Capitol Corner | June 2025

It is hard to believe that the 2025 Legislative Session is nearly half over. The deadline for bills to pass out of policy and fiscal committees has passed, and all bills must be out of their house of origin in just a few days from now.

The most significant legislative activity so far has been fiscal committee action wherein committee and legislative leadership single-handedly choose what bills will move forward to floor consideration in both houses, and what bills will be dead for the year. The official line is that these bills that are “held in committee” are those with price tags that the state cannot afford, but in reality, innumerable reasons for holding these measures on the respective Appropriations Committee’s “Suspense Calendars” are considered in making these decisions. As a result of this process, CAHSAH is pleased that our following priority bills are still in play this year. They are:

• SB 412 (Limon) - a CAHSAH-supported bill requiring dementia training for home care aides.
• SB 785 (Caballero) - a CAHSAH-supported measure to create a tax credit for purchase of certain durable medical equipment (DME).
• AB 1400 (Soria) - a CAHSAH supported bill to create a pilot program allowing selected community colleges to confer BSN degrees.
• AB 1495 (Valencia) - a measure allowing online training for home health aides.

On the other side of the equation, we were disappointed that AB 315 (Bonta), a bill to lift the cap on Medi-Cal Home and Community Based Services waiver slots will not move forward this year. But we were pleased that AB 617 (McKinnor) a bill that would restrict the ability of agencies to provide home care services to regional center clients is dead for the year.

It is also important to note that a major focus of the Legislature in June will be the state budget. Governor Newsom projected in January that his proposed budget would have a slight surplus, but that optimism vanished in his budget revision released in early May that now assumes a budget deficit of at least $12 billion with a distinct possibility of that number rising to $16 billion or beyond. Nevertheless, we will continue to advocate strongly for increased funding of the state Medi-Cal program, with particular emphasis on reinstatement of the $62 million that was allocated in last year’s budget to fund a reimbursement rate increase for Medi-Cal private duty nursing that was negated by the passage of Proposition 35 last November.

Please watch your email inboxes closely for Action Alerts on these and other issues requesting your assistance in contacting your legislators to support CAHSAH’s position on matters impacting our industry. Legislator’s hearing from their constituents on these issues is crucial to our advocacy efforts and extremely impactful and appreciated.