California Senate passes bills on session's last day

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(The Center Square) – Bills tackling surveillance pricing, elderly parole eligibility, social media addiction and other issues passed in the California Senate on Monday, the last day of the 2026 legislative session.

One of those bills, Assembly Bill 2564, authored by Assemblymember Christopher Ward, D-San Diego, aims to keep retailers from using surveillance pricing to increase prices of their merchandise based on customers’ personally identifiable information, including age, gender, marital status, geolocation and online search history. That information is used to increase the price of products because of a customer’s perceived willingness to pay, lawmakers said on the Senate floor, according to a legislative analysis of the bill.

Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, who presented the bill in the Senate Monday, said the public believes that government lets businesses price gouge them, and without the Legislature passing the bill, the public would be right.

“This is all happening without you even knowing it, leaving you with no ability to negotiate or control what rates you see at checkout,” Wiener said. “At a time when prices for basic necessities are rising across the board, it’s more critical than ever to ensure that people aren’t being unfairly charged high prices because of their actual or perceived characteristics.”

Opponents of the bill said on the Senate floor on Monday the bill would affect discounts offered to customers who have club cards at places where they buy groceries or other necessities, which is the only way they can afford the things they and their families need.

“When I’m in my own district, people feel like they’re living in a rigged economy,” Sen. Christopher Cabaldon, D-Napa, said on the Senate floor. “The price of everything is out of control. All they know is that their strategies, their club card, their discounts, that’s how they’re making it work.”

That bill ultimately passed 22 to 14. It now heads to the governor’s desk for his signature.

Also on Monday, the Senate passed Senate Bill 907, which mandates sentences for those convicted of a hit-and-run accident that kills or hurts someone. The bill would apply to those who have previous DUI or gross vehicular manslaughter convictions in the past 10 years. The author of the bill, Sen. Bob Archuleta, D-Pico Rivera, introduced the bill after losing his granddaughter, Samantha Robles Haun, after a drunk driver hit her car and killed her just before Christmas 2024.

“[SB] 907 strengthens California’s DUI enforcement laws for repeat offenders,” Archuleta said on the Senate floor. “Senate Bill 907 includes two provisions that will protect California families from drunk drivers, improve road safety, hold repeat serial offenders accountable, and prevent future tragedy from occurring.”

Archuleta’s bill got bipartisan support on Monday, with senators on both sides of the aisle saying during debate that the legislation would save lives and that it was an important reform for the state. 

“Thank you for the presentation on the floor, just to remind us of the severity of these offenses, and the responsibility we have to respond appropriately,” Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones, R-San Diego, told Archuleta. “I think this bill definitely moves in that direction.”

Other bills that came up for a vote on the Senate floor on Monday included Assembly Bill 2727, which increases the eligible age for elderly parole to 65 if an inmate has served 25 years of their sentence for specific sex crimes. That bill, authored by Assemblymember Stephanie Nguyen, D-Elk Grove, was introduced earlier this year as the California Board of Parole Hearings grappled with the release of two men in their 50s or 60s who were convicted of sex crimes against minors. They were both sentenced to life in prison, but after serving enough years, they both qualified for elderly parole, according to previous reporting by The Center Square.

“This bill is about protecting our children, families and communities from violent sex offenders who will still pose a significant risk when they are released,” said Sen. Susan Rubio, D-West Covina, when presenting the bill for a vote on the Senate floor. “This bill simply encourages something that’s really important, that individuals undergo sexual dangers screenings and we make sure we ask the right questions before we release them and put victims in harm’s way.”

Nguyen’s bill ultimately passed 37 to 0 on Monday before it went back to the Assembly floor for a final vote.

The Senate also passed several other bills on Monday, including a bill that keeps employers from using surveillance technology on employees using the bathroom, one that keeps those convicted of public corruption from working as a lobbyist for 12 years after conviction, allows the state to penalize utility companies if they charge customers prohibited costs, limits the use of artificial intelligence technology in psychotherapy services, limits courts from ordering minors to be housed in juvenile hall, requires those collecting signatures for ballot initiatives to disclose if they are being paid and requires certain private detention facility records to be subject to public records law.