The Political Reform Act of 1974: late filing of reports.

Header changed from Senate Bill format with passage dates and clerk signatures to authenticated chaptered law format (Chapter 159) with Governor approval date of August 27, 2026.

Page numbering changed from 'SB 1389' references to 'Ch. 159' references throughout the document.

Legislative counsel's digest was reformatted with different indentation but contains identical text.

Removed the sentence 'Liability under this section shall not exceed the cumulative amount stated in the late statement or report, or one hundred dollars ($100), whichever is greater' from subsection (b) of both Section 1 and Section 2. This language was redundant because specific liability caps are now established in subsection (a)(1)(B).

Removed the phrase 'to the officer with whom the statement or report is required to be filed' from subsection (a)(1)(A) of both Section 1 and Section 2, since that information is already stated in subsection (b).

New maximum liability caps: for statements of economic interest, late filing liability is capped at $100 total; for all other original statements or reports, liability is capped at the aggregate amount of contributions, expenditures, and other amounts reported on that statement or report, or $100, whichever is greater.

The entire provision imposing a $10-per-day penalty for filing a late copy of a statement or report (old subsection (b) in both versions of Section 91013) has been removed. Late copies no longer carry a separate daily penalty under this section.

Fiscal committee review changed from 'no' to 'yes,' indicating the bill now has identifiable fiscal impacts requiring committee analysis, likely due to the removal of revenue from late copy penalties and the new liability caps reducing potential collections.

Vote requirement language clarified from 'majority 2/3' to simply '2/3,' consistent with the two-thirds vote needed to amend an initiative measure (the Political Reform Act).

The bill's stated purpose shifted from making 'technical, nonsubstantive changes' to establishing new liability limits and removing a penalty category, representing a meaningful policy change in how late filings are penalized.

The exception language in paragraph (2) was restructured into three sub-paragraphs: (A) statements of economic interest cannot have liability waived if not filed within 30 days after a referral is filed with the commission; (B) campaign statements due 12 days before an election cannot have liability waived if not filed within 5 days of written notice; (C) all other statements or reports cannot have liability waived if not filed within 10 days of written notice. This replaces the prior single-paragraph structure and clarifies the trigger events for each category.

The term 'campaign report' was changed to 'campaign statement' in several places, aligning terminology with current statutory language.

New Section 3 provides that Section 2 of the bill shall not become operative until the Secretary of State certifies an online filing and disclosure system pursuant to paragraph (7) of subdivision (b) of Section 84602 of the Government Code. This creates a conditional effective date rather than a fixed calendar date.

New Section 4 declares that the bill furthers the purposes of the Political Reform Act of 1974 within the meaning of subdivision (a) of Section 81012 of the Government Code. Because the Political Reform Act is an initiative measure, this declaration triggers a two-thirds supermajority vote requirement in each house instead of a simple majority.

The bill now contains two separate sections amending Section 91013: Section 1 amends the version as amended by Chapter 696 of 2023, and Section 2 amends the version as amended by Chapter 278 of 2025. The introduced version contained only a single amendment based on the 2025 chapter.

The fiscal committee designation changed from 'no' to 'yes,' indicating the bill now has a fiscal impact that requires committee review, likely due to the delayed operative date and potential revenue implications of the penalty provisions.