Posted on 09/30/2006 7:18:07 AM PDT by calcowgirl
Among other things, Schwarzenegger signs into law legislation giving discounts on prescription medicines
SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger trumpeted a season of legislative triumphs with a flurry of bill signings Friday, including bills that will affect everyone from low-income prescription drug consumers to hybrid drivers to television watchers to vendors who sell Vietnamese rice cakes.
He signed 179 bills and vetoed 115, leaving around 175 to be signed today, the constitutional deadline to consider legislation. In total, Schwarzenegger has signed 800 bills and vetoed 189.
Whether it was environmental protections, raising the minimum wage or providing discounted prescription drugs, many of the important bills the governor has signed this session have cemented his election-year move to the political center.
Schwarzenegger, who signed the prescription drug bill at the Capitol's rotunda Friday morning, called this "the most productive legislative session in decades."
"I am very happy that this building has gotten its act together," he said, "meaning all of us, my office, the legislators -- we all found the groove where we would work together."
The governor signed 729 bills into law last year and 571 the year before.
Schwarzenegger distanced himself from powerful pharmaceutical manufacturers when he signed the landmark prescription drug bill, which provides steep discounts on brand name and generic medications to an estimated 5.4 million Californians.
The bill extends discounts of as much as 40 percent on brand name drugs and as much as 60 percent on generic drugs to the uninsured and some patients with high medical costs. It expands on the state's current drug discount programs for poor Californians and seniors, which are small and poorly publicized.
The new discount program will cover uninsured Californians who earn less than 300 percent of the federal poverty level, or $60,000 for a family of four. It would also help seniors who have entered the dreaded "doughnut hole" in Medicare's prescription drug benefit, a period of time when they must pay full price for their medications.
Schwarzenegger previously had not supported forcing pharmaceutical makers to offer discounts, preferring a voluntary approach. Many drugmakers offer assistance to low-income patients.
Schwarzenegger also signed AB 774, which prevents hospitals from charging uninsured and underinsured patients high "list prices" for medical care and restricts certain billing practices. The bill covers families earning less than 350 percent of the federal poverty level, or $58,100 annually for a family of three. That helps more people than the hospital industry's current voluntary guidelines covering patients earning less than 300 percent of poverty level.
Schwarzenegger also signed more environment-friendly bills Friday.
"My belief is these are pretty close to where his values are," said Sen. Don Perata, D-Oakland, the Democratic leader in the state Senate and co-author of both bills. "Some will say this was election-year legislation, but these things are pretty dramatic. I think this is where he is. If we can continue this feeling of good will that would be great."
AB 2600, by Assemblyman Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, would allow another 10,000 hybrid cars to obtain permits to enter car-pool lanes with single occupants. The bill continues to allow only alternative fuel vehicles that get 45 mph or better in the lanes and would be phased out by 2011.
He also signed SB 1379, which would set up the nation's first statewide program to measure exposure to toxic chemicals by testing thousands of volunteers. Using an increasingly popular science known as "biomonitoring," the state Department of Health Services will test the blood, urine and other body fluids of residents for pesticides, mercury, lead, flame retardants and other contaminants.
"There are literally thousands of chemicals being used in our everyday products in the United States in cleaning supplies, pesticides, cosmetics and more," Schwarzenegger said. "It's important to know more about how those chemicals are building up in our bodies or how they may be affecting our health."
Schwarzenegger also signed SB 1368, another global warming measure. The bill prohibits California utilities from buying electricity from out-of-state companies unless it was generated through measures that produce the same or fewer greenhouse gas emissions than electricity generated from natural gas-fired power plants.
The governor also signed:
• AB 2897, which opens up competition for television programming to telephone companies. The bill will provide statewide franchises rather than local.
"Consumers have had enough of limited competition, minimal technological advances, mediocre customer service and ever-increasing bills," said Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles. "This new law ends those practices. Cable franchising regulations have stifled competition for long enough."
• SB 1454, which increases penalties for dangerous college hazing from misdemeanor to felony in some cases. By moving hazing from the Education code to the Penal code, the bill, written by Sen. Tom Torlakson, D-Antioch, lets prosecutors bring charges against nonstudents as well as students.
• AB 2283, which would require the Medical Board of California to publish annual data on physicians' foreign language fluency and cultural background.
The bill requires that the information be used to determine which areas of the state are underserved by physicians with cultural or linguistic competency. It would be posted on the Medical Board of California's Web site.
• AB 2214, which would allow traditional Asian delicacies, such as banh chung -- a square rice cake filled with pork meat and green bean paste -- to still be sold at Asian cultural events while the state conducts a food-safety study.
The Department of Health Services will determine, among other things, whether the shelf life for banh tet, banh chung and banh tet chuoi can be safely extended beyond the current standard of four hours.
The rice cakes, public health experts say, are prone to attract bacteria because their ingredients do not withstand time or temperature tests, even though they could be wrapped with one layer of banana leaves and another of plastic wrap.
• AB 1870, which requires a visual smoke test during automobile smog checks. The measure, by Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, D-San Jose, requires that any vehicle emitting visible smog from its tailpipe -- usually caused by burning oil -- would fail a smog check.
In other action, Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill, AB 2108, that would have required children younger than 8 to sit in booster seats; another, AB 1677, that would have allowed nonprofit or public health care agencies to distribute condoms to inmates; and another, AB 2862, that would have limited the number of mice kept in pet shop cages.
When they say "Move to center", do they mean he is becoming more conservative???
Mao------Hillary-----Arnold------Specter----McCain-----Bush-----McClintock
I think they mean he is moving to the center of the Democratic Party ideology.
After all, Phil only has 60% of the D vote. ;-)
Arnie needs another 10% and then he will be in the "center".
The Austrian Actor is fortunate to have an unknown Moonbat challlegning him. If DiFi or even Gray Davis challenged him, Arnold would be terminated.
That's a pretty big center.
Did you hear about the "new" 20 Billion Dollar debt we're going into (health care)? What happened to that "credit card" he was supposed to tear up?
they mean he is moving to the center of the Democratic Party ideology.
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Yup.. He never left them, imo, we tried to warn folks, but some are so infatuated with Hollywood and special effects.. you know the rest of the story.
It even says in the Bible:"by their fruits ye shall know them!"
My "Disgustometer" is pegged out!!! (so's my pistoffometer)
"they mean he is moving to the center of the Democratic Party ideology."
He moved the center so far to the left that the democrats are now right wing.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
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