AB 1173 California Assembly · 2025-2026 Regular Session

Public Utilities Commission: organization.

Summary

Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission with regulatory authority over public utilities, as defined. Existing law establishes within the commission an ethics officer within the legal division of the commission who is designated by the general counsel of the commission. Existing law requires the ethics officer to institute a program of enhanced ethics training for all commissioners and employees of the commission and to provide confidential advice to commissioners and employees of the commission relative to the commission's Conflict of Interest Code, Statement of Incompatible Activities, and limitations on ex parte communications. This bill would require the commission, on or before July 1, 2026, to establish an online portal or email address to report ethics concerns to the commission. This bill would prohibit a staff member who is employed by the commission from working on a proceeding at the commission for which the staff member, before their employment by the commission, was listed on a formal filing for the proceeding or sponsored testimony within the proceeding.

Bill status failed 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Feb 2025

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Feb 21, 2025 Last action Feb 2, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 3 comparisons

What changed between versions

05/05/25 - Amended Assembly → AB1173 · 2 edits

MINOR

The diff between these two versions is primarily a formatting and presentation change, converting from a plain-text legislative document to a web-page rendering of the same bill. The only substantive policy change is a minor clarification in Section 307.3, where the phrase 'while employed at the office' was replaced with the full name 'while employed at the Public Advocate's Office of the Public Utilities Commission' for precision.

TECHNICAL

Section 307.3 changed the reference from 'the office' to the full name 'the Public Advocate's Office of the Public Utilities Commission' when describing the prior employment context that triggers the recusal requirement. This is a drafting clarification, not a policy change.

The document was reformatted from a plain-text legislative bill layout into a web-page presentation with navigation elements, search tools, and metadata headers. No substantive content was added or removed beyond the one-word-phrase clarification above.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Amendments

Feb 2, 2026

Lower · Passed

From committee: Filed with the Chief Clerk pursuant to Joint Rule 56.

lower

May 23, 2025

Lower · Passed

In committee: Held under submission.

lower

May 14, 2025

Committee

In committee: Set, first hearing. Referred to APPR. suspense file.

lower

May 6, 2025

Committee

Re-referred to Com. on APPR.

lower

May 5, 2025

Lower · Passed

Read second time and amended.

lower

May 1, 2025

Introduced

From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 18. Noes 0.) (April 30).

lower

Mar 26, 2025

Committee

Re-referred to Com. on U. & E.

lower

Mar 25, 2025

Introduced

From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on U. & E. Read second time and amended.

lower

Mar 24, 2025

Committee

Referred to Com. on U. & E.

lower

Feb 22, 2025

Lower · Passed

From printer. May be heard in committee March 24.

lower

Feb 21, 2025

Introduced

Introduced. To print.

lower

1 primary · 0 co-sponsors