In simultaneous hearings Friday, the Senate and Assembly Appropriations Committees took action on nearly 1,100 bills on their respective suspense files. Measures with cost impacts over the committee-designated Suspense File threshold faced one of three possible outcomes:
- Passed off the Suspense File – often (but not always) with amendments to reduce the bill’s cost impacts – and moved to the floor for consideration by the full house; or,
- Held in Committee – some bills remaining in committee that were pulled by the author or otherwise made a two-year bill may be acted upon next year but must pass out of the house of origin by the end of January 2026.
- Two-Year Bill – bills that were neither held in committee nor advanced to the Floor, thereby allowing continued work on the bill and potential consideration in 2026.
Below is a recap of the actions of the Appropriations Committees on notable measures.
Passed (moves to a floor vote, unless otherwise noted*)
AB 1 (Connolly) would require California Department of Insurance to consider updates to the Safer from Wildfires regulations to include new home and community hardening standards. (SUPPORT)
AB 8 (Aguiar-Curry) would make changes to regulate intoxicating hemp to protect the health and safety of our communities and prevent these untested, untaxed, and unregulated products from undercutting the licensed cannabis market. (SUPPORT)
AB 66 (Tangipa) would exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) fire safety egress projects where the Board of Forestry has suggested creation of a secondary egress route. (SUPPORT)
AB 261 (Quirk-Silva) would authorize the State Fire Marshal, between fire map updates, to consider information provided by specified entities, including local governments, on actions that may impact the degree of fire hazard in an area or the area’s recommended fire hazard severity zone designation. (SUPPORT)
AB 339 (Ortega) would require the governing body of a local public agency (non-school) to provide written notice to the employee organization no less than 120 days prior to issuing a request for proposals, request for quotes, or renewing or extending an existing contract to perform services that are within the scope of work of the job classifications represented by the recognized employee organization. (OPPOSE)
AB 340 (Ahrens) would restrict an employer’s ability to conduct internal investigations to the detriment of employees’ and the public’s safety and well-being, adding new costs and liability for public employers. The substantive provisions of the bill create restrictions mirroring a privilege. (OPPOSE)
AB 353 (Boerner) would require all Internet Service Providers (ISPs) with more than 50,000 subscribers, to offer a low-income service plan of $15 a month to all eligible customers, irrespective of the cost necessary for continued maintenance and operation of the network. (OPPOSE)
AB 429 (Hadwick) would exempt from personal income taxes settlements for costs and losses associated with the 2021 Dixie Fire and the 2022 Mill Fire. (SUPPORT)
AB 441 (Hadwick) would extend two programs that are crucial for the future of California’s wildfire prevention and mitigation goals. (SUPPORT)
* AB 470 (McKinnor) would allow a Carrier of Last Resort (COLR) to be relieved of its telephone service obligations in areas defined as “well-served” or without population, if it meets certain requirements outlined in the bill. (OPPOSE)- *Passed and Referred to Rules Committee
AB 690 (Shultz) would create additional mandates for the provision of indigent defense services, which will result in increased cost pressures to counties statewide. (OPPOSE)
AB 706 (Aguiar-Curry) would establish the Forest Organic Residue Energy and Safety Transformation and Wildfire Prevention Fund (FOREST) Fund which will be used to fund the beneficial use of wood waste that is generated through critical fuel reduction, forest health, and post-fire recovery projects. (SUPPORT)
AB 846 (Connolly) streamlines the process for fuels treatment projects for local governments that require an incidental take of a candidate species. (SUPPORT)
AB 900 (Papan) would require the state 30×30 plan to provide for pathways for science-based management of state-acquired lands. (SUPPORT)
AB 993 (Hadwick) would expand the Rural CUPA Reimbursement Program to provide up to $60,000 annually to an additional 13 small rural counties to cover certified unified program agency implementation costs. Amendments removed provisions that would have increased the maximum annual award to accommodate inflation. (SPONSOR)
AB 998 (Hadwick) would allow schools to manage vapes that are confiscated from students as household hazardous waste (HHW), allows local HHW collection programs to accept those vapes from schools, and allows HHW collection programs to safely disassemble HHW devices to separate and properly manage individual components. (SPONSOR)
AB 1046 (Bains) would exempt food processing facilities from CalRecycle’s SB 1383 edible food recovery regulations. (SUPPORT)
