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The California Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Legislative Caucus announced his policy priorities for 2024, which include continued efforts to combat hate crimes, achieve equity in healthcare, advance K-12 and higher education, and increase equitable representation and access for diverse AAPI communities.
The Caucus detailed in a statement that it will continue to work to prioritize the development of accessible resources, the elimination of harmful stereotypes and systemic inequalities, and the production of equal opportunities for AAPI empowerment.
This year, she noted, AAPI Legislative Caucus members voted to prioritize 18 bills for the 2024 legislative session.
Among them, those against hate crimes stand out, such as AB 2979 (Fong) Income Tax: Exclusion: Victim Compensation - The bill would exclude from gross income any payment received from the California Victim Compensation Board pursuant to specified law.
Likewise, AB 2603 (Low) Hate Crimes: Search Warrants, the bill would authorize a search warrant to be issued on the basis that the property or things to be seized consist of evidence tending to show that certain misdemeanor hate crimes, as defined, have occurred or are occurring.
AB 2604 (Low): Hate Crimes – The bill would expand the definition of a crime to specify that discriminatory selection of a victim because of a protected characteristic is a type of biased motivation for purposes of determining whether the crime was committed, in whole or in part, because of the protected characteristic.
On the subject of health equity, she detailed that AB 2132 (Low) Health Care Services was voted on; a bill that would require primary care providers to offer patients a tuberculosis risk assessment and a tuberculosis screening test, if tuberculosis risk factors are identified; in addition to requiring the provider to offer the patient follow-up medical care or refer the patient to a provider who can provide follow-up medical care.
SB 1078 (Min) Language Access Office would establish the Language Access Office within the California Health and Human Services Agency to ensure that people with limited English proficiency have meaningful access to government programs and services.
In education, AB 2883 (Low) Community Colleges: Chancellor of the California Community Colleges, a bill would require each California State University campus, and each University of California campus, to observe the Lunar New Year and be closed on that day.
The bill would provide that employees of California State Universities are entitled, and would request that employees of the University of California system be entitled, to a paid holiday on Lunar New Year.
In turn, AB 3034 (Low) Postsecondary Education: Admissions would further prohibit California State University and University of California campuses from charging system-wide mandatory tuition or fees, as specified, to students who meet certain requirements, including having completed one year in the California Conservation Corps.
On the other hand, AB 2155 (Ting) Bilingual-Oriented Social Equity Services Grant Program was voted on, which addresses language access issues in DSS by creating the Bilingual-Oriented Social Equity Services Grant Program (BOSES).
BOSES will be used to equitably distribute funds to be used to provide a wage differential for direct service professionals whose primary responsibilities include communicating in a language other than English.
They are joined by other bills that seek to support and benefit the AAPI community in California.
This publication was supported in whole or part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the CaliFornia State
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