AB 229 California Assembly · 2025-2026 Regular Session

Criminal procedure: Sexually transmitted disease testing.

Summary
Existing law authorizes a court to issue a search warrant, at the request of a victim and in specified circumstances, to test the accused's blood or oral mucosal transudate saliva with an HIV test for the primary purpose of informing the victim whether the defendant is infected with the HIV virus. Existing law authorizes a victim to disclose test results received as the victim deems necessary to protect the victim's health and safety or to protect the health and safety of the victim's family or sexual partner. Improper disclosure of test results is a crime. This bill would authorize a search warrant to require testing a defendant for any sexually transmitted disease. The bill would also authorize the parent or guardian of a minor victim or the legal representative of a victim to exercise any of the rights conferred by these provisions, including receiving and disclosing test results. By expanding the definition of a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law, when the defendant has been charged with a specified sex crime, authorizes the court to issue a search warrant for testing when requested by a victim of an uncharged sex offense. This bill would add engaging in sexual acts with a child under 10 years of age and sex with a person confined to a health facility or detention facility to the crimes to which this provision applies. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Bill status failed 1 of 4 stages cleared
Introduction
Jan 2025
Committee Review
Floor Vote
Governor
Introduced Jan 13, 2025 Last action Feb 2, 2026
Maddy AI version diff · 2 comparisons

What changed between versions

01/13/25 - Introduced 02/24/25 - Amended Assembly · 3 edits · Feb 24, 2025
MINOR
The amendment to AB 229 corrects numerous drafting errors in the introduced version where old HIV-specific language was left in alongside newer broader sexually transmitted disease (STD) language, creating duplicated or contradictory text. The bill's substantive policy - authorizing court-ordered STD testing of accused persons in sex offense cases at a victim's request - is unchanged. This is a technical cleanup that makes the text internally consistent.
TECHNICAL

Removed leftover 'HIV' references throughout the bill to make the language consistently refer to 'sexually transmitted disease' broadly (e.g., 'infected with HIV' changed to 'infected with a sexually transmitted disease,' 'request HIV testing' changed to 'request testing,' 'administering all HIV tests' changed to 'administering all tests').

Removed duplicated or contradictory phrases left over from prior amendments, such as 'where when applicable' corrected to 'when applicable,' 'nor or the failure' corrected to 'or the failure,' 'A victim victim' corrected to 'A victim,' and 'any a criminal proceeding' corrected to 'a criminal proceeding.'

Removed leftover text fragments that created incoherent sentences, such as 'with a crime, indictment' corrected to 'or indictment,' 'Neither the (2)' corrected to '(2),' and 'under no circumstances shall test results shall not be transmitted' corrected to 'test results shall not be transmitted.'

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.
Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
10
Key actions
4
Committee
7
Amendments
1
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
Apr 9, 2025
Committee
In committee: Set, first hearing. Referred to APPR. suspense file.
lower
Mar 4, 2025
Lower · Passed
From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 8. Noes 0.) (March 4). Re-referred to Com. on APPR.
lower
Feb 25, 2025
Committee
Re-referred to Com. on PUB. S.
lower
Feb 24, 2025
Introduced
From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on PUB. S. Read second time and amended.
lower
Feb 3, 2025
Committee
Referred to Com. on PUB. S.
lower
Jan 14, 2025
Lower · Passed
From printer. May be heard in committee February 13.
lower
1 primary · 0 co-sponsors

Sponsors

Role
Legislator
Party
State
District
P
Photo of Laurie Davies
Laurie Davies
RRepublican
CA
74