Legislation 2021-2022

Senator Stern Bills Introduced During the 2021-22 Session

SB 46 (2021) requires state agencies to track American Rescue Plan funding to 1) prioritize the people and communities hardest hit by COVID-19, 2) fund projects that reduce emissions especially in communities that have the worst pollution, and 3) help “high road” employers who prioritize worker and customer safety, as well as public health.
Status: Died in Senate

SB 55 (2021) prohibits residential development in the State Responsibility Area and the Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone except when certain community hardening standards are met and provides an incentive for building homes outside of the fire zones.
Status: Died in Senate

SB 63 (2021) creates a fire resiliency corps, awards grants to help people better protect their homes against wildfires, and raises the fire-safe building standards so homes in the high and moderate fire severity zone meet the standards currently applied to homes in the very high fire hazard severity zone.
Status: Signed into law

SB 90 (2021) requires ballots to include key support and opposition for state ballot measures to inform voters.
Status: Died in Senate

SB 284 (2021) adds new law enforcement groups to the list of folks who may receive a rebuttable workers’ compensation presumption in instances where they sustain occupational post-traumatic stress injuries (PTSI).
Status: Vetoed by Governor

SB 291 (2021) forms a 10-member advisory council made up of students with exceptional needs from across the state. Selects one member from that council to serve as a full voting-rights member of the California Advisory Commission on Special Education.
Status: Signed into Law

SB 317 (2021) ensures incompetent defendants earn the same conduct credits as general population defendants. Provides more options for appropriate mental health treatment for incompetent defendants charged with misdemeanors, such as a mental health diversion program or a collaborative court where appropriate resources exist.
Status: Signed into Law

SB 340 (2021) requires the court to allow family members, friends, or acquaintances who know the person to testify about the needs of the person and if the person meets any of the requirements for conservatorship.
Status: Died in Assembly

SB 376 (2021) takes a number of steps to address the multi-faceted problems of zoonotic disease and threats to biodiversity by allowing the emergency addition of animals to the restricted species list if they are determined to be a threat to public health.
Status: Died in Senate Appropriations

SB 388 (2021) requires media platforms to provide data on their efforts to prevent, mitigate, and remove harmful content. Require platforms to provide quantified statistics on how much content is being reviewed, targeted for removal, and actually removed for breaching terms-of-service agreements or other issues.
Status: Died in Senate

SB 406 (2021) makes information on the location of oil & gas wells along with complaints and notices of violation filed against those wells, available online. It increases accountability for wells drilled in population centers by allowing residents to file complaints (currently only well owner/operators or landowners can file complaints).
Status: Signed into Law

SB 419 (2021) requires oil well and production facility owners and operators to use a skilled and trained workforce when contracting for the performance of construction, alteration, demolition, installation, repair, or maintenance work.
Status: Died in Assembly

SB 423 (2021) requires the Air Resource Board, California Energy Commission and California Independent System Operator to timely incorporate emerging renewable energy and firm zero-carbon resources into their energy and resource planning processes. Requires the CEC to adopt measure to bolster near-, mid-, and long-term line reliability and resiliency of the electrical grid and for the PUC, in developing the integrated resource plan to ensure grid reliability during multiday extreme or atypical weather events that lower RPS output. 
Status: Signed into Law

SB 449 (2021) requires financial institutions, insurance companies and others with more than $500 million in annual revenue to report annually on their climate-related financial risk to the Secretary of State each year. Creates a Climate-Related Risk Disclosure Advisory Group and requires it to review and analyze those disclosure reports and provide policy recommendations.
Status: Died in Senate Appropriations

SB 480 (2021) requires the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California to adopt rules to prevent inappropriate conduct by board members, officers, and employees.
Status: Died in Assembly

SB 508 (2021) requires health plans to provide mental health services to students and make children’s mental health services more accessible by expanding the network of school-based mental health practitioners.
Status: Died in Senate

SB 533 (2021) requires the state’s investor owned utilities (IOUs) to include within their wildfire mitigation plans, energy circuits that are prone to being shut down during public safety power shutoff outages and how they plan to repair or replace these energy circuits.  Require IOUs to work with local that want to create grid resiliency and microgrid projects.
Status: Signed into Law

SB 551 (2021) establishes the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) Authority, to provide senior leadership over ZEV policies and coordinate the work of 29 state agencies to ensure the state meets its ZEV policy goals.
Status: Died in Assembly Appropriations

