Under existing law, a candidate for the United States House of Representatives or local elective office may purchase space in the county voter information guide to make a candidate statement. A candidate for United States Senate may purchase space for a candidate statement in the state voter information guide. A candidate for state elective office may also purchase space to make a candidate statement in the state voter information guide, but only if the candidate accepts certain voluntary campaign expenditure limits. Existing law prohibits these candidate statements from making any reference to the candidate's opponents. This bill would limit a candidate statement to a recitation of the candidate's own education, professional experience, public service, community involvement, and qualifications. The bill would prohibit a candidate statement from including, in addition to references to other candidates, a link or other reference to external content other than the candidate's campaign website; content that is vulgar or profane, or that threatens or incites violence; false statements or misleading claims; or any other content that is unrelated to the candidate's qualifications. The candidate would be required to submit a declaration with the candidate statement that attests that the statement is true and correct. Because a person who willfully makes a false statement in that declaration would be guilty of the crime of perjury, this bill expands the scope of that crime and thereby creates a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the Secretary of State and county elections officials to omit from the voter information guide any portion of a candidate statement that does not comply with the bill, except false statements and misleading claims, and it would require them to print the remainder of the statement if it can stand independently and does not mislead voters. The bill would make a fee paid by a candidate for the printing or inclusion of a candidate statement nonrefundable if any part of the statement is printed in the voter information guide, but the fee would be refunded if the statement is omitted. By increasing the duties of county elections officials, this bill would create a state-mandated local program. Existing law provides for the public examination of state and county voter information guides. During the 20-day examination period for the state guide, an elector may seek a writ of mandate or an injunction requiring any or all of the materials to be amended or deleted. During the 10-day examination period for the county guide, a voter of the relevant jurisdiction in which an election is being held, or the relevant local elections official themselves, may seek a writ of mandate or an injunction requiring any or all of the materials to be amended or deleted. A court will issue such a writ of mandate or injunction only upon clear and convincing proof that the material in question is false, misleading, or inconsistent with law, and that issuance of the writ or injunction will not substantially interfere with the printing or distribution of official election materials as provided by law. This bill would similarly allow any registered voter to seek a writ of mandate or an injunction requiring any or all of the material in a candidate statement in the state or a county voter information guide to be amended or deleted, as specified. This bill would require that, as in current law, the writ of mandate or an injunction only be issued upon clear and convincing proof that the material in question is false, misleading, or inconsistent with the requirements of the bill, and that issuance of the writ or injunction will not substantially interfere with the printing or distribution of official election materials as provided by law. This bill would additionally allow a county elections official to bring such an action for a writ or injunction challenging a candidate statement in the county voter information guide over which they have jurisdiction. 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 with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
Sponsored bills
This measure would call on Congress to enact legislation that restores and strengthens the full protections of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and it would call on the President to sign the legislation.
Existing law requires the Office of the State Fire Marshal to develop and make available on its internet website a Wildland-Urban Interface Fire Safety Building Standards Compliance training intended for use in the training of local building officials, builders, and fire service personnel, as specified. Existing law authorizes the Office of the State Fire Marshal to allow certification of contractors who conduct defensible space, home hardening, fuel reduction, roadside clearance, and other contracting activities for wildlife resiliency efforts and who have completed specified training programs. Existing law requires the Office of the State Fire Marshal to develop and update a Wildland-Urban Interface Products listing of products and construction assemblies that comply with prescribed regulations regarding building in a wildland-urban interface area. Existing law authorizes the Office of the State Fire Marshal to expend funds from the Building Standards Administration Special Revolving Fund, upon an appropriation by the Legislature, for the purposes of researching and developing the products listing and the educational and training provisions. Existing law requires the Office of the State Fire Marshal to establish the State Fire Marshal's Wildfire Mitigation Advisory Committee. This bill would require, on or before January 1, 2028, the State Fire Marshal's Wildfire Mitigation Advisory Committee to develop an implementation plan for a home hardening certification program that identifies home hardening measures, including defensible space, that can be voluntarily implemented during renovation or property improvement projects, or both, to substantially reduce the risk of loss during a fire and bring existing building stock into alignment with state building standards for wildland-urban interface areas. The bill would require the committee, in developing the implementation plan for the home hardening certification program, to provide specified recommendations. The bill would authorize the Office of the State Fire Marshal to expend funds from the Building Standards Administration Special Revolving Fund, upon an appropriation by the Legislature, for the purposes of developing the implementation plan for the home hardening certification program. The bill would require the committee, on or before January 1, 2028, to provide a report to specified legislative committees on its findings and recommendations pursuant to these provisions. The bill would require, on or before January 1, 2029, the State Fire Marshal to establish the home hardening certification program based on the recommendations made by the Wildfire Mitigation Advisory Committee.