AB 1156 (Wicks) would make changes to update the Williamson Act solar use easement to extend the program to water-constrained agricultural lands. (SUPPORT)
AB 1288 (Addis and Valencia) would extend the time in which local health/environmental health departments may train and employ a local Registered Environmental Health Specialist (REHS) trainee from three years to five years, improves the process to become an REHS trainee and allows more opportunities to take the certification test. (SUPPORT)
AB 1294 (Haney) would require, on or before October 1, 2026, a local jurisdiction to accept a standardized application form for a housing entitlement, developed by the Department of Housing and Community, and would prohibit the local jurisdiction from requiring submission of any other forms, except as specified. (RCRC Position Pending)
AB 1331 (Elhawary) would impose several rules on how public agencies may use surveillance tools including prohibiting local agency from using a surveillance tool in any “off-duty area,” defined to include breakrooms, smoking areas, cafeterias, and lounges. The bill also includes severe financial penalties and allows for private right of action for noncompliance. (OPPOSE)
AB 1337 (Ward) would apply the Information Practices Act of 1977 (“IPA,” or “the Act”) in its entirety to all 58 counties, 483 cities, over 1000 school districts and county offices of education, approximately 2,200 independent special districts, and the hundreds of JPAs, regional bodies, and other public agencies. Recent amendments would also make several changes to the IPA itself that raise new questions about how state and local agencies can continue to operate a variety of programs. (OPPOSE)
AB 1400 (Soria) would require the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges to develop a pilot program to allow up to 15 community college districts to offer a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree. (SUPPORT)
SB 283 (Laird) would require the California Fire Marshal to review and consider incorporating into the next update of the California Building Standards Code the most recently published edition of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 855 standards regarding battery energy storage systems (BESS). The bill requires the developer to certify that the system was designed in accordance with the most recently published edition of NFPA 855 or the California Building Standards Code and to meet and confer with the local fire department responsible for fire suppression before submitting an application for the project. (SUPPORT)
SB 607 (Wiener) would have made long-overdue changes to update the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to reduce duplicative and unnecessary environmental reviews, promote infill development, and prevent CEQA abuse. Amendments gutted the contents of the bill and instead inserted intent language that this issue be dealt with in the budget process. (SPONSOR)
SB 616 (Rubio) would create the Community Hardening Commission within the California Department of Insurance. (SUPPORT)
SB 629 (Durazo) would require cities and counties to designate burn scar areas as very high fire hazards severity zones, as well as established compliance programs for fire protection standards, as defined in the bill. (CONCERNS)
SB 632 (Arreguin) would create a troubling precedent for the workers’ compensation system in general by creating a legal presumption that blood-borne infectious disease, tuberculosis, meningitis, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), COVID-19, cancer, musculoskeletal injury, post-traumatic stress disorder, or respiratory disease are presumptively workplace injuries for up to 10 years for all hospital employees that provide direct care. (OPPOSE)
Held in Committee
AB 240 (Alanis) would have required the California Research Bureau, under the California State Library, to conduct an analysis on the five rural counties wholly or partially outside a community college district (Alpine, Amador, Mariposa, Modoc, and Sierra) and include policy recommendations to ensure residents in those counties can participate in educational opportunities equivalent to similarly sized communities within community college districts. (SPONSOR)
AB 430 (Alanis) would have required the State Water Resources Control Board to conduct a comprehensive economic study assessing the impacts of any nonfee emergency regulation, should the Board adopt a finding that the regulation is no longer necessary. (SUPPORT)
AB 436 (Ransom) would have required the Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation to develop sample general plan goals, policies, and implementation measures and a model ordinance that reflects best practices for the siting of composting facilities. The bill also would have directed local governments to consider those best practices when they perform the next substantive revision of their land use elements on or after January 1, 2029; and, to consider updating land use elements to identify areas where composting facilities may be appropriate as an allowable use. (SUPPORT)
