Nearly 1,800 Bills Introduced for California’s 2026 Legislative Session: What to Know
With February’s bill introduction deadline, the California State Legislature introduced close to 1,800 bills (about 600 of those being spot bills) for the 2026 session. Legislators have a bill introduction cap of 35 bills each over the two-year session, making this year’s bill count about average of recent years.
Below are just a sampling of the controversial issues we are watching this year.
Technology
Energy
Data Centers
Environmental
Healthcare
Insurance
Taxes
Financial Services
Housing
Technology
Chatbot Safety
SB 300 (Padilla): Strengthens California's current chatbot safety law by changing the knowledge standard of a users age for chatbot operators.
AB 1988 (Pellerin): Would require companion chatbots to take certain actions if it detects a "credible crisis expression" including encouraging the user to seek immediate human support or initiate a 20 min crisis interruption pause.
AB 2023 (Wicks): Intent bill to enact legislation related to chatbots and children's safety.
SB 1119 (Padilla): Intent bill to enact legislation related to chatbots and children's safety.
Social Media
AB 1700 (Lowenthal): Intent bill to enact legislation establishing an eSafety commission, modeled after a similar entity in Australia having responsibility for online protection.
AB 1709 (Lowenthal): Intent bill to enact legislation establishing a minimum age requirement to open or maintain a social media account.
AB 2169 (Lowenthal): Would require social media companies that deploys an AI model, to allow a consumer to request a copy of the consumer's personal information, contextual data, and social graph and require the social media company to comply with the request within five business days. It would also require social media company to make their platforms interoperable, so a user can transfer data from one social media platform to another.
Workplace AI requirements
AB 1883 (Bryan): Prohibits employers from using certain workplace surveillance tools, including tools that incorporate facial, gait, or emotion recognition technology. It would also prohibit employer from using a workplace surveillance tool to infer specified categories of information about a worker, including, among others, their veteran status, ancestral history, religious beliefs, or disability status.
AB 1898 (Schultz): Requires employers to provide notice to an employee that a workplace AI tool, was used to assist the employer in making employment-related decisions or to surveil the workplace. It would also require an employer to maintain a list of workplace AI tools currently in use and provide that list to an employee on an annual basis. Penalties include civil penalties and civil actions.
SB 947 (McNerney): Prohibits an employer from using an automated decision system (ADS) to perform certain functions and would limit the purposes for and way in which ADS may be used.
SB 951 (Reyes): This bill would establish the California Worker Technological Displacement Act, which would require a covered employer, as defined, to provide at least a 90-day advanced written notice, as described, before any technological displacement or termination of contract affecting 25 or more workers or 25 percent of the workforce, whichever is less.
Expansion of State Anti-Trust Law
AB 1776 (Aguiar-Curry): Amends the Cartwright Act, California's anti-trust statute, by creating new prohibitions against single-firm conduct as opposed to focusing on the actions between multiple parties. This will subject businesses to greater scrutiny from the courts and expose them to significant civil penalties and private damages.
Energy
Nuclear Fission Power Plants
AB 2647 (Calderon): Since 1976, the Warren Alquist Act has banned building new nuclear fission reactors in California until the federal government certifies a method for permanent disposal of high-level nuclear waste. AB 2647 reverses that prohibition. It legalizes “advanced nuclear reactors” with design characteristics that provide enhanced safety features, reduced waste generation, improved fuel use, and other technological advancements compared to a generation II nuclear reactor and that has a design license approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on or after January 1, 2005
Fusion Strategic Plan. SB 925 (McNerney): A placeholder bill that would help increase the state’s leadership role in developing potential fusion energy resources by requiring the state to develop a strategic plan and roadmap for growing research, development, and demonstration projects in the state which could lead to licensing and permitting of fusion facilities, and ultimately commercial deployment resulting in billions of dollars and thousands of jobs.
Small Nuclear Reactors. AB 2647 (Calderon): Would exempt advanced nuclear reactors (i.e., small nuclear reactors) from state law that prohibits certification or construction of a new nuclear fission thermal powerplant or operation of nuclear fuel rod processing plant involves the disposal of high-level nuclear waste.
Plug-in Solar
SB 868 (Weiner): Would exempt a portable solar generating device from all interconnection requirements imposed by utilities and prohibit utilities from charging fees to customers who use plug-in solar devices that feed energy into a building’s electrical system. The goal of the bill is to expand access to solar for renters to power home appliances but, the devices could present safety concerns if there is no coordination with local electrical codes and the devices don’t have dedicated circuits or proper overcurrent protection.