Existing law specifies the rights and requirements of a claimant or homeowner to bring a civil action for construction defects of a dwelling, including applicable standards for home construction, detailed prelitigation procedures, statute of limitations, burden of proof, and the damages recoverable. Existing law specifies the rights and prohibitions for a builder to defend against a civil action for construction defects, including a prohibition against a builder obtaining a release or waiver in exchange for repair work mandated by law. This bill would modify specific rights, requirements, and prohibitions for the parties to a civil action for construction defects of a dwelling by revising, among other things, the requirements for a prelitigation notice from the claimant to the builder and the evidence a claimant is required to affirmatively demonstrate to make a claim. Among other changes, the bill would repeal the prohibition on, and, instead, authorize, a builder to obtain a release or waiver in exchange for certain repair work, as specified. Commencing July 1, 2027, the bill would prohibit an insurer from asserting repairs as a voluntary payment or as a payment made without the insurer's consent, or denying counting the costs associated with those repairs, against a deductible or self-insured retention. The bill would provide that its provisions apply to structures subject to the provisions governing the rights of a claimant or homeowner to bring a civil action for construction defects of a dwelling, except as provided. The bill would further provide that its provisions are severable.
Existing law requires, on and after July 1, 2026, a food manufacturer, processor, or retailer responsible for the labeling of food items for human consumption that chooses, or is otherwise required by law, to display a date label to communicate a quality or safety date on a food item manufactured on or after July 1, 2026, to use specified uniform terms on the date label, as provided. Existing law prohibits a person from selling or offering for sale in the state a food item for human consumption manufactured on or after July 1, 2026, that displays a quality or safety date label that is not labeled in accordance with that requirement or that is labeled with the phrase "sell by," as specified. This bill would provide that a food item for human consumption does not include a dietary supplement, as defined. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law, the Supervision of Trustees and Fundraisers for Charitable Purposes Act, requires the Attorney General to, among other things, establish and maintain a register of charitable corporations, unincorporated associations, and trustees subject to the act and of the particular trust or other relationship under which they hold property for charitable purposes. Existing law requires the Attorney General to establish rules and regulations necessary for the administration of these provisions. Existing law requires a charitable fundraising platform, as defined, before soliciting, permitting, or otherwise enabling charitable solicitations, to register with the Attorney General's Registry of Charities and Fundraisers, under oath, on a form provided by the Attorney General. Existing law requires a platform charity to have good standing, as defined, in order to facilitate acts of solicitation on a charitable fundraising platform. Existing law permits a charitable fundraising platform or platform charity to solicit, permit, or otherwise enable solicitations, or to receive, control, or distribute funds from donations, only for recipient charitable organizations or other charitable organizations in good standing. Existing law authorizes a charitable fundraising platform or platform charity to rely upon electronic lists periodically published by the Internal Revenue Service, the Franchise Tax Board, and the Attorney General's Registry of Charities and Fundraisers to determine good standing of recipient charitable organizations or other charitable organizations, however, if those lists are not published, then a charitable fundraising platform or platform charity is not required to comply with this provision for that applicable agency for the length of time that agency's list is unavailable. This bill would remove lists periodically published by the Internal Revenue Service from the electronic lists that a charitable fundraising platform or platform charity may rely upon to determine good standing of recipient charitable organizations or other charitable organizations. Existing law requires a charitable fundraising platform or platform charity that performs, permits, or otherwise enables acts of solicitation to, before a person can complete a donation or select or change a recipient charitable organization, provide conspicuous disclosures, including, among other things, a statement that a recipient charitable organization may not receive donations or grants or recommended donations, with an explanation identifying the most pertinent reasons why a recipient charitable organization may not receive the funds. This bill would also require the statement described above to include an explanation of what alternative disposition will occur for the donated funds that are not sent to a recipient charitable organization. The bill would provide that a charitable fundraising platform or platform charity that performs, permits, or otherwise enables specified acts of solicitation, when soliciting platform users at the time of checkout to make a donation of no more than $10, or higher if adjusted for inflation, may make certain disclosures through a conspicuous hyperlink, as prescribed, and is not required to comply with specified regulations. The bill would also make other conforming changes. Existing law requires that the rules and regulations established by the Attorney General for the administration of the registry include, among other things, provisions that specify the contents of the form and other information to be provided by a charitable fundraising platform for registration and in annual reports filed with the registry. This bill would require a person or entity that is required to file registration, reporting, or other submissions with the registry to do so through the Attorney General's online filing service in accordance with rules and regulations of the Attorney General. The bill would require the online filing service, by January 1, 2028, to support comprehensive electronic administration, as prescribed. The bill would make various other clarifying and technical changes to the act.
