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The California Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Legislative Caucus announced its 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, he noted, members of the AAPI Legislative Caucus 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: Compensation for Victims - The bill would exclude from gross income any payment received from the Board of California Victim Compensation in accordance with 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 demonstrate that certain misdemeanor hate crimes, as defined, have occurred or are occurring.
AB 2604 (Low): Hate crimes; The bill would expand the definition of 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.
In terms of health equity, he explained that they voted for AB 2132 (Low) Health care services; 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; furthermore, it would require the provider to offer the patient follow-up medical care or refer the patient to a provider who can provide follow-up medical care.
For its part, SB 1078 (Min) Office of Language Access, would establish the Office of Language Access, 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 terms of education, AB 2883 (Low) stands out. Community colleges: Chancellor of the California Community Colleges; One 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 the California State Universities are entitled, and that employees of the University of California system are required to be entitled, to a paid holiday on the 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 tuition or mandatory fees, as specified, to students who meet certain requirements, including having completed a year in the Conservation Corps Of California.
On the other hand, AB 2155 (Ting) Subsidy Program for Social Equity Services Oriented to Bilinguals was voted; which addresses language access issues in DSS through the creation of the Bilingual Oriented Social Equity Services Grant Program (BOSES).
BOSES will be used to equitably distribute funds that will be used to provide a pay gap 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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