Tracking state bills

Resources

• (Legiscan) CA Legislation /2025-2026/ Regular Session
• (Indivisible StateStrong) Policy Prioritization
• (leginfo.ca) California Legislation Information
• (CalMatters) Digital Democracy – Explainers and bills divided by education, health, environment, justice, housing, poverty.

• Timeline
  1. Feb 21 – Last Day for Bills to be introduced
  2. Feb 28 – CASS Nominations Due
  3. Mar 3 – Bills’ vetting
  4. Mar 18 – Voting ends

Research being done so far…

No notes yet from Democracy Reform, or Economic Justice

1. Criminal Reform
   • Potential Bills: Dream Builders Alliance Potential Bills
     1. AB 85 – referred to public safety
     2. Diversion program by Ehlawary sponsored by Vera Institute
     3. Kalra CA Racial Justice Act 2025
     4. Involuntary servitude bill – Lori Wilso introducing ACA 6 again
     5. AB 15 – Prevents CDCR from collaborating with Dept. of Homeland was referred to Public Safety & Judiciary
     6. SB 48 – Prevents ICE from entering schools without a judicial warrant referred to Education & Public Safety
     7. AB 18 – OPPOSE CA Secure Borders Act
     8. SB 12 – Establish the office of Immigrant & Refugee Affairs 
     9. SB 277 – Requires an officer to get consent before searching
2. Health: 200+ bills found related to “health”
   • Some of them are spot bills 
   • *** AB 4: Covered California Expansion (Arambula) – Sylvie
   • Per Arambula, this is still the main difficult bill they have. Probably a contender for top 5. – ASSIGNED to health committee
   • The access to MediCal for all undocumented people meeting financial requirements (previous AB4s) has been included into the January’s governor’s budget
   • CAN WE GET THIS GRANDFATHERED IN AS A PRIORITY BILL? – Sylvie & Isabel, Louise. No word yet – Dennessa out of office til Feb. 18.
   • Louise to draft email and send to S & I
   • AB-29: Medi-Cal: Adverse Childhood Experiences trauma screenings: providers (Arambula) – Sylvie –  ASSIGNED to health committee
   • No more info, but will try again. Smaller bill.
   • She has reached out to people but no response yet.z
   • AB 37: Workforce development: mental health service providers: homelessness
   • AB 40: Emergency Services and Care (Bonta) – amend Section 1317.1 of the Health and Safety Code, relating to health care, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately – pending referral – Faye – text make sure people are not turned away because of their immigration status
   • Would go into effect immediately – “urgency bill”
   • AB 45: Privacy: health care data (Bauer-Kahan) – Sylvie / Isabel
   • FACT SHEET
   • AB 50: Pharmacists: furnishing contraceptives (Bonta) Making it easier to get contraceptives
     • Not letting pharmacists making decisions about contraceptives people can have
     • “Urgency bill” 
   • AB 54: Access to Safe Abortion Care Act (Krell, Aguiar-Curry): 
     • The bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would ensure access to medication abortion.
   • AB 55: Alternative Birth Centers; licensing & Medical-Cal reimbursement
     • Expands pregnancy leave benefits for public school educators to 14 weeks of fully paid leave for pregnancy and pregnancy-related health conditions.
     • PRESS RELEASE
     • AB 67: Attorney General: Reproductive Privacy Act (Bauer-Kahan): enforcement Isabel
       • This bill would authorize the Attorney General, if it appears to them that a person has engaged, or is about to engage, in a violation of the Reproductive Privacy Act, to bring an action to enjoin the acts or practices or to enforce compliance with the act.
       • FACT SHEET
   • AB 224 (Bonta) – SB 62 (Menjivar)- Essential health Benefits
     • Making sure everything from ACA stays in – nothing goes lower
     • Informational hearing on the 11th
   • AB 260 (Aguiar-Curry) Act Sexual and reproductive healthcare
     • This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation to ensure that patients can continue to access care, including abortion, gender-affirming care, and other sexual and reproductive health care in California, and to allow patients to access care through asynchronous modes.
   • *** AB 280 (Aguiar-Curry) Health care coverage: provider directories.
     • FACT SHEET
     • PRESS RELEASE
   • Assembly Bill 280, to improve the accuracy of health plan provider directories and make it easier for Californians to access the care they need.
     • To regulate pharmacy benefit managers – ASSIGNED to health and judiciary committees
   • SB 62 (Menjivar)- AB 224 (Bonta) – Essential health Benefits – Faye
     • Informational hearing today generated lengthy documents 
     • The intent of the bill is to require California insurers to maintain all services required by ACA, federal changes notwithstanding
     • Numerous NGOs testified in support of specific services in addition to those specified by ACA
   • SB 81 Health facilities: information sharing (Arrequin) – Sylvie