AB 2612 (Shultz): Would require the CA Building Standards Commission to adopt, approve, codify, and publish mandatory standards for building electrical circuit features that would enable qualified plug-in solar systems to function as an energy source within a residential dwelling’s or nonresidential development’s electrical circuit.
Utilities and AI Technology
SB 1011 (McNerney): Would require all utilities that use AI in their electric and natural gas infrastructure, including safety testing before deployment, to adopt workforce protections that keep experienced human operated professionals in control of critical utility infrastructure, in addition to mandating extensive reporting procedures if a utility uses automated decision-making tools.
Energy Storage Procurement
SB 1295 (Stern): Would require the CPUC, on or before January 1, 2030, to consider procurement strategies for up to 40,000 megawatts of energy storage systems statewide, and require the CPUC to consider adopting targets for utilities to adopt cost-effective procurement systems by December 31, 2040.
Natural Disaster Liability Study
AB 1554 (Calderon): A placeholder bill to be used to implement recommendations from a pending California Earthquake Authority report that will evaluate new models to prevent potential wildfires from utility infrastructure, in addition to determining how to equitably allocate liability from all natural disasters.
Data Centers
SB 1168 (McNerney): Would impose a new surcharge, beginning January 1, 2027, on data centers that use natural gas or electricity purchased from electrical corporations and local publicly owned utilities, with the intent of using the revenues to offset rate hikes on residents and reduce rates for low-income households.
SB 886 (Padilla): Would establish a new tariff on data center operators to shield utility ratepayers from the costs of supplying large facilities with electricity with the revenue dedicated to recover investments in the electrical grid.
AB 1557 (Bauer-Kahan): Would require data centers to report their power and water use monthly and to submit that information to state energy planning agencies to help determine electrical load trends for data centers.
AB 2383 (Zbur): Would require the Public Utilities Commission, on or before January 1, 2028, to provide for a classification of retail electricity consumers that are large energy use facilities, as defined, that is separate and distinct from classifications of service for other commercial or industrial retail electricity consumers and has its own rate schedule.
SB 886 (Padilla): The California Technology Innovation and Ratepayer Protection Act, would require the Public Utilities Commission, on or before July 1, 2027, to establish an electrical corporation tariff for the interconnection of the participating customer facilities and the transmission, distribution, and generation services to participating customers, as specified. The bill would require the commission, to establish eligibility criteria for large load customers, as defined, and facilities, evaluate the risks and benefits of this tariff to nonparticipating ratepayers, and ensure that the tariff prevents the creation of stranded costs for, or cost shifts, to nonparticipating ratepayers.
SB 978 (Pérez): Would require the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to establish a special rate structure for large-scale energy users, who would be defined as customers of electrical corporations operating facilities with operational requirements of at least 75 megawatts of electricity, to protect other customers of electrical corporations, prevent cost shifts to those other customers, and require large-scale energy users to pay for the electrical corporations’ upfront costs of transmission or distribution infrastructure upgrades necessary for the provision of electrical service to those users. The bill would require the construction of those facilities to comply with certain labor requirements.
SB 1168 (McNerney): Would impose surcharges, on and after January 1, 2027, on natural gas consumed by a data center, as defined, or a person that consumes natural gas to produce electricity primarily for a data center, at an unspecified rate, and on electricity consumed by a data center that is purchased from an electric utility, which includes an electrical corporation and local publicly owned electric utility, at an unspecified rate. The surcharges apply to persons that meet specified criteria, including that during any single month beginning January 1, 2027, the person purchased natural gas from a gas corporation, or electricity from an electric utility, that was wholly or partially consumed by a data center.
AB 1577 (Bauer-Kahan): Would require the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to establish a process for the owner of a data center, as defined, to submit specified information to the commission on a monthly basis, including the data center’s power usage effectiveness, as defined, water usage effectiveness, as defined, and total water consumption and the quantity of fuel consumed by onsite generators or other fuel-based energy systems. The bill would require the owner of a data center to submit the required information in the manner and timeframe specified by the commission. The bill would require the commission, as part of the 2029 edition of the integrated energy policy report, to include an assessment of electrical load trends for data centers, as provided. The bill would require the commission to annually publish the information submitted in an anonymized and aggregated format on its internet website.
