Judgment debtor employers: Employment Development Department.

All Vehicle Code amendments (Sections 4000.38, 4000.39, and 13356) were deleted entirely. These provisions would have required the DMV to suspend commercial vehicle registrations and driver's licenses of individuals or entities subject to unpaid wage judgments.

The consequence for noncompliance changed from a threat of driver's license and commercial vehicle registration suspension (90-day notice period) to a referral to the EDD Tax Support Division as a notice of potential tax fraud. The Labor Commissioner now sends identifying information (including SSNs and taxpayer IDs) to EDD rather than to DMV.

Removed specific implementation dates: data transmission to DMV by March 1, 2026, DMV enforcement commencement by July 1, 2026, and applicability to all unpaid judgments as of January 1, 2026.

Removed the requirement for the Labor Commissioner to establish a formal data-sharing agreement with the Department of Motor Vehicles.

The triggering event language was slightly revised from 'an order, decision, award, or judgment against an employer requiring payment...becomes final' to 'an order, decision, award, or judgment of a final judgment being entered against an employer requiring payment...becomes final,' clarifying that the judgment must be a final judgment.

The $2,500 civil penalty is now explicitly imposed 'in a citation issued by the Labor Commissioner,' clarifying the enforcement mechanism rather than leaving it as a general liability.

The written notice from the Labor Commissioner to a non-compliant employer must now also state that the civil penalty is due within 90 days of the notice, giving the employer clear notice of both consequences in a single communication.

The trigger language was simplified from 'within 60 days after an order, decision, award, or judgment of a final judgment being entered...becomes final under pursuant to Section 98.2' to 'within 60 days of a final judgment being entered...pursuant to Section 98.2,' removing redundancy and fixing a grammatical error.

Subdivision (d) was reworded from 'does not comply with subdivision (a) and pay the civil penalty' to 'does not both comply with subdivision (a) and pay the civil penalty,' making it clearer that the EDD referral only triggers if the employer fails on both counts.

Senators Rubio and Strickland were added as coauthors of the bill.

Subdivision (b) now specifies that the $2,500 civil penalty is imposed 'in a citation issued by the Labor Commissioner,' clarifying the enforcement mechanism rather than just stating the penalty amount.

Minor grammatical fixes: 'are is true' corrected to 'is true' in subdivision (a), and 'passage passing of the deadline' corrected to 'passing of the deadline' in subdivision (c)(1).

Procedural formatting updated to reflect enrolled status: amendment dates removed, passage dates for both chambers added (Senate September 9, Assembly September 8), and Governor's approval line included.

Section 96.9(c)(1) now requires the written notice to inform the judgment debtor employer that the Labor Commissioner will submit the order, decision, award, or judgment to the Tax Support Division of the Employment Development Department as a notice of potential tax fraud if they do not comply.

Section 96.9(d) changes the recipient of the notice from just the Department of Motor Vehicles to 'the Department of Motor Vehicles Employment Development Department,' indicating EDD also receives the judgment summary and identifying information (including SSNs and taxpayer ID numbers).

The legislative counsel's digest now includes a new paragraph describing existing law on employer wage withholding obligations and EDD's role in administering tax collection, establishing the legal basis for the new tax fraud referral provision.