Making A Difference for You

CPF continued to advocate on behalf of our members in Sacramento by advancing a robust legislative package for the first half of the 2023-2024 legislative session. CPF sponsored legislation to address ambulance patient offload delay, enhance cancer research in the fire service, and strengthen access to treatment for post-traumatic stress. These measures represent monumental wins for both firefighters and the communities they protect across California.

CPF-sponsored legislation signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom

AB 40: Stopping Dangerous Ambulance Delays
(Author: Asm. Freddie Rodriguez)

Holds hospitals accountable for excessive ambulance patient offload time (APOT) by ensuring every Local EMS Agency (LEMSA) adopts an APOT standard that does not exceed 30 minutes 90% of the time. For more information on AB 40, see p. 12.

SB 623: PTSI Presumption Extension
(Author: Sen. John Laird)

Ensures that firefighters and other public safety officers will continue to have access to the workers’ compensation presumption for post-traumatic stress by extending the sunset until January 1, 2029. Additionally, this measure directs the state to examine the need for expanding the presumption to public safety dispatchers.

AB 1020: 1937 Act Disability Retirement
(Author: Asm. Tim Grayson)

Creates consistency between CalPERS members and 1937 Act County Retirement System members by ensuring the existing workers’ compensation presumptions are reflected in the Government Code and are used when County Retirement Systems consider applications for a disability retirement. This ensures that firefighters who must retire because of work-related injuries are not forced to re-litigate their injuries under a different standard.

AB 767: Community paramedicine sunset extension
(Author: Asm. Mike Gipson)

This measure extends the sunset on the operation of community paramedicine programs authorized by AB 1544 (Gipson, 2020). These programs are critical tools for firefighters and EMS professionals seeking to provide enhanced care to their communities. This bill additionally authorizes the post-discharge follow-up specialty.

AB 621: Worker’s compensation: Special death benefit for state safety members
(Author: Asm. Jacqui Irwin)

Ensures equity in death benefits by permitting the families of CAL FIRE firefighters and the families of other state safety officers who die in the line of duty to access both the CalPERS special death benefits as well as workers’ compensation death benefits, creating parity between state and municipal service.

SB 374: License plate fee
(Author: Sen. Angelique Ashby)

This measure increases the cost of renewing a firefighter license plate by $5, raising funds to expand the California Firefighters Memorial to add more names to the memorial wall for future line-of-duty deaths.

Constitutional Amendment – Heading for the Ballot
ACA 1: Local government financing: affordable housing and public infrastructure: voter approval
(Author: Asm. Cecilia Aguiar-Curry)

If adopted by the voters in November of 2024, this measure would reduce the vote threshold to raise funding for “public safety buildings or facilities, equipment related to fire suppression, emergency response equipment, or communications equipment for exclusive use by fire, emergency response, police, or sheriff personnel” from 2/3 to 55%.

AB 700: CA Firefighter Cancer Prevention Research

(Author: Asm. Tim Grayson)

AB 700 establishes the groundbreaking California Firefighter Cancer Prevention and Research Program. Working in coordination with the FIRESCOPE Cancer Prevention Subcommittee, the University of California will utilize fire service community-based participatory research methods to examine the causes and early warning signs of cancer in firefighters. This research – driven by the fire service – stands to revolutionize our understanding of how cancer develops, and provide actionable information for study participants to reduce their risk.