Existing law establishes the Office of Data and Innovation within the Government Operations Agency with a mission to deliver better government services to the people of California through technology and service innovation, data, and design. Existing law establishes the Data and Innovation Services Revolving Fund consisting of certain sources of moneys including donations, endowments, or grants of funds from private or public sources that commit to the office's mission of ethical, efficient, effective, secure, and responsible use of data in a manner that respects privacy. Exiting law makes moneys in the fund available upon appropriation of the Legislature, as specified. This bill would establish the Engaged California Program within the office. The bill would require the office to, among other things, design, establish, and maintain a platform for ongoing dialogue between Californians and state government and to establish best practices for its use. Subject to certain conditions, including upon appropriation by the Legislature for the express purpose of running the Engaged California Program, the bill would require topics to be selected for deliberation in accordance with specified procedure and would require state agencies identified by the office to coordinate outreach, among other things. The bill would require the Data and Innovation Services Revolving Fund to consist of supplemental funding for the Engaged California Program from partner organizations. The bill would prohibit organizations that provide that funding from participating in the selection of a topic for deliberation and from participating in the deliberation. The bill would also make any unspent funds appropriated for the Engaged California Program during the 2026–27 fiscal year available for use by that program during the 2027–28 fiscal year.
Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Existing law requires the PUC, on or before March 31, 2024, to evaluate each customer renewable energy subscription program to determine if the program meets specified goals and to determine whether it would be beneficial to ratepayers to establish a new tariff or program for an electrical corporation, or modify an existing tariff or program administered by an electrical corporation, to establish a community renewable energy program, as provided. If the PUC determines that it would be beneficial to ratepayers to establish the community renewable energy program, existing law requires the PUC, on or before July 1, 2024, to establish the program and require each electrical corporation to participate in the program. This bill would revise the requirements of the customer renewable energy subscription program, as provided, among other things, to promote participation by low-income customers at levels commensurate with the opportunity provided to certain customer-generators, to provide bill credits to subscribers based on the avoided costs of community renewable energy generators, as defined, participating in the program if the community renewable energy generator is determined to be a load-modifying resource, to require all community renewable energy generators participating in the program to have no more than 5 megawatts of generation capacity and no more than 5 megawatts of energy storage, and to limit the total program capacity to 4 gigawatts or end the enrollment of new community renewable energy generators in the program after 7 years, whichever occurs first. The bill would require the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) , in a public process that includes opportunity for public comment, to evaluate the load-modifying potential of community renewable energy generators, as specified, and, if the evaluation finds that community renewable energy generators have load-modifying potential, to, on or before December 1, 2027, in a public process with opportunity for public comment, identify attributes that the Energy Commission would expect a community renewable energy generator to meet in order to be classified by the PUC as a load-modifying resource, as provided. The bill would require the PUC, within 180 days following the identification of attributes by the Energy Commission, to adopt or modify a customer renewable energy subscription program consistent with the revisions to the program made by the bill, and would require the PUC to establish in the program a mechanism to determine whether community renewable energy generators are load-modifying resources, as provided. Existing law requires the PUC, within 24 months of establishing a community renewable energy program and annually thereafter for the duration of the program, to submit to the Legislature a report on the facilities deployed and customers subscribed, as provided. This bill would instead require the PUC, within 24 months of the adoption or modification of a customer renewable energy subscription program and annually thereafter for the duration of the program, to submit to the Legislature a report on the community renewable energy generators participating in the program and customers subscribed. The bill would repeal this requirement on January 1, 2034. Under existing law, a violation of an order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the PUC is a crime. Because a violation of a PUC action implementing this bill's requirements would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. 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.
