Senate Judiciary advances DEI resolution and a wide slate of bills on schools, consumer protection, housing and labor; several measures move to appropriations

The Senate Judiciary Committee met July 1 in Room 2100 and by voice and roll-call votes advanced a broad set of measures covering diversity, school funding, consumer protections, housing and labor policy.

The committee began with Senate Concurrent Resolution 89, a measure reaffirming the legislature’s support for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) principles in state government and public institutions. Senator Smallwood-Cuevas presented the resolution and witnesses including Lakisha Khamis of Black Women for Wellness Action Project testified in support, saying the measure affirms values they described as foundational to California governance.

The panel also heard multiple bills with extended testimony and then recorded formal committee votes that sent many measures forward to the Senate Appropriations or Public Safety committees for further consideration. Major items debated included:

- AB 1348 (filed as AB 13 48 in the hearing): Authored by an Assemblymember present for committee testimony, the bill would allow schools to seek relief so that reductions in average daily attendance (ADA) tied to immigration enforcement-related absences do not result in permanent funding loss. The author cited district-level attendance declines — including a 22% increase in absences reported in one district — and education stakeholders including the California Charter Schools Association and the California Federation of Teachers urged the committee to pass the bill.

- AB 506: Sponsored by Assemblymember Bennett and supported by animal welfare groups, this bill would limit deceptive online pet broker practices by requiring seller disclosures (breeder/source, vet records when available) and prohibiting nonrefundable deposits before buyers know the source of an animal. Witnesses included representatives of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the San Diego Humane Society.

- AB 806: Assemblymember Connolly presented a bill to give mobile-home residents the right to install reasonable cooling in their homes and to require mobile-home parks to provide a cooled common area during extreme heat events when feasible. Legal aid and resident witnesses testified that many park rules currently bar affordable cooling options such as window air conditioners, and witnesses said that indoor heat in some parks has reached dangerous levels.

- AB 823: A bill to expand California’s earlier ban on plastic microbeads to include ‘‘leave-on’’ personal care products, cleaning products containing abrasive plastics and cosmetics with plastic glitter. Environmental and public-health groups testified in favor, urging the committee to close what they called a decade-old loophole.

- AB 288: A bill intended to ensure timely remedies for workers whose organizing rights are impeded when federal labor enforcement is delayed or inoperable. Supporters — including organizing workers and labor unions — framed the bill as a state backstop to protect workers’ First Amendment and associational rights when the National Labor Relations Board cannot act; opponents raised preemption and procedural concerns.

- Other notable measures heard included bills to (1) expand protections and notification protocols for protected-party orders and firearm relinquishment; (2) require improved court and DOJ transmission/verification of domestic restraining and protective orders (including the measure nicknamed Wyland’s Law after a child killed in a high-profile family violence incident); (3) prohibit unauthorized drones at emergency scenes that impede first responders; and (4) clarify and expedite state review of federally-authorized controlled-substance clinical research.

Votes at the committee’s conclusion recorded support to move a large number of bills to the Senate appropriations or public-safety committees; several items were placed on the committee’s call list for follow-up. Where recorded tallies were available during the final roll calls, the clerk’s log shows a mixture of unanimous and divided committee votes sending bills forward.

Why this matters: the Judiciary Committee is a gatekeeper for many proposals that affect public safety, civil rights, consumer protections and administrative procedures. Sending a bill to appropriations or public safety does not enact it, but it does signal committee approval to proceed in the legislative process and often determines whether measures remain viable for floor consideration this year.

Votes at a glance (committee actions recorded July 1) - SCR 89 (DEI resolution): Author: Senator Smallwood-Cuevas. Motion: adopt resolution. Outcome: adopted by committee (recorded vote; committee report placed on call). Vote notation: committee recorded majority support.

- AB 13 48 (school ADA/funding relief tied to immigration enforcement): Author: Assemblymember (presented in committee). Motion: pass as amended to Senate Appropriations. Outcome: passed to Appropriations (committee recorded support). Key sponsor witnesses: California Charter Schools Association, CFT, Los Angeles County Office of Education.

- AB 506 (online pet-sale transparency; bans nonrefundable deposits): Author: Assemblymember Bennett. Motion: pass as amended to Senate Appropriations. Outcome: passed to Appropriations (committee recorded support). Key witnesses: ASPCA, San Diego Humane Society.

- AB 559 (contractor protections for ADU work): Author: Assemblymember Berman. Motion: pass as amended to Senate Appropriations. Outcome: passed to Appropriations (committee recorded support).

- AB 823 (ban leave-on microplastics and cleaning-product plastic abrasives beginning 2029): Author: Sponsor and cosponsors presented. Motion: pass as amended to Senate Appropriations. Outcome: passed to Appropriations (committee recorded support). Supporters: environmental groups, etc.

