In simultaneous hearings on May 14, the Senate and Assembly Appropriations Committees acted on 978 bills from their respective suspense files. Measures with cost impacts over the committee-designated Suspense File threshold faced two 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 from which they must pass by the end of May; or,
- Held in Committee – Bills held in committee are effectively dead for the 2025-26 legislative session.
Below is a recap of the actions of the Appropriations Committees on notable measures.
Passed (moves to a floor vote)
AB 736 (Wicks) would authorize the issuance of $10 billion to fund affordable rental housing and home ownership programs. (PENDING)
AB 1564 (Ahrens) would restrict public employer ability to conduct internal investigations by essentially mirroring attorney-client privilege protections for communication between an employee and their union rep. Reintroduction of a bill that has failed 6 times previously. (OPPOSE)
AB 1576 (Ortega) competing proposal on Subsequent Injuries Benefits Trust Fund (SIBTF) reform parallel to the Budget Trailer Bill Language advancing that public agencies are supporting. Unlike the Budget Bill language, this bill does not go far enough to make necessary changes to a program that has inadvertently been expanded far beyond its original intent. (OPPOSE)
AB 1679 (Gonzalez) would require a jurisdiction to allow temporary commercial activation for a pop-up small business. (PENDING)
AB 1710 (Solache) would include materials requirements, post entitlement permit standards, and any rules, regulations, determinations, and other requirements adopted by public agencies in the Housing Accountability Act. (PENDING)
AB 1711 (Connolly) would allow money in the Fair and Exposition Fund to be used on emergency services improvement projects at fairgrounds. (SUPPORT)
AB 1738 (Carrillo) would require a jurisdiction to offer remote building inspections. (PENDING)
AB 1859 (Ortega) would create a new mandate on local agencies to allow representatives of a joint labor-management committee (JLMC) to access active public works job sites to ensure compliance with existing prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements. (OPPOSE UNLESS AMENDED)
AB 1883 (Bryan) would restrict workplace surveillance tools used for security and basic operations, intended to defend employee rights that existing remedies already protect. (OPPOSE)
AB 1961 (Ahrens) would authorize an employer to seek a workplace violence restraining order on behalf of all employees at the employer’s workplace. (SUPPORT)
AB 1964 (Bennett) would require a county recorder to maintain construction records related to home hardening and to share, upon request, construction records related to home hardening in a state or local responsibility area with the Office of the State Fire Marshal. (PENDING)
AB 1997 (Lee) would require approval or disapproval of a housing development project within 30 days from the date of certification by the lead agency of the environmental impact report (EIR). (OPPOSE)
AB 2026 (Aguiar-Curry) would make changes to permitting processes for groundwater recharge projects, including changes related to diversion of “floodflows” for groundwater recharge without a permit and minor applications to divert water to underground storage within or upstream of the Delta. (PENDING)
AB 2218 (Kalra) would impose broad new requirement for government-to-government tribal consultation on water issues. (OPPOSE)
AB 2310 (Carrillo) would allow for prosecution of those dumping on property where a permit for those activities was required but not obtained. Also imposes significant consequences on landowners and transporters who illegally dump more than 25 cubic yards of construction debris. (SUPPORT)
AB 2494 (Rogers) would redefine “management” for purposes of state demonstration forests, in a way that would change the intent of the program and shift away from sustainable timber operations. (OPPOSE)
AB 2605 (Arambula) would require each county to collect and report certain information about public defender services. (OPPOSE UNLESS AMENDED)
AB 2656 (Petrie-Norris) would create a broad new mandate for public agencies to serve 45 days notice to employee organizations about the use of Generative AI tools. (OPPOSE UNLESS AMENDED)
AB 2667 (Hadwick) requires the Department of Toxic Substances Control to evaluate opportunities to increase the safety and convenience related to the management of vapes confiscated by schools from students. Allows local household hazardous waste management collection facilities to safely disassemble vapes and separately manage the individual components. Bans the sale of disguised vapes and video game vapes. (SPONSOR)
SB 877 (Pérez) would require home insurers to provide all documents related to a fire insurance claim upon policy holder request (SUPPORT)
SB 894 (Allen) would establish the California Wildfire Resilience Loan Program to administer projects and activities for wildfire mitigation. (SUPPORT)
SB 899 (Grove) would require the Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force to study the health costs and impacts of wildfire smoke. (SUPPORT)
SB 936 (Blakespear) would ban the sale of all flavored nitrous oxide and unflavored nitrous oxide in cylinders larger than 8 grams, with limited exemption for legitimate business and medical purposes. (SPONSOR)
SB 947 (McNerney) would limit the use of automated decision systems to inform disciplinary and/or termination actions, reintroduction of a bill vetoed by the Governor last year. (OPPOSE)
