Assembly kills wildfire bill in surprise last-minute move

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Hello and welcome back to Capitol Confidential! 

It’s over.

After hundreds of bills, dozens of hours of floor sessions and who even knows how many cups of coffee, the two-year legislative session is finished. 

Now, all eyes turn to the governor to see how he wields his veto pen this year – his final one in office ahead of an expected 2028 presidential bid. 

Assembly Democrats on Tuesday killed a drastically pared-down version of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s wildfire liability proposal, punting the issue to a later date after criticism from insurers, utility companies, wildfire victims and some fellow legislators. 

“The verdict is clear that the proposal before us from our governor did not deliver the support, the accountability or the needs for reform that wildfire victims deserve in California,” Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, D-Hollister, said on the floor.

Rivas and other Assembly Democrats who have been directly involved in the weeks-long negotiations on a wildfire deal said they will return to the issue – though it’s unclear if that will be in a special session or sometime next year. 

The decision came after an abrupt caucus meeting in the middle of the Assembly session Tuesday morning, though it wasn’t the first inkling of serious discontent from the lower chamber. 

Though the move was a shock – including to several members of the Senate – the writing was on the wall after a tense Assembly Utilities and Energy Committee hearing Monday night, where multiple Democratic lawmakers brought up a range of concerns with the compromise bill, SB492. 

Newsom’s initial proposal attempted to broker a deal that would shield utility companies from the soaring costs of wildfires caused by their power lines and electrical equipment. After significant pushback in counterproposals drafted by Assembly and Senate working groups, the governor dropped his most controversial proposals, leaving a slimmed-down bill that didn’t broach any of the topline issues around how the state deals with wildfire liability.

Instead, SB492 proposed creating a new program to fast-track wildfire-related claims from the state’s existing Wildfire Fund; ban the sale of wildfire subrogation rights to private equity groups and hedge funds; and place new fee caps and limits on attorneys representing survivors against utilities. It also would have created new wildfire prevention programs and banned utility company executives from receiving bonuses soon after a utility-sparked fire. 

But even that proposal couldn’t get enough backing, with several lawmakers expressing frustration at the Assembly Utilities and Energy Committee that the compromise was too rushed, and had not been adequately vetted. 

“I have to admit that I'm just really disappointed in where we are,” Assembly Member Rick Chavez Zbur, D-Los Angeles said. “I think this is a disaster that we are coming up with a bill that does not result in any structural reform.”

Other committee members peppered the bill’s author, Sen. Josh Becker, D-Menlo Park, and others testifying either in support or opposition about details of the proposed Fast Pay program for wildfire survivors, possible fiscal ramifications on utility companies and provisions regarding the ban on utility executive bonuses. 

But even the lawmakers’ ability to bemoan the last-minute nature of the deal were cut short, as the speaker’s office encouraged the committee to wrap it up so session could return from recess. That forced any public comment to go onward untelevised, while most members shuffled out of the room to return to session – in another squeeze on established legislative procedure that has become a hallmark of the now-scuttled wildfire deal. 

Roughly 15 hours later, Assembly leadership confirmed the bill would not move forward. 

While Rivas and other Assembly lawmakers said the bill didn’t go far enough, Sen. Renée Pérez, D-Pasadena, said she was prepared to vote for it when she returned to the Capitol Tuesday morning. 

“It is disappointing to see us not move forward on being able to pass a bill that took hours and hours of work and negotiation and thoughtful discussion,” said Pérez, who represents areas devastated by last year’s Eaton Fire. 

“I also think there was a recognition amongst all of us that this wasn’t the final piece, that there was more work to be done here,” Pérez added.

Last week, Newsom applauded the compromise, but said that the issues the bill did not address remained unresolved, urging the Legislature to return to the table next year to tackle “full structural reform.” 

“The reforms in this bill, while important, did not address the underlying structural problems driving this crisis, as the initial market reaction this week demonstrates,” Newsom said in a statement upon the bill’s failure. “Simply put, this measure did not meet the gravity of this moment. The only solution is to return to fix the entire problem, not part of it.”

A bill that would ban the use of Taser-like shock gloves by law enforcement in California passed the Legislature Monday, after tense debate between the bill’s Democratic supporters and Republican lawmakers. 

Assembly Member LaShae Sharp-Collins, D-San Diego, introduced the bill just under the new deadline, spurred in part by the Department of Homeland Security disclosing in early August it aims to spend up to $20 million arming ICE agents with the gloves. 

AB2760 would prevent both local and federal law enforcement officers from using wearable electroshock devices. The bill amassed immediate support from more than two dozen Democratic lawmakers.

Amendments placed a three-year sunset on the ban and ordered the Department of Justice conduct a study on the gloves’ use and possible health and safety implications. 

Those changes spurred several law enforcement groups to withdraw their opposition to the bill, including the Peace Officers Research Association of California and the California Police Chiefs Association. The State Sheriff’s Association remains opposed. 

Assembly Member Carl DeMaio, R-San Diego, slammed the bill and its accelerated timeline on the floor when it came up for its final vote on Monday evening, urging it be taken up next session.

Despite the Republican opposition, the bill sailed through both floors, and is now up to the governor. 

“This is a righteous bill, and it’s the right time to do it,” Sharp-Collins said after the bill passed.

AB2017, by Assembly Member Matt Haney, D-San Francisco, passed the Legislature. It would add Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha to the list of state holidays, giving schools the option to close to observe them.

It’s not the only bill headed to the governor that tackles holidays. 

SB1394, by Sen. Lena Gonzalez, D-Long Beach, proposes changing the date of the former Cesar Chavez Day, now California Farmworker Day, from March 31 to April 10. It would commemorate the end of the Delano Grape Strike March in 1966, and further remove the holiday’s association with Cesar Chavez, after it was renamed by the governor earlier this year. 

At the start of the Assembly’s special session on Tuesday morning, lawmakers enthusiastically took up one of the latest additions to the legislative session: a tribute to the late Dolly Parton. 

SB931, by one of the legislature’s biggest Dolly fans, Sen. Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, would proclaim Sept. 25 as Dolly Parton Day. 

It would continue Grove’s legacy as one of the Legislature’s biggest Dolly fans, punctuating the last day of her career at the legislature with the commemoration. Grove, alongside former Senate Pro Tempore Toni Atkins, established the statewide Imagination Library program, built off of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library which provides free books to children, in California in 2022.

The legislative session is over. Now, Newsom has until the end of September to sign or veto hundreds of bills that are now on his desk. We’re not likely to see a flood of decisions this week, however, as the governor is in the middle of his multi-day trip through the South, which the Chronicle’s Sophia Bollag is covering on the ground. 

But Newsom did make decisions on more than a dozen bills before jetting off on Tuesday. 

They include AB2249, by Assembly Member Jacqui Irwin, D-Thousand Oaks, which creates new standards for cannabis packaging and advertising deemed attractive to children. This includes using cartoons, candy and images of characters popular to kids on cannabis and vape products.

The governor also signed AB1956, by Assembly Member Avelino Valencia, D-Anaheim, on Friday. It adds boys and young men to the list of highest risk populations for the Office of Suicide Prevention and requires the office create a report by July 1, 2028, on its progress reaching the group. 

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