AB 465 (Zbur) would have made significant changes to the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act (MMBA) which would have decreased accountability for public employees, increased local government costs, and disrupted the stability of collective bargaining statewide. (OPPOSE)
AB 626 (Papan) would have exempted operators of a single-walled underground storage tank (UST) from penalties for failure to upgrade to a double-walled UST by December 31, 2025, under certain circumstances. (SUPPORT)
AB 1022 (Kalra) would have deleted critical tools necessary to uphold parking laws and maintain order in our communities by severely limit our ability to enforce parking regulations, causing a cascade of fiscal damage: lost revenue, increased administrative costs, decreased compliance, harm to local businesses, public safety risks, and overall reduced effectiveness of local government operations. (OPPOSE)
AB 1221 (Bryan) would have imposed several rules on how public agencies may use surveillance tools – a term that is vast in its application, including video cameras, badge or fob access, workplace messaging applications, and a wide array of tools used to keep workplaces safe, conduct essential government services, and protect against fraud, waste, and abuse of public resources. (OPPOSE)
SB 223 (Alvarado-Gil) would have facilitated the much-needed development and maintenance of an integrated wildfire smoke and health data platform. (SUPPORT)
SB 282 (Weiner) would have required a local jurisdiction to adopt and offer asynchronous inspections for installations of residential heat pump water heater or heat pump HVAC systems. (RCRC Position Pending)
SB 319 (Ashby) would have mandated data collection and submission of information on local Proposition 36-related impacts – requiring counties to gather and report expansive funding and expenditure data across sheriff and probation departments, potentially encompassing their entire budgets. The bill would have created an expensive work intensive new unfunded mandate. (OPPOSE)
SB 367 (Allen) would have changed 5150 assessment criteria; expand the reasons an individual may be recommended for conservatorship; broaden the referral sources for conservatorship; and restrict the ability of counties to lift conservatorships in certain circumstances. (OPPOSE)
SB 463 (Alvarado-Gil) would have exempted small water suppliers or non-transient noncommunity water systems from metering requirements established under SB 552 if the system is: 1) in the process of applying for state funding, has been determined to be ineligible for state funding, or is not able to obtain state funding because there is no funding available in applicable state programs, and (2) has made a finding that increasing its rates to raise revenue locally is not a feasible option. (SUPPORT)
SB 496 (Hurtado) would have ensured disaster service workers are able to effectively respond to emergency situations, create an Advanced Clean Fleets (ACF) Appeals Advisory Committee, and provide some much needed and common-sense reforms for compliance. (SPONSOR)
SB 696 (Alvarado-Gil) would have provided a state General Fund only sales and use tax exemption for the purchase of firefighting apparatus, equipment, or specialized vehicles by fire departments or fire protection districts. (SUPPORT)
SB 815 (Allen) would have required a jurisdiction’s safety element, upon the next revision of the housing element or the hazard mitigation plan, on or after January 1, 2026, to be reviewed and updated as necessary to include a comprehensive retrofit strategy to improve safety and reduce the risk of property loss and damage during wildfires, and would have required the planning agency to submit the adopted strategy to the Office of Planning and Research for inclusion into the above-described clearinghouse. (CONERNS)
Two-Year Bills Awaiting Further Action in 2026
SB 501 (Allen) would require manufacturers of certain types of products that become household hazardous wastes at the end of their useful lives to participate in a producer responsibility program to provide a free and convenient collection and management system for those products, thereby increasing consumer convenience and reducing local program costs. (SPONSOR)
AB 1198 (Haney) would allow semi-annual changes to prevailing wage for public works projects to be passed down local jurisdiction mid-stream on a project creating unexpected costs and uncertainty in bidding and contracting. Continual change orders during a public works project would make it impossible to predict the actual cost of a project and, consequently, difficult to budget funds accurately. (OPPOSE)
AB 1383 (McKinnor) would make several significant changes to public employees’ retirement benefits, which would ultimately lead to increased pension liability for public agencies. CalPERS estimates the bill increases the present value of future benefits by $5.3 billion for all State, Schools, and Local Agency plans. (OPPOSE)
For more information, contact the RCRC Government Affairs team.