SB 951 (Reyes) would impose new notice requirement on job changes due to new technology adoption, with steep civil penalties for violations. Duplicative of existing meet and confer requirements for job changes. (OPPOSE UNLESS AMENDED)
SB 1016 (Blakespear) would allow a CARE court petitioner to initiate an LPS Act proceeding if the subject is unwilling or unable to participate in the CARE court process, duplicating a power that county behavioral health workers already have. (OPPOSE)
SB 1075 (Reyes) would restrict a local government’s land use planning authority and require the environmental justice element of the general plan to comply with an applicable community emissions reduction program (OPPOSE UNLESS AMENDED)
SB 1116 (Caballero) would prohibit a local agency from imposing front or internal setbacks, or height limits based on floors rather than the physical height of a building. (PENDING)
SB 1135 (Blakespear) would create the Wildlife Coexistence Program, which would fund a Wolf-Livestock Coexistence and Compensation Program. At least 50 percent of program funding would go to providing equipment and information on practices used to proactively and nonlethally deter wolf attacks on livestock. (SUPPORT IF AMENDED)
SB 1230 (Valladares) would increase the maximum penalties for second and subsequent violations of illegal dumping laws, requires CalRecycle to develop a website with resources to help local governments combat illegal dumping, including educational materials, best practices, enforcement tools, and grant opportunities. (SUPPORT)
SB 1283 (Ashby) would limit the ability of local governments to impose safety standards on EV charging canopy approvals (OPPOSE UNLESS AMENDED)
SB 1305 (Richardson) would create a pathway for reintroducing the Grizzly Bear in California, preemptively bans take on Grizzlies for property damage and livestock predation. (OPPOSE)
SB 1326 (Wahab) would expand the universe of tribal cultural resources for purposes of tribal consultation under CEQA and requirements for mitigation of impacts on those resources. (OPPOSE UNLESS AMENDED)
SB 1329 (McNerney) would establish a new assessment process for certain solar energy systems for purposes of calculating property tax revenues owed to local schools, counties, cities, and special districts. (OPPOSE)
SB 1382 (Alvarado-Gil) would require Caltrans officials to notify local officials about their proposed schedule for reopening mountain pass state highways by April 1 of each year. (SUPPORT)
Held in Committee
AB 1708 (Solache) would allow a smaller jurisdiction to be allocated funds from a larger regional grant received under Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention program (HHAP) round 8. (PENDING)
AB 1898 (Schultz) would impose onerous disclosure requirements on employers that broadly defined “workplace AI tools” may be in use, including disclosures about tools that detect fraud or abuse. (OPPOSE)
AB 1923 (Soria) would allocate an additional $300 million to continue the Distressed Hospital Loan Program. (SUPPORT)
AB 2027 (Ward) would effectively ban the use of an AI tool by a public agency, with a vaguely defined requirement that AI tools not change an employee’s workflow and very steep civil penalties for violations. (OPPOSE)
AB 2064 (Sharp-Collins) would add criminal history to the list of protected characteristics under the Unruh Civil Rights Act. (PENDING)
AB 2170 (Ward) would require preparation of an environmental impact report and other documents under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) for many “industrial” projects located in or near an “overburdened community.” Additional written and oral translation requirements upon request. Requires notification of CEQA public hearings to people living within ½ mile and schools within 1 mile of the project site. (OPPOSE)
AB 2447 (Bauer-Kahan) would greatly increase reporting requirements and compliance costs on the Agricultural community for water quality monitoring and using irrigation, despite existing protections and requirements being in place. (OPPOSE)
AB 2517 (Calderon) would require stakeholder and public participation in the State Fire Marshall’s process for updating fire hazard severity zone maps. (PENDING)
AB 2530 (Caloza) would extend the WARN Act layoff notice requirement to public agencies. (OPPOSE)
AB 2569 (Hart) would expand CEQA to require consideration and mitigation of a direct or indirect exposure of people to a natural hazard or adverse environmental condition. (OPPOSE)
AB 2574 (Alanis) would require all cities and counties to comply with a state hearing and appeal framework for dealing with dangerous dogs. (CONCERNS)
SB 1097 (Wiener) would create a CEQA exemption for advanced reconductoring projects to increase the capacity of existing electrical transmission lines. (SPONSOR)
SB 1182 (Allen) would, for safety elements updated on or after January 1, 2028, require the safety element to include the availability of insurance for existing and planned uses within very high fire hazard severity zones and in state responsibility areas. (WATCH)
SB 1318 (Allen) would strengthen the authority of local governments within the California Coastal Zone to regulate, restrict, or prohibit unhosted short-term rentals (STRs). (SUPPORT)
SB 1319 (Durazo) creates new disclosure requirements on Public Investment Funds for certain kinds of investments that would be difficult to comply with and would effectively eliminate some investment options. (OPPOSE)
SB 1404 (Stern) would reinstate the State Responsibility Area (SRA) fee that was suspended as part of the 2017 Cap-and-Invest deal. (OPPOSE)
For more information, contact the RCRC Government Affairs team.