SD 5 Bills Awaiting the Governor’s Signature

Dear Neighbor,

Good news! My first year in the California state Senate has been very productive. Ten of my bills won approval in the Legislature, including one that Gov. Gavin Newsom has already signed into law.

My 2025 legislative package is designed to help make California and our Senate district more affordable, ensure that we have clean water while protecting against future droughts, accelerate our transition to clean energy, and ensure that artificial intelligence (AI) is safe and beneficial. 

Below is a brief summary of the nine bills that are now on the governor’s desk. For these bills to become law, the governor must sign them between now and Oct. 12.

You can express your support or opposition to any of these bills by going to the governor's website and clicking the "Contact" tab at the top. On the contact page, under the tab, “What is your request or comment about,” select “An Active Bill.” Then under “What specific bill?” select the bill you'd like to weigh in on, and you can communicate your views to the governor.

Helping Make California More Affordable

• SB 24 Protecting Ratepayers
  SB 24 helps protect Californians against higher utility bills by strengthening oversight of investor-owned utilities like PG&E and others, and preventing them from using ratepayer funds to fight local efforts to create a municipal utility.
   
• SB 279 Helping Farmers & Winegrape Growers
  SB 279 reduces costs for CA farmers and winegrape growers by allowing them to compost large amounts of green waste onsite during a biomass event, such as the removal of an orchard or vineyard. The bill also allows community composting programs, urban farms, and school farms to compost larger amounts of green waste onsite.
   
• SB 543 Low-Cost Housing
  SB 543 helps address CA’s housing affordability crisis by streamlining the construction of low-cost housing known as accessory dwelling units (ADUs), also called backyard cottages or in-law units, and junior accessory dwelling units (JADUs), such as an attached garage converted into living space.

• SB 711 Making Tax Filing Easier
  SB 711 makes it easier for CA taxpayers – especially taxpayers with small businesses – to file their taxes by aligning numerous state tax requirements with federal requirements for the first time in a decade.  

   

Ensuring Clean Water and Protecting Against Drought

• SB 31 Expanding the Use of Recycled Water
  SB 31 helps drought-proof CA by boosting the use of recycled water. It also protects the state’s fresh water supply by allowing businesses, homes, and agencies to expand their use of recycled water for irrigation and other uses, rather than relying on drinking water. 

• SB 454 Addressing PFAS Water Pollution
  SB 454 helps addresses PFAS pollution in CA’s water supply by creating a special state fund — the PFAS Mitigation Fund — that local agencies and cities could access to help pay for the cleanup of toxic PFAS in drinking water. Our district, including the city of Pleasanton, has a significant PFAS pollution problem.

  
   

Creating Clean Energy Jobs and Fighting Climate Change

• SB 86 Green Energy Manufacturing Jobs
  SB 86 creates clean manufacturing energy jobs in California by extending a key program that provides tax incentives to CA green energy manufacturers. The bill also adds fusion energy to the tax incentive program.

• SB 787 Job Growth in Clean Energy Supply Chains
  SB 787 helps ensure more clean energy jobs will come to California by requiring state agencies, labor unions, environmental organizations, and clean energy industries to coordinate CA’s supply chain development for three key clean energy sectors: batteries, offshore wind, and building-decarbonization technologies. 

  
    

Ensuring Artificial Intelligence Is Safe and Beneficial

• SB 7 No Robo Bosses Act
  SB 7 requires human oversight of artificial intelligence systems in the workplace to help prevent abuses. The groundbreaking legislation would bar CA employers from relying primarily on AI systems, known as automated decision-making systems (ADS), to discipline or terminate workers without human oversight. 

  
    

I am also a joint author of the below legislation this year. You can share your thoughts with the governor on these bills by following the same steps as above.

• SB 80 Fusion Energy (with Sen. Caballero)
  SB 80 accelerates adoption of fusion energy, which has the potential to produce unlimited amounts of safe clean energy, by requiring the CA Energy Commission to establish a program to provide financial incentives for fusion energy research.
• SB 237 Stabilizing Gas Prices (with Sens. Grayson, Hurtado, and Richardson, and Asm. Wilson)
  SB 237 is groundbreaking legislation that is designed to stabilize gasoline prices as the state transitions away from fossil fuels.
• SB 663 Wildfire Property Tax Exemption (with Sens. Allen and Perez) 
  SB 663 extends the amount of time that survivors of the Los Angeles wildfires have to access property tax relief, while also extending the length of time survivors have to rebuild. 

For updates on the above legislation, please follow me on Facebook, X-Twitter, Instagram, BlueSky, or Threads.

Also, as I mentioned above, the governor in July signed my SB 846, which protects farmworkers from wage theft by updating state law that holds agricultural employers accountable.

Finally, I’m pleased to report another success this year: the defeat of the governor’s controversial proposal to fast-track the costly and destructive Delta Tunnel Project.

The fast-tracking proposal, which sought to greatly accelerate the construction of a 45-mile-long, $20-plus billion water tunnel through the fragile Delta region, is not advancing this year because the Legislature rejected the governor’s plan last week.

It is an honor serving you in the state Senate.