     • Probably will be easy –  May not cost anything. Anti-Trump.  ASSIGNED to rules committee
     • PREVIEW bills that may be coming up – coalition members, legislators we’ve worked with
     • BILLS ON OTHER SUBJECTS
     • AB 15: State government: immigration and enforcement  
     • AB 325 (Aguiar-Curry)
     • a coalition-backed bill designed to hold providers and users of price-fixing algorithms accountable for undermining competition, raising prices, and restricting the supply of essential goods across California’s
     • PRESS RELEASE
     • SB 48: Immigration enforcement: Schoolsites
     • OPPOSE: 10-bill package by Asm Carl DeMaio
     • AB 60: Cosmetic Safety
     • AB 65: School & community college employees: paid disability & parental leave
     • Strong focus of Health Access
     • Was AB 236 last year, died. 
     • SB 6: Controlled substances: xylazine
     • SB 18: Food access
     • SB 20: Occupational safety: fabrication activities on stone slab products
     • SB 32: Maternity Ward closures (Weber Pierson) – Faye – Spot bill
     • SB 39: Cosmetic safety: vaginal or vulvar products
     • SB 40: Health care coverage: insulin -Nancy
     • Contacted person at Wiener’s office  – may not need a lot of support – may need to push NEWSOM (who vetoed it last year) 
     • *** SB 41: Pharmacy benefits (Wiener)  – Nancy (Louise)
     • Contacted person at Wiener’s office – FACT SHEET
     • Much harder lift than drive.google.com/file/d/14EQh9oSzXXicKR7xDAj80FOBDYCWRCX9/view?usp=sharing
3. Environmental Bills
   • Updates:
     • Green Amendment: Mary is working to get information from the Green Amendment Org. ACA: amendment to the state constitution the right to clean air, water, livable environment; framework to hang lawsuits on
       • MT successful lawsuit; other states have passed these as well
       • National movement to get these in; NM working on this now & supported by national organization
       • We may need to find someone else sponsor it; Asm. Bryan from LA with a lot going on related to fires etc. 
       • https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/montana-supreme-court-upholds-state-judges-landmark-ruling-in-youth-climate-case
       • Green Amendments For the Generations (GAFTG) is an independent 501(c)(3) established in 2019 and the leading organization working nationwide to advance a Green Amendment Movement, constitutional environmental rights amendments, state by state and ultimately at the federal level. https://forthegenerations.org/
     • Make Polluters Pay
       • Make Polluters Pay got killed last year but has a lot of wind in its sails now (this was recorded; note that first half of the meeting was climate storytelling vs policy): Here’s the recording of the recent Make Polluters Pay mass meeting
         • https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hQLONw41h_W_JlXJ7egaOPGgr162iiEt/view?usp=sharing
         • Next Make Polluters Pay CA Mass meeting Feb 24
       • NY State just passed similar legislation—Hochul signed on last day! 
       • Will be introduced in the Assembly but also will be introduced to Senate also
       • Petition for Make Polluters Pay petition: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/californians-make-polluters-pay
       • Sign up to get email updates:
         https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdKXKhK3LNXnNrVjJ4G1SqXYnwRhY54xDl8h8LUwnIfbCmHHw/viewform
     • AB-303 Battery Energy Safety Accountability: requirements for siting requirements and safety procedures for battery energy storage systems (BESS) (and to prevent & mitigate lithium battery fires)
       • Rooftop Solar: SB 1374 got through Senate & Assembly: schools, multi-use dwellings, farms to be able to generate their own electricity through solar; vetoed by Newsom. No word on bringing it back; may need to wait until Newsom leaves office.
       • Cost shift argument: utilities arguing that non-solar users help subsidize the cost of solar for wealthier families who can afford rooftop solar; this has been shown to be false 
       • Single-Payer healthcare not coming back next year; seems to be a lot of coordination or alignment
       • For other bills, meet with your own CA State electeds to ask what they’re working on! 
     • 1/23/25
       • Potential priority bills
       • OPPOSE regional grid “pathways” bill, Center for Biological Diversity actively supporting
       • Susan working with Asm Damon Connolly on proposing wildfire prevention bill to address the highest level causes of wildfires (utilities to maintain power lines, housing legislation to stop building in the urban wildlife interface, expanding rooftop solar)
       • SUPPORT Green Amendment Asm Bryan has not yet made a decision on whether he will re-introduce for this year’s session
       • SUPPORT Make Polluters Pay separate coalition group has been meeting on this, may not need to take this on since it already has lots of support including Center for Biological Diversity

The CA legislative calendar