Friday morning, the State Assembly and Senate began the final push to the finish line of the legislative year with the final Appropriations Committee “suspense” hearings of 2025. For the Fall suspense hearings, bills from the other house with a significant cost to the state were set aside in the last few weeks, and their outcome was determined today.
The Suspense Hearings are a notably opaque step in the legislative process, and bills can be passed, “held” (meaning they advance no further), unilaterally amended by the committee, amended by the author, or paused to be revisited in January. The Assembly Appropriations Committee dispensed with 261 Senate Bills, allowing 190 to advance. The Senate Appropriations Committee dispensed with 425 Assembly Bills, allowing 309 to advance.
The Legislature will reconvene on Tuesday following the Labor Day holiday and will have until midnight on Friday September 12th to pass legislation for this calendar year, although legislative leaders have acknowledged that there will almost certainly be a special session to reevaluate the state’s budget, due to federal actions. The last day for changes to be made to legislation is Tuesday September 9th. Governor Newsom will have until October 12th to act on legislation passed by both houses.
Below is a summary of the actions of the Appropriations Committees on notable measures on which RCRC has been engaged:
Passed out of Senate Appropriations
AB 1 (Connolly) – would require the California Department of Insurance to consider inclusion of new wildfire hardening requirements in the Safer from Wildfires regulations. (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 28 (Schiavo) – would require landfill operators to continuously monitor and disclose landfill gas temperatures and take corrective measures if temperatures exceed specified levels for certain periods of time. RCRC has worked closely with the author to refine the measure to protect communities while ensuring it is implementable and not overly burdensome. RCRC opposed the measure but will reconsider that position in light of pending amendments.
AB 258 (Connolly) – would increase the amount of total gross receipts to be included in the next annual Governor’s Budget for use by CDFA and transferred to the Fair and Exposition Fund. Represents an increase from ¾ of 1% to 2% as part of the existing CDTFA gross receipts collected. (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 60 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 and allows employee organization to demand a meet and confer regarding a contract. Author amendments in committee to remove the meet and confer provisions and narrow the notice provisions. (OPPOSE)
AB 411 (Papan) – would allow the on-site composting of specified quantities of livestock for activities that adhere to best management practices. RCRC worked to clarify the scope of the measure and mitigate adverse public health and safety impacts of those activities. (NEUTRAL)
AB 531 (Rogers) – would expand the scope of the California Energy Commission’s AB 205 opt-in permitting program to include smaller geothermal power projects under 50MW. (OPPOSE)
AB 538 (Berman) – would require the awarding body, if the public makes a request through the awarding body and the body is not in possession of the certified payroll records, to obtain those records from the relevant contractor and make them available to the requesting entity. Currently, the law requires the Division of Labor Standards and Enforcement (DLSE), rather than awarding bodies, to penalize contractors or subcontractors for failing to respond to a records request from either an awarding body or the DLSE. Despite this reality, the bill requires local agencies to seek out records not in their possession and lacks any language to compel the only body with enforcement powers, DLSE, to seek out the records. (OPPOSE)
AB 900 (Papan) – would require the California Natural Resources Agency to provide recommendations for appropriate management of acquired lands under California’s 30×30 policy. (SUPPORT)
AB 993 (Hadwick) – would expand eligibility for CalEPA’s Rural CUPA Reimbursement Program, which provides $60,000 annually to small county CUPA implementation programs. The measure would expand the program to include all counties with a population of less than 150,000 residents. (SPONSOR/SUPPORT)
AB 1156 (Wicks) – would expand the Williamson Act’s solar use easement to include water-constrained lands. RCRC supported the measure and is seeking further refinements to the definition of what constitutes ‘water constrained’ lands to ensure that productive agricultural lands remain in agricultural production.