Environmental
AB 1777 (Garcia): For the second year in a row, Assembly Member Garcia introduced legislation to authorize the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to adopt statewide indirect source rules (ISRs) to reduce mobile source pollution at stationary source sites, such as warehouses and ports, underscoring ongoing efforts by state officials to attain federal air quality standards. The ISR provides CARB with the authority to cap the number of transportation vehicles entering a facility or impose fees to fund the development of lower emission infrastructure.
CARB Expanded Authority Over Indirect Sources
AB 1777 (Garcia): The bill would provide the California Air Resources Board (CARB) with expansive and duplicative new regulatory authority, beyond what is allowed under the Federal Clean Air Act, to adopt statewide indirect source rules (ISRs) seeking to reduce mobile source pollution at stationary sources (commercial and industrial sites). CARB already wields extraordinary authority over fuels, vehicles, and broad climate programs.
Regulatory Economic Impact Analysis
SB 1123 (Weiner): The bill would require all state agencies to identify and calculate any offsetting benefits, impacts, or savings that might result directly or indirectly from adopting a rule, as required under existing state regulatory economic impact analysis, even if that proposed rule will costs more than $50 million to implement.
Permit Streamlining
SB 1097 (Weiner): A placeholder bill that seeks to provide flexibility and address costs issues associated with building clean energy projects by streamlining the permitting of energy generation, storage, and transmission projects to address climate change.
High-Speed Rail Encroachments
SB 1425 (Cortese): A placeholder bill that will be amended to provide the CA High-Speed Rail Authority the ability to issue encroachment permits for third-party access to its right-of-way, which could present significant challenges and safety issues for local governments and utilities who may be forced to meet unreasonable timelines responding to the Authority’s encroachment requests.
Healthcare
AB 1900 (Kalra): Seeks to create a comprehensive, single-payer health care system, eliminating private insurance in favor of a state-run, universal, and publicly funded model. Establishes CalCare to provide comprehensive medical coverage, including hospital, mental health, and prescription drug services, for all California residents regardless of status.
AB 2729 (Bonta): This bill would impose fees and financial penalties on employers who have large numbers of employees enrolled in Medi-Cal. This idea has been tried several times over the last two decades, and is attempting to maintain some level of state financial support for cuts to Medi-Cal due to HR 1. This is also likely meant to provide an alternate discussion for safety net support in the context of high wealth tax proposals.
SB 508 (Weber-Pierson): This bill would require developers and deployers of artificial intelligence systems to make reasonable efforts to identify artificial intelligence systems used to support clinical decision-making or health care resource allocation that are known or have a reasonably foreseeable risk for biased impacts in the system’s outputs resulting from use of the system in health programs or activities. The bill would require developers and deployers to make reasonable efforts to mitigate the risk for biased impacts in the system’s outputs resulting from use of the system in health programs or activities.
SB 1089 (Richardson): This bill would add GLP-1s to the list of drugs health plans are required to offer. It would also add GLP-1s to the drugs the California Health and Human Services Agency contracts with manufacturers to obtain generic products for more widespread production.
SB 1199 (Weber-Pierson): This bill would require a health plan, when calculating an enrollee’s out-of-pocket maximum, to count any amount paid by the enrollee or insured or on behalf of the enrollee or insured toward the enrollee’s or insured’s cost sharing, including any form of direct support offered by drug manufacturers that is permitted.
AB 910 (Bonta): Increases regulation of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) in California by imposing a fiduciary duty to health plans, mandating 100% rebate pass-throughs, and banning "spread pricing" to lower drug costs. It requires PBMs to report detailed financial data to the Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC).
AB 1770 (Garcia): Would require the disclosure provided to subscribers, enrollees, or insureds to include a statement that the parties are able to appeal the result of an arbitration on the basis of legal or factual error made by the arbitrator and would require the disclosure to be provided to a subscriber, enrollee, or insured annually.
AB 1887 (Zbur): Aims to improve access to care for Californians with rare diseases by prohibiting health plans from requiring prior authorization or step therapy for FDA-approved, specialist-prescribed, rare disease treatments. It requires coverage for these treatments, effective Jan 1, 2027, unless a lower-cost generic or biosimilar is available.
AB 1906 (Aguiar-Curry): Mandates that health insurance policies and the Medi-Cal program provide coverage for annual cervical cancer screening home test kits without cost-sharing starting January 1, 2027. This legislation aims to increase access to screening, reduce healthcare disparities, and improve early detection.