Existing law establishes the Department of Toxic Substances Control, which regulates the handling and management of hazardous waste and hazardous materials, and establishes the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment and the State Air Resources Board. Existing federal law sets action levels for lead in dust and emission standards for asbestos, and existing state law sets workplace standards for asbestos. Existing law authorizes local health officers to take specified actions to protect public health and establishes procedures for the remediation of certain contaminated properties. This bill would require the Department of Toxic Substances Control, in consultation with the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment and other relevant coordinating agencies, on or before December 31, 2028, to develop and adopt regulations pertaining to lead and asbestos testing, remediation, and restoration after a wildfire and, on or before December 31, 2029, to develop and publish guidance pertaining to specified other contaminants, as provided. The bill would require the State Air Resources Board, on or before December 31, 2028, to develop and publish guidance on indoor air contaminants following residential smoke damage from a wildfire, as provided. The bill would provide that, until the adoption of the regulations and guidance, specified lead and asbestos standards shall apply for wildfire-caused lead and asbestos remediation, as provided. The bill would require the department, in collaboration with the State Department of Education and other relevant state agencies, no later than July 1, 2028, to develop advisory, nonregulatory guidance for schools after a wildfire, as provided. The bill would exempt the regulations and guidance from the Administrative Procedure Act. The bill would become operative only if AB 1795 of the 2025–26 Regular Session is enacted and takes effect on or before January 1, 2027.
Existing law vests the Department of Food and Agriculture with general supervision of the weights and measures and weighing and measuring devices sold or used in the state, including devices used to measure electricity sold as a motor vehicle fuel. Existing law authorizes the Secretary of Food and Agriculture to adopt regulations to carry out the provisions of state law governing weights and measures, and requires the secretary to establish, by regulation, tolerances and specifications and other technical requirements for commercial weighing and measuring, as specified. Existing law authorizes the secretary, and each sealer acting under the supervision and direction of the secretary, to enforce provisions of state law governing weights and measures, as specified. Existing law requires the sealer of a county to inspect and test weighing and measuring devices, as specified, that are used or sold in the county. Existing law requires the secretary to adopt regulations governing the inspection frequency of all commercially used weights, measures, and weighing and measuring apparatus in the state and requires each county sealer to perform those inspections as may be required by the secretary. Existing law makes a violation of the provisions of state law governing weights and measures a crime. This bill would require the secretary to adopt regulations governing the inspection frequency of electric vehicle fueling systems used for commercial purposes, as specified, and would require a sealer to inspect those systems in accordance with specified requirements. The bill would require a sealer to submit data and information relating those inspections on a monthly basis, as prescribed by the secretary, to the Division of Measurement Standards and would require the division, no less than biannually, to provide the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission with that information and data. Existing law requires the secretary to provide rules and regulations for the submission for approval of types or designs of weights, measures, or weighing, measuring, or counting instruments or devices, used for commercial purposes, and to issue certificates of approval of those types or designs as the secretary finds meet the requirements of state law, as specified. Existing law prohibits a person from maintaining, installing, adjusting, reconditioning, or servicing a commercial weighing or measuring device for compensation unless the person registers with the secretary as a service agency. Existing law authorizes a weighing or measuring device to be placed in service only by a sealer or a service agency. This bill would exempt electric vehicle fueling systems used for commercial purposes meeting type approval requirements that are factory tested and certified for metrological requirements by a factory registered service agency from, among other things, the requirement to be placed in service in the field by a service agency or sealer. The bill would require a metrologically relevant repair of those systems to be performed by a registered service agency or service agent, and would authorize a repair that is not metrologically relevant to be performed by any person competent to perform the repair, as specified. The bill would require the operator, or the operator's designee, of such a system to report the installation of the system with a county sealer by submitting a placed in service report to the county sealer and to register the system with the county sealer, as specified. Because a violation of that requirement would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require, by July 1, 2028, the secretary, in consultation with the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, to update the regulations regarding electric vehicle fueling systems to conform to the requirements of the bill. To the extent that the bill would expand the duties of county sealers, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. 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 specified reasons.