AB 1285 (Emergency Management Committee) – would require the State Fire Marshal to develop fire prevention, response, and recovery measures for lithium-ion battery storage facilities. (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, would improve the process to become a REHS trainee and would allow more opportunities to take the certification test. (SUPPORT)
AB 1293 (Wallis) – would improve the quality of medical-legal evaluations necessary to resolve disputes in the workers’ compensation system. (SUPPORT)
AB 1331 (Elhawary) – would impose several rules on how public agencies may use surveillance tools, including prohibiting local agencies from using a surveillance tool in any specified “off-duty area.” The bill also includes financial penalties. (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)
Passed out of Assembly Appropriations
SB 7 (McNerney) – would impose notice, use, and appeal requirements on an employer that uses an automated decision system that affects workers. (OPPOSE)
SB 31 (McNerney) – would make changes to the Water Recycling Law, offering additional flexibility for the definition of “recycled water” in parks, food handling and processing facilities, and irrigation of residential landscaping, subject to certain limitations as defined in the measure. (SUPPORT)
SB 72 (Caballero) – would require revisions of the California Water Plan to expand membership of the advisory committee and to better represent urban, agricultural, and tribal uses in the 2033 plan update that would also include targets for 2050. (SUPPORT)
SB 254 (Becker), among other things, would extend the sunset date of the California Energy Commission’s AB 205 opt-in permitting program, expand the scope of that program to include clean energy manufacturing and assembly projects with a capital investment of between $100-$250 million, and establish a rebuttable presumption that battery energy storage facilities will have a net positive economic benefit to the host jurisdiction. (OPPOSE)
SB 359 (Niello) – would clarify that the sales and use tax exemptions for fuels such as diesel and compressed natural gas (CNG), that apply to public transit operators providing public transit services, also apply to counties that have and run their own transit system and use these fuels to power their county-owned transit buses. (SUPPORT)
SB 378 (Wiener) – would allow consumers to seek civil penalties against online marketplaces that advertise illicit intoxicating hemp and cannabis products. Additionally, would help prevent minors from accessing dangerous synthetic intoxicating hemp products by requiring a reporting mechanism on the online marketplace for consumers to report illicit advertisements, and a disclaimer to the consumer that the retailer has been known to sell illicit products. (SUPPORT)
SB 485 (Reyes) – would change the public defender’s employment status from at-will to one in which removal may only occur by a majority vote of the local board of supervisors and only for neglect of duty, malfeasance, misconduct in office, or other good cause. (OPPOSE)
SB 487 (Grayson) – would limit the right of public agency employers, including the State of California, to recover the cost of providing workers’ compensation benefits when a law enforcement officer or firefighter is injured at work and a third party is partially or entirely responsible. (OPPOSE)
SB 615 (Allen) – would establish a framework for the management and recycling of electric vehicle batteries. (SUPPORT)
SB 616 (Rubio) – would create the Community Hardening Commission at the California Department of Insurance. (SUPPORT)
SB 629 (Durazo) – would place additional requirements on defensible space inspections and fire zone mapping. (CONCERNS)
SB 707 (Durazo) – would represent a balanced approach in the modernization of the Brown Act with a variety of changes designed to improve public participation in local government meetings, expand accessibility for members and the public, and includes several provisions that address the needs of local governments. (SUPPORT)
SB 710 (Blakespear) – would allow those facilities that currently enjoy solar property tax exclusions to continue to receive those property tax benefits beyond the exclusion’s 2026 sunset date. The bill was amended to remove provisions extending that property tax exclusion for behind-the-meter solar projects up to 1MW in size. (NEUTRAL)
SB 769 (Caballero) – would establish the Golden State Infrastructure Corporation under the State Treasurer’s Office to direct funding toward major infrastructure projects. Would allow the Corporation as a non-profit entity to utilize both public and private sources of funds, and would treat the entity as separate from I-Bank. (SUPPORT)
Held in Senate Appropriations
AB 340 (Ahrens) – would have restricted 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 470 (McKinnor) – would have created a path for telecoms to be released from Carrier of Last Resort (COLR) obligations under specified conditions. (REMOVED OPPOSITION)
AB 690 (Shultz) – would have created additional mandates for the provision of indigent defense services, including the elimination of flat-rate contracts, which will result in increased cost pressures to counties statewide. Made a 2-year bill by the author. (OPPOSE)
AB 846 (Connolly) – would have streamlined the incidental take permitting process for local governments undertaking fuels treatment projects. (SUPPORT)
AB 902 (Schultz) – would have required wildlife crossings to be incorporated into transportation infrastructure projects. (OPPOSE UNLESS AMENDED)
AB 998 (Hadwick) – would have directed the Department of Toxic Substances Control to explore pathways to facilitate the safe and convenient disposal of vapes confiscated from students by schools. The bill would have also reduced local hazardous waste management costs by allowing local agencies to safely disassemble household hazardous waste. (SPONSOR/SUPPORT)
AB 1109 (Kalra) – would have inhibited an employer’s ability to conduct investigations to the detriment of employees’ and the public’s safety and well-being; added new costs and liability for public employers; and interfered with administrative and judicial proceedings necessary to protect the public’s interest and public agencies’ duty to be responsible stewards of public funds. (OPPOSE)
Held in Assembly Appropriations
SB 74 (Seyarto) – would have developed an infrastructure gap fund to help facilitate the final funding pieces for major infrastructure projects. Would have required investment from local jurisdictions and specify certain requirements under which gap funding would be utilized. (SUPPORT)
SB 445 (Wiener) – would have required the High-Speed Rail Authority to develop and adopt internal rules by July 1, 2026, setting forth standards and timelines to engage utilities to ensure coordination and cooperation in relocating utility infrastructure or otherwise resolving utility conflicts affecting the delivery of the high-speed rail project. Would have attempted to specify language defining betterments, which would determine cost requirements for either the Authority or a local jurisdiction. (OPPOSE)
SB 601 (Allen) – would have altered certain NPDES permitting requirements, defined “nexus waters” as they relate to navigable Waters of the United States, and would have authorized the Attorney General and the state board to bring an action to enforce certain provisions related to nexus waters or waste discharge requirements for nexus waters. (MADE 2 YEAR BILL, OPPOSE)
For more information, contact the RCRC Government Affairs Team.