Legislature passes slew of bills as end of session approaches

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(The Center Square) – The California Legislature met Sunday afternoon in a rare weekend session to pass bills still waiting for a vote, only one day before the deadline.

The final day of the 2026 session is Monday, and lawmakers were expected to be back on the floor during late morning.

On Sunday, several bills – including those regulating education, immigration, election security, insurance and competitive business practices – passed the Senate.

One bill, Senate Bill 259, authored by Sen. Aisha Wahab, D-Fremont, would create a new misdemeanor for anyone tasked with the care of vote-by-mail ballots if they interfere with the ballot delivery to a voter. The bill would also apply to anyone in charge of vote-by-mail ballots, who oversees someone working under them for ballot delivery or a ballot’s return to local elections officials, according to a legislative analysis.

“This bill largely is to defend the vote,” Wahab said on the Senate floor on Sunday afternoon.

“SB 259 is a response to the federal and local actors that have interfered with elections by undermining or obstructing the vote-by-mail process," said Wahab, who was recently elected to serve the rest of former U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell's term in Congress. Swalwell, a Democrat, resigned from the U.S. House and the California gubernatorial race amid allegations of sexual assault and harassment. Swalwell has denied any wrongdoing.

Earlier this year, Wahab said on the floor, the federal government issued a new rule that aimed to rewrite the rules of federal elections, directing the U.S. Postal Service to only deliver vote-by-mail ballots to voters on a Postal Service-managed list.

“Federal courts have deemed this executive order unconstitutional, and warned that implementation will cause confusion and disenfranchise eligible voters,” Wahab said. “Regardless of party affiliation, our democracy is strongest when every eligible voter can cast a ballot freely, securely and with confidence that it will be counted.”

Republican opposition focused on the California Legislature’s lack of jurisdiction over activities of the U.S. Postal Service.

“Once again, we’re trying to do something here in the Legislature that’s not within our authority,” Sen. Tony Strickland, R-Huntington Beach, said on the Senate floor. “The mail system is a federal issue. In my understanding, the Supreme Court actually ruled against a provision like this from happening, and I believe the federal Supreme Court supersedes the California state Legislature when it comes to federal mail rules.”

That bill ultimately passed 30-10 along party lines. It now goes to Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom's desk.

Another bill, Assembly Bill 2724, would require the California Department of Insurance to review and update distressed areas annually. The department’s first deadline would be July 1, 2027. According to the bill analysis, the department would have to work with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or CalFire. The work involves looking at zip codes with a significant number of residential properties insured by California’s FAIR Plan, often considered the insurer of last resort for homeowners who can’t get insurance anywhere else.

“Many of you have been frustrated by the pace at which relief is expected to come to our districts in terms of getting market insurance for our constituents,” said Sen. Tim Grayson, D-Walnut Creek, on behalf of the bill’s author, Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, D-San Ramon. “It is commendable that the Department of Insurance is pushing insurance to cover at least 85% of distressed areas. Those areas have been found via a formula developed by the Department of Insurance to be especially vulnerable to wildfire risk and non-renewals.”

The problem, Grayson continued on the Senate floor, is that the department’s current way of determining which communities qualify as distressed areas falls short.

“Several communities in our districts have been plagued by insurance cancellations and nonrenewals, and homeowners have been pushed onto the FAIR Plan, which is both expensive and does not offer adequate coverage,” Grayson added.

The bill got bipartisan support Sunday afternoon, ultimately passing 38 to 0.

“It’s a small step forward in what we need for our insurance industry,” Sen. Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, said on the Senate floor in support of the bill. “The big concern that I have, and I will be gone next year, but you guys will have to be dealing with the FAIR Plan issue we have in the state of California.”

The California FAIR Plan’s exposure, Grove said, sits at $768 billion because of the risk of catastrophic wildfires across 796,000 policies across the state. She added the FAIR Plan has only about $200 million in cash on hand.

“So that money, if something happens that’s catastrophic in these high-risk areas, where fires can take place, the FAIR Plan is incapable of making sure that those people get their policies paid out when the FAIR Plan is the most costly plan out there,” Grove said. “It’s a horrible disservice done to our insurance industry.”

Other major bills the Senate passed on Sunday included Assembly Bill 1776, authored by Assembly Majority Leader Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, D-Davis. That bill, nicknamed the COMPETE Act, bars corporations from engaging in monopolistic behavior and requires courts to liberally interpret the state’s antitrust laws to promote free and fair competition, according to an analysis.

Other Assembly bills passed in the Senate Sunday afternoon included Assembly Bill 2592, which would bar those convicted of corruption from working as a lobbyist for 12 years after conviction; Assembly Bill 1537, which prohibits peace officers from working second jobs that involve arresting or deporting responsibilities, and Assembly Bill 1627, which would keep a peace officer from employment in state law enforcement if they previously worked as a federal immigration enforcement officer.