CA Legislature Passes 330 Bills In A Single Day

SACRAMENTO, CA — With the Friday deadline for bills to pass their first house, state lawmakers are busy deciding the fate of dozens of measures that would change California policy on a wide range of issues.

On Tuesday, the Assembly and Senate passed about 330 bills combined, leaving about 530 left to go.

Some key developments:

• Abortion protections: The Senate sent to Gov. Gavin Newsom a fast-tracked bill that would enable Arizona doctors to temporarily provide abortion services for their patients traveling to California through Nov. 30. The proposal was promoted by Newsom and introduced a month ago, in response to the Arizona Supreme upholding an 1864 abortion ban. The Assembly passed a bill to streamline the approval process for abortion clinics. In recent years, some clinics have been unable to open in California due to local opposition
• Reparations: The Senate passed three bills authored by Democrat Sen. Steven Bradford of Inglewood. Senate Bill 1050 seeks to compensate residents whose land was taken by “raced-based” eminent domain and is in the California Legislative Black Caucus’ 14-bill package. The two other bills are not: SB 1331 would establish a reparations fund and SB 1403 would form a state agency to manage reparations.
• Traffic safety: The Assembly passed a measure to further regulate autonomous vehicles. Among other mandates, the bill would allow driverless car companies to be cited for traffic violations, and require they notify the state within five days of a crash. Meanwhile, the Senate advanced a proposal to outfit all new cars by 2032 with devices that warn drivers when they exceed the speed limit.
• Food additives: The Assembly approved a bill to ban six food dyes and the additive titanium dioxide from food in California public schools, following a law last year prohibiting four other food additives. When last year’s proposal was first drafted, it originally included titanium dioxide, which can be found in Skittles candy.
• Media funding: Google is telling nonprofit newsrooms across the country that its U.S. news funding is in jeopardy due to California’s proposed digital ad tax to help pay for journalists, Axios reported. SB 1327, introduced this month by Sen. Steve Glazer, an Orinda Democrat, would require Google, Amazon, Meta and others to pay a 7.25% tax on their digital ad revenues in California of more than $2.5 billion, generating an estimated $500 million a year. Google also opposes another bill to help the ailing news industry.

In other legislative news: A bill to ensure visitors of pornography sites are adults advanced. Legislators of both parties are divided on the bill.

Budget update: Once legislators get through this week, they’ll be focused on the state budget to beat a June 15 deadline, though they won’t have all the data they need to make smart decisions.

But how did the state go from a record surplus to a deficit in two years anyway? Find out in our updated “budget whiplash” explainer.