Votes at a glance: Assembly passes multiple bills on April 20, 2025

The California State Assembly advanced and passed multiple bills on April 20, 2025, including measures on highway safety, coastal law changes, birth‑control access in Medi‑Cal, workplace masking rights, animal welfare, and land‑use clarifications. Several measures were debated briefly on the floor and then put to roll call; others were passed after brief remarks.

Key outcomes (selected bills debated on the floor):

- AB 390 (Wilson) — Highway safety; strengthens “slow down, move over” protections so drivers approaching stationary vehicles with emergency or amber lights must change lanes if safe or slow to a reasonable speed. Vote: Ayes 64, Noes 0. Outcome: passed.

- AB 439 (Rogers) — Changes to the California Coastal Act to remove a 10‑day waiting period for de minimis changes and to better align reporting requirements. Vote: Ayes 44, Noes 11. Outcome: passed.

- AB 50 (Bonta) — “Equity in Birth Control Act”: allows Medi‑Cal enrollees to access specified over‑the‑counter contraceptives without a prescription; included urgency clause. Urgency vote: 67‑0; final passage: 67‑0. Outcome: passed (urgency; immediate effect upon signature).

- AB 55 (Bonta) — Streamlines licensing requirements for alternative birth centers (ABCs) and removes a hard 30‑minute distance limit from hospitals. Vote: Ayes 68, Noes 0. Outcome: passed.

- AB 596 (McKenner) — Protects workers’ right to wear a face covering or respirator at work unless it creates a direct safety hazard. Vote: Ayes 53, Noes 8. Outcome: passed.

- AB 631 (Lee) — Requires animal shelters to post intake and outcome data on their websites. Vote: Ayes 60, Noes 0. Outcome: passed.

- AB 792 (Lee) — Allows consolidation of court interpreter contract negotiations across regions when multiple regions are negotiating to improve efficiency. Vote: Ayes 52, Noes 1. Outcome: passed.

- AB 867 (Lee) — Bans cat declawing (animal cruelty measure). Vote: Ayes 68, Noes 0. Outcome: passed.

- AB 1089 (Carrillo) — Relating to Western Joshua tree permitting; the bill would add commercial and industrial projects to the list of projects that local governments may permit under the Western Joshua Tree Conservation Act framework established in 2023. Vote recorded in transcript: Ayes 16, Noes 0. Outcome: passed (vote as recorded on the floor transcript).

- AB 1154 (Carrillo) — Clarifies accessory dwelling unit (ADU) laws and aligns regulations. Vote: Ayes 63, Noes 1. Outcome: passed.

Other actions and procedural notes from the day:

- At the start of the second reading period, a block of bills was read and recorded as “deemed read and all amendments deemed adopted.” That list included many bill numbers read together on the record; the transcript lists them as read and amendments deemed adopted but does not include separate roll call tallies for those items (details not specified in the transcript).

- Several committee referral and rule suspension procedural motions were made and adopted on the floor (for example, suspending joint rule 62(a) to allow committees to meet upon adjournment; suspending joint rule 61(a) to allow a committee deadline waiver). These procedural waivers were adopted with roll tallies when required (recorded tallies available in floor transcript where shown).

Note on sources and limitations: vote tallies and outcomes above are transcribed from the Assembly floor proceeding provided in the meeting transcript. Where the transcript lists a vote tally, that tally is reported above; where the transcript lists bills read en masse (deemed read) but no roll-call result appears, the transcript entry is noted and vote details are “not specified.”