SB 565 California Senate · 2025-2026 Regular Session

Employee housing: H-2A agricultural workers: inspections.

Summary

Existing federal law governing immigration authorizes the importation of an alien as a nonimmigrant agricultural worker, known as an H-2A worker, if specified requirements are met, including that the employer furnish housing, as provided. Existing state law, the Employee Housing Act, requires a person operating employee housing, as defined, to obtain a permit to operate that housing from the agency that enforces the act, which can either be the Department of Housing and Community Development or a city, county, or city and county that assumes responsibility for enforcing the act. The act requires the enforcement agency to annually enter and inspect all employee housing for compliance with the act, as provided. This bill would require, for employee housing that houses an H-2A worker, the enforcement agency to conduct the above-described inspection in person, as defined, and to post the results of that inspection on its internet website. The bill would prohibit a person operating employee housing that houses an H-2A worker from receiving a permit to operate employee housing without passing that inspection. 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.

Issues: ✓ Labor & Employment

Bill status failed 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Feb 2025

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Feb 20, 2025 Last action Feb 2, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 3 comparisons

What changed between versions

04/03/25 - Amended Senate → SB565 · 3 edits

MINOR

The substantive provisions of SB 565 remain unchanged between these two versions. The differences are entirely formatting and presentation: the bill text was reformatted from a traditional legislative print layout (with line numbers, page headers, and footers) into a web-based format with navigation menus, search tools, and version tracking. No policy language was added, removed, or modified.

TECHNICAL

The document was reformatted from a traditional legislative print format (with line numbers, page markers like '97' and section headers) into a web-based layout with navigation elements (home, accessibility, FAQ, sitemap), quick search functionality, and version comparison tools.

Traditional legislative formatting elements were removed, including line-by-line numbering, page header/footer text, and the 'SENATE BILL No. 565' title block.

Web interface elements were added, including a quick search bar, bill information navigation links (Votes, History, Bill Analysis, Today's Law As Amended, Compare Versions, Status), version tracking showing three versions (04/03/25 Amended Senate, 03/24/25 Amended Senate, 02/20/25 Introduced), and a publication timestamp of 04/03/2025 09:00 PM.

02/20/25 - Introduced → 03/24/25 - Amended Senate · 5 edits · Mar 24, 2025

MODERATE

The bill was fundamentally transformed from a simple technical fix to cemetery district law into a substantive measure requiring in-person inspections and public posting of results for employee housing that houses H-2A agricultural workers, and prohibiting issuance of operating permits without passing those inspections. The original cemetery district amendment was retained but demoted to a minor section at the end. Fiscal impact was upgraded from none to yes, with a finding that no state reimbursement is required because local agencies can recover costs through fees.

Scope change

The bill expanded dramatically from a narrow technical correction to cemetery district law into a statewide mandate affecting all enforcement agencies (DHCD or local jurisdictions) that inspect employee housing for H-2A agricultural workers, imposing new in-person inspection and public reporting obligations.

REQUIREMENT

New requirement that enforcement agencies must conduct annual inspections of employee housing for H-2A workers in person rather than by any other method (e.g., remote or self-reported).

ENFORCEMENT

New requirement that enforcement agencies must post the results of H-2A worker housing inspections on their internet website, creating public transparency.

ELIGIBILITY

New prohibition: a person operating employee housing for H-2A workers cannot receive an operating permit without first passing the annual inspection. This links permit issuance directly to inspection compliance for this specific housing type.

SCOPE

The bill's primary subject changed from a technical cemetery district amendment to H-2A agricultural worker housing oversight. The cemetery district fix was moved to the end as a secondary provision.

FISCAL

Fiscal committee impact changed from 'no' to 'yes' and state-mandated local program changed from 'no' to 'yes.' A new section states no state reimbursement is required because local agencies can levy sufficient fees or charges to cover the mandated inspection costs.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Amendments

Apr 3, 2025

Upper · Passed

From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on HOUSING.

upper

Apr 2, 2025

Committee

Re-referred to Com. on HOUSING.

upper

Mar 24, 2025

Upper · Passed

From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on RLS.

upper

Mar 5, 2025

Committee

Referred to Com. on RLS.

upper

Feb 20, 2025

Introduced

Introduced. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. To print.

upper

1 primary · 0 co-sponsors