SB 582 (2021) accelerates the state’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emission goals by allowing the Air Resources Board (ARB) to increase its 40% GHG emission reduction target to up to 80% by 2030 and requires Resources Agency, EPA and ARB to come up with a climate restoration plan that establishes carbon removal targets. Also requires OPR and other state agencies to come up with strategies and programs to ensure vulnerable and disadvantaged communities are more climate resilient and have access to restorative economic assistance.
Status: Died in Senate Appropriations

SB 585 (2021) prohibits a person from performing a declawing procedure on a domestic cat unless deemed medically necessary.
Status: Died in Senate

SB 650 (2021) requires skilled nursing facilities to file an annual consolidated financial report to be submitted to the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development with data from all related parties who provide any service, facility, or supply to the skilled nursing facility and submit detailed information outlining the operator’s corporate structures, including certain related and unrelated parties doing business with the facility.
Status: Signed into Law

SB 693 (2021) provides resources for schools to do teacher training as professional development and provides best practices materials for teaching content on genocide, including the Holocaust.
Status: Died in Senate Appropriations

SB 765 (2021) allows local governments to establish rear and side setbacks for accessory dwelling units (ADU), instead of requiring 4-foot setbacks, as long as those setbacks do not prohibit the building of an ADU.
Status: Died in Senate

SB 790 (2021) ensure state agencies can access mitigation funds for projects that reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions and use the mitigation credit program to build projects that improve wildlife connectivity.
Status: Signed into law

SB 1098 (2022) would have required In Home Support Service (IHSS) and Waiver Personal Care Service (WPCS) workers to earn an additional $2 per hour during a declared state of emergency.
Status: Died in Senate

SB 1164 (2022) this would have required the Califronia Energy Comission to implement both an electronic statewide HVAC sales registry, and compliance tracking system, and develop and implement an electronic compliance data registry to register and store installation and acceptance test documentation.
Status: Died in Assembly Appropriations

SB 1246 (2022) creates a tax exemption for any funds that were received as settlements from the Woolsey or Thomas fires
Status: Signed into law

SB 1261 (2022) would have required the Department of Community Services and Development to establish a Multifamily Rapid Deployment Building Decarbonization and Extreme Heat Program to identify and deploy replicable, scalable, and affordable upgrades for multifamily building types that reduce emissions of greenhouse gasses and improve the health and comfort of residents of multifamily buildings.
Status: Died in Assembly

SB 1292 (2022) would have ensured that an increased number of housing units were planned for development should a local jurisdiction adopt housing development restrictions in fire hazard severity zones
Status: Died in Senate

SB 1376 (2022) would have advanced California's energy goals by requiring the California Energy Commission to adopt a strategic plan to enable no less than six gigawatts per year of zero-carbon resources to interconnect the electrical grid by 2025 and recommend actions to streamline development of renewable and zero carbon resources.
Status: Died in Senate Appropriations

SB 1404 (2022) would have required mitigation and an Environmental Impact Assessment for any conversion of oak woodlands habitat during development throughout the state.
Status: Died in Senate Appropriations

SB 1423 (2022) would have leveled the playing field so new or expanded coastal oil and gas development and new or expanded coastal oil refineries would have to comply with the same Coastal Act policies and oversight that virtually all other shoreline development projects have to
Status: Died in Senate Appropriations

SB 1425 (2022) requires every city and county to update their open space elements by January 2026. By requiring cities and counties to assess and update these important documents we can provide additional access and protection of California’s open space and can work toward a more sustainable California for all.
Status: Signed into law

SB 1446 (2022) Would have created a public policy that directed the Department of Mental Health to guarantee anyone who is not living safely in the community due to a behavioral health disorder the right to housing, healthcare treatment, and other supports.
Status: Vetoed by the Governor

SB 1456 (2022) would have removed the current $20,000,000 limit on tax exemption amounts for property owned by nonprofit organizations supporting low income housing.
Status: Died in Assembly 

SB 1466 (2022) would have established the Affordable Housing and Community Development Investment Program to approve or deny plans to fund projects meeting a specific criteria. Eligible projects would have included: predevelopment, development, acquisition, rehabilitation, and preservation of workforce and affordable housing.
Status: Died in Senate

SB 1472 (2022) enables prosecutors to pursue more stringent penalties for street racing, high speeds, and sideshows that result in a fatality.
Status: Signed into law

SB 1486 (2022) would have ensured that the Aliso Canyon Natural Gas Storage Facility returned to an asset of last resort during the remainder of the ongoing PUC Investigation into the 2015 gas blowout. It also ensured that the facility would not be used for any other well or geologic storage.
Status: Died on Senate Floor