SB 964 (Smallwood-Cuevas): Authorizes a licensed health care professional to request, and would require that they be granted, the authority to adjust the dose or frequency of a drug to meet the specific medical needs of the enrollee or insured without prior authorization if specified conditions are met. If the enrollee or insured has been continuously using a prescription drug selected by their prescribing provider for the medical condition under consideration while covered by their current or previous health coverage, the health care service plan or health insurance policy would be prohibited from limiting or excluding coverage of that prescription.
SB 1089 (Richardson): Requires health insurance plans to cover weight loss as a medical condition and include at least one FDA-approved anti-obesity medication (e.g., GLP-1s) starting January 1, 2027. It mandates large employers (employees) offer access to weight management programs and authorizes them to negotiate directly with drug manufacturers for lower costs.
Insurance
Fire and Property Insurance
SB 876 (Padilla): The bill would prohibit an insurer from issuing or renewing an insurance policy unless guaranteed replacement coverage is offered and would automatically increase the policy limits for the property if there is a covered loss due to a state of emergency.
Insurance: Loss Estimate Transparency
SB 877 (Perez): This bill would require an insurer to provide every version of claim related documents to the policyholder within 15 days of the creation of the document in the event of a covered loss.
Genetic Testing for Life and Disability Insurance
AB 1798 (Wilson): The bill would prohibit a life or disability insurer from canceling, limiting, or denying insurance coverage based on a test for the presence of a genetic characteristic. It would also prohibit insurers from requiring, requesting, or soliciting genetic information for an insurance purpose.
Property Insurance; Home Hardening
AB 1986 (Bennett): This bill would require an insurer to provide an insurance premium quote for a property in its current state and a quote if the property were to be certified as ''hardened".
Taxes
AB 1790 (Connolly): Eliminates California's "water edge" election for corporate income tax filers.
Financial Services
AB 1842 (Harabedian): The California Emergency Mortgage Relief Act would require a mortgage servicer to offer mortgage payment forbearance up to a period of 12 months during any declared emergency including for residential mortgage loans secured by residential real property improved by 10 or fewer residential units and the bill allows a borrower to bring a civil action against a mortgage servicer for violations.
AB 1847 (Harabedian): Mortgage forbearance: state of emergency: wildfire would require a mortgage servicer to extend Los Angeles wildfire forbearance to 36 months and permit deferred repayment to the end of the loan term.
AB 2145 (Garcia): Mortgages: principal residence would authorize a borrower who has reached retirement age to transfer the interest rate and remaining loan term secured by a mortgage on residential real property to a mortgage secured by a new principal residence. The bill applies to any loan secured by a mortgage or deed of trust that is open on January 1, 2027, and to any new loan opened on or after January 1, 2027.
AB 2154 (Garcia): Mortgage applicants would prohibit a person from selling to a third-party personal information of a mortgage applicant that was collected by the person during the mortgage application process.
AB 2197 (Valencia): School employees: solicitation: financial services or products would restrict financial services and insurance solicitation on a school site.
AB 2599 (Bryan): Slavery: corporate disclosures would require specified companies including financial and insurance companies doing business in California to conduct historical records searches related to slavery and submit sworn affidavits disclosing any involvement by the company or its parent entities, subsidiaries or a predecessor in interest, in slavery-related transactions. The bill also mandates annual public reporting and a publicly accessible digital database containing all affidavits and related data.
AB 2674 (Schiavo): Financial abuse and deception: preventive measures would impose new obligations and liability upon depository institutions related to suspected financial abuse or fraud affecting customers. The bill would require new procedures to identify and intervene in transactions with anomalous characteristics or transactions likely induced by deception and allows customers to bring civil actions against the institution for violations including actual and statutory damages and attorney’s costs.
AB 2214 (Jackson): Community Reinvestment Account would authorize a new program utilizing state-managed investment funds to support local economic development and small business lending in underserved census tracts and first-time or first-generation home buyer lending.
SB 1288 (Laird): Property: nonprobate transfer of ownership would require financial entities managing securities to notify named beneficiaries within 60 days after confirmation of death and establish an affidavit process for 501(c)(3) organizations to claim designated assets.
Housing
AB 1751 (Quirk Silva): The bill provides needed streamlining for townhome developments that will help projects break ground faster, creating more entry-level homeownership opportunities for Californians in a timely manner. This bill will make approvals of townhome projects ministerial, avoiding the delays that come with discretionary approval processes, so long as they are located on a site that is zoned residential and meet other standards.
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