-19 recovery spending. Pending.
AB 2043 Requires the standards board to adopt occupational safety and health standards for novel coronavirus (COVID-19) infection prevention for agricultural employers and employees. The bill would require the division to disseminate information on best practices to agricultural employers commencing on January 1, 2021 and whenever the guidance document is updated, in both English and Spanish. Pending.
AB 2095 Authorizes a public water system to reduce the water charges imposed on a customer impacted by COVID-19 during the duration of the impact provided that the reduction does not increase the water charges imposed on another ratepayer. Pending.
AB 2166 Conforms to the provision of the CARES Act that allows various deductions in computing the income including a deduction for a net operating loss and authorizes a taxpayer to file a return for the first six months of a taxable year if that return includes a claim for a net operating loss carryback. Pending.
AB 2173 To provide relief to fairs experiencing financial hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic, authorizes a fair to defer repayment of a loan issued by the Department of Food and Agriculture from the Fair and Exposition Fund until a specified date. Provides that interest shall not accrue on a loan during the time period that a fair elects to defer repayment. Pending.
AB 2293 Creates the Broadening Research, Education, Awareness, Treatment, and Health (BREATHE) Act of 2020. The bill would require the State Department of Public Health to conduct a COPD Awareness Campaign and to conduct outreach to primary care providers and family care providers. The bill would also establish the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) Awareness Fund, to be used by the department to fund those purposes.Pending.
AB 2329 Requires the Homeless Coordinating and Financing Council to conduct, or contract with an entity to conduct, a statewide needs and gaps analysis to identify, among other things, state programs that provide housing or services to persons experiencing homelessness and funding required to move persons experiencing homelessness into permanent housing. Authorizes local governments to collaborate with the coordinating council upon the appropriation. Pending.
AB 2406 Requires the Department of Housing and Community Development to enter into a contract with a contractor to create and administer a rental registry online portal, which would be designed to receive specified information from landlords that own or operate five or more rental dwelling units regarding their residential tenancies and to disseminate this information to the general public. Pending.
AB 2457 Expands exemptions under the Labor Code, the Unemployment Insurance Code, and the wage orders of the Industrial Welfare Commission to also include individuals who are licensed pharmacists. Pending.
AB 2464 Establishes a grant program for purposes of establishing and funding a statewide pediatric behavioral telehealth network, subject to a competitive grant process. Requires funding made available for these purposes to be expended to build the clinical infrastructure to support ten telehealth hubs throughout the state. Makes children’s hospitals and community based behavioral health providers eligible to participate in the grant program. Pending.
AB 2489 Prohibits the application of the ABC test, to determine whether workers are employees or independent contractors for the purpose of the Labor Code, for respiratory therapists and other medical personnel not otherwise covered by an existing exemption from the ABC test, and would instead require that the multifactor test set forth in the case of Borello apply. Pending.
AB 2493 Increases the amount of credit against taxes imposed by the Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law for increasing research activities, including for treatment, cures and vaccines to address COVID-19. Pending.
AB 2501 Enacts the COVID-19 Homeowner, Tenant, and Consumer Relief Law of 2020. The bill, with respect to residential mortgage loans, would prohibit a mortgage servicer, mortgagee, trustee, beneficiary, or authorized agent from taking specified actions during the COVID-19 emergency and the 180-day period following the emergency. The bill would prohibit the above persons from commencing or continuing any judicial foreclosure action, recording a notice of default, or taking any action to evict a person following a foreclosure. The bill would also require the above persons to stay all foreclosure proceedings and time limits in a judicial or nonjudicial foreclosure on a property. The bill would not apply these provisions to a mortgage secured by a dwelling that any of the above persons has determined is vacant or abandoned. Pending.
AB 2626 Provides an exemption from those taxes with respect to the sale of, and the storage, use, or other consumption of qualified tangible personal property purchased by a local educational agency. Pending.
AB 2707 Requires the Treasurer to establish the COVID-19 Credit Facility, to support cashflow borrowing by local governments, as specified, to better manage cashflow pressures created by the COVID-19 public health emergency. Pending.
AB 2992 (Weber; D-San Diego) Expanded Leaves of Absence. Expands three separate leaves of absence on small and large employers with multiple threats of litigation despite the enormous financial strain all size employers are dealing with as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This increased burden will limit employers’ ability to recover, including limiting their ability to rebuild their workforce.
AB 2999 (Low; D-Campbell) New Protected Leave and Threat of Litigation. Imposes a significant new burden on employers of every size by mandating that they provide employees up to 10 days of bereavement leave upon the death of a spouse, child, parent, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, or domestic partner, regardless of how long the employee has worked for the employer. The bill further opens up new avenues for litigation against California employers by establishing a new private right of action (in addition to liability under the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) and administrative enforcement through the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement).
AB 3075 (Lorena Gonzalez; D-San Diego) Public Shaming and Local Wage Standards. Provides for public shaming of corporations and interference with corporate formation based on arbitrary, unclear and unfair standards. The bill would also result in chaotic and inconsistent enforcement of wage and hour laws by local jurisdictions by authorizing them to impose their own wage payment requirements as long as they are “at least as stringent” as state law requirements.
AB 3123 Requires an employer to grant paid sick leave to an employee, upon request, if the employer’s place of business is closed by order of a public health official due to a public health emergency, or if the employee is providing care or assistance to their child, whose school or daycare provider is closed by order of a public health official due to a public health emergency. Pending.
AB 3196 Permits an individual nonexempt employee to work an employee-selected flexible work schedule, without any obligation on the part of the employer to pay an overtime rate of compensation, if the employee requests this schedule and the employer approves the request. The bill would not apply to employees covered by a valid collective bargaining agreement or public employees. Pending.
AB 3208 Excludes from gross income, for state income tax purposes, any covered loan amount forgiven pursuant to the federal CARES Act.Pending.
AB 3216 Requires certain workforce protections related to family and medical leave due to the coronavirus. Pending.
AB 3224 Establishes a statewide program to direct and support local health departments in providing specified services to individuals experiencing reinfections of syphilis, chlamydia, and gonorrhea, including assessing the health and social needs of those individuals. Pending.
AB 3228 Requires any private detention facility operator to comply with, and adhere to, the detention standards of care and confinement agreed upon in the facility’s contract for operations. Establishes the California Detention Standards and Compliance Working Group Expresses intent to create a working group tasked with responding to health and safety concerns regarding COVID-19 in these facilities.Pending.
AB 3329 Provides, until July 1, 2022, following the termination of the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation amount provided pursuant to the CARES Act or any other federal supplemental unemployment compensation payments for unemployment due to the COVID-19 pandemic, that an individual’s weekly benefit amount as otherwise provided for by existing unemployment compensation law be increased by $100. Pending.
Regional Orders
UPDATED San Joaquin County Order (amended 4/14/2020)
San Joaquin County Order- Moratorium on Residential and Commercial Evictions