- AB 419 (Know Your Educational Rights postings; immigration-related protections for students): Author: Assemblymember Connolly (presenting a related bill during the hearing sequence). Motion: pass as amended to Senate Appropriations. Outcome: passed to Appropriations (committee recorded support).

- AB 806 (mobile home cooling rights and common-area cooling): Author: Assemblymember Connolly. Motion: pass as amended to Senate Appropriations. Outcome: passed to Appropriations (committee recorded support). Opposition/concern: mobile-home park owner groups raised feasibility/amperage and master-metering issues; author said the bill exempts installations where amperage cannot safely accommodate a unit.

- AB 392 (criminalization and civil remedies for uploading nonconsensual explicit media; Protect Act elements): Author: Assemblymember Dixon. Motion: pass as amended to Senate Public Safety. Outcome: passed to Public Safety (committee recorded support). Supporters included survivors’ advocates and children’s advocacy organizations; no recorded opposition in committee.

- AB 426 (prohibit unauthorized drone flights that impede emergency responders; civil penalties): Author: Assemblymember Dixon. Motion: pass as amended to Senate Appropriations. Outcome: passed to Appropriations (committee recorded support). Supporters: California Fire Chiefs Association, Fire Districts Association; ACLU Cal Action flagged concerns about scope and civil enforcement.

- AB 770 (sign-district exemption to allow Los Angeles to create digital signage district at LA Convention Center): Author: Assemblymember Gonzalez. Motion: pass as amended to Senate Appropriations. Outcome: passed to Appropriations (committee recorded support, some opposition from outdoor-advertising industry citing federal highway-funding risks).

- AB 1362 (registration and oversight for foreign labor recruiters): Author: Author present; motion to pass to Senate Appropriations. Outcome: passed to Appropriations (committee recorded support with opposition from several agricultural stakeholders who called the requirement duplicative of existing licensing). Supporters included anti-trafficking groups.

- AB 1525 (bar out-of-state disciplinary use of California bar licensure where legal services are lawful here): Motion: pass as amended to Senate Appropriations. Outcome: passed to Appropriations (committee recorded support).

- AB 57 (home-purchase-assistance set-aside for descendants of formerly enslaved people): Motion: pass as amended to Senate Appropriations. Outcome: passed to Appropriations (committee recorded support; sponsors described it as a targeted equity investment).

- AB 288 (state process to protect workers’ organizing when federal enforcement is delayed): Author: Assemblymember McKinnon. Motion: pass as amended to Senate Appropriations. Outcome: moved to Appropriations with recorded votes; the committee also recorded concerns and asked for continued negotiations on preemption triggers and timelines.

- AB 451 (standardized protocols for serving/enforcing protective orders and improving firearm relinquishment timelines): Motion: pass as amended to Senate Appropriations. Outcome: passed to Appropriations (committee recorded support). Supporters included gun-violence-prevention groups and local advocates.

- AB 1363 (Wiland’s Law / protective-order transmission verification): Author: Assemblymember Stefani (sponsored); motion: pass as amended to Senate Public Safety. Outcome: passed to Public Safety (committee recorded unanimous or near-unanimous support in committee). The bill was presented with survivor testimony and seeks improved court and DOJ transmission/receipt confirmation for restraining orders.

- AB 1303 (California Lifeline privacy and access adjustments): Motion: pass as amended to Senate Appropriations. Outcome: passed to Appropriations (committee recorded support). The bill clarifies that Social Security numbers are not required for California Lifeline enrollment and would limit sharing of customer data with federal immigration authorities without a judicial process.

- AB 82 (expand Safe-at-Home-style protections to gender-affirming care providers and prohibit reporting certain prescriptions to the PDMP): Author: Assemblymember. Motion: pass as amended to Senate Appropriations. Outcome: passed to Appropriations (committee recorded support). Supporters included Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California and a number of civil-rights and privacy organizations.

- AB 1103 (expedited Research Advisory Panel review of controlled-substances research projects): Motion: pass as amended to Senate Appropriations. Outcome: passed to Appropriations (committee recorded support). Supporters argued the expedited pathway would prevent long delays for federally authorized clinical research in California.

What the committee did not do today: committee-level approval sends bills forward but does not enact them into law. Several measures were placed “on call” for administrative follow-up or technical corrections; some authors accepted committee amendments. Some items were pulled from the consent calendar for discussion, and several committee members urged continued negotiations on technical concerns, especially where local implementation or federal preemption questions were raised.

Meeting context and next steps: bills that moved to Appropriations or Public Safety will face additional committee hearings and fiscal analyses; measures deemed to have significant budgetary impacts often require specific fiscal committee votes before heading to the floor. Several authors and stakeholders agreed to continue working with opponents on technical language to address implementation issues raised in committee.

Ending note: committee minutes and the clerk’s roll-call log contain the formal vote records and the committee put a number of measures on call for administrative follow-up. Advance of a bill from Judiciary is a key procedural step; several items heard today are likely to receive additional scrutiny and amendment in later fiscal or policy committees.