Senate Public Safety committee advances wide-ranging bills on price gouging, prison reforms, gun orders and firefighter pay

The Senate Standing Committee on Public Safety met July 8, 2025, and heard extended testimony on bills addressing disaster price‑gouging, burglary tools that use key‑programming devices, reforms for incarcerated women, protections for wildfire‑impacted homeowners, mental‑health diversion, vacatur for survivors, and wages and resentencing pathways for incarcerated firefighters.

The committee heard authors, law‑enforcement representatives, advocates and survivors for sustained presentations and debate. Several measures received committee votes to move to the Appropriations Committee; others remain under negotiation with stakeholders. Major themes were (1) consumer and small‑business protections after disasters; (2) whether modern electronic key‑programming devices should be treated as burglary tools under Penal Code section 466; (3) expanding rehabilitative programming and oversight for women in state prisons; (4) expanding access and use of gun‑violence restraining orders; and (5) compensation and reentry opportunities for incarcerated firefighters.

“The small business clients we serve do not have the means to pay for attorneys,” attorney Jasmine Poyawan testified during debate on AB 380, which the author described as a response to the Los Angeles wildfires and aimed at strengthening price‑gouging protections for goods, services and certain real property during declared emergencies. The author and supporters said the bill would set time‑limited caps on certain price increases and expand protections for small businesses; several industry groups signaled they were negotiating amendments on the commercial‑property language.

On AB 486, which would amend Penal Code section 466 to add “key programming” and key‑duplication devices to the statutory list of burglary tools, chief law‑enforcement witnesses told the committee that modern electronic devices have been used to steal vehicles by mimicking vehicle keys and that law enforcement lacks explicit statutory authority to act. Opponents, including civil‑liberties groups, warned the expansion could criminalize lawful possession by mechanics and hobbyists and invite biased stops if officers treat possession alone as suspicious.

AB 788, described by…