CA AB 426
in committeeImpeding emergency response with drone.
California · 2025-2026 Regular Session · lower
Subscribe in a feed reader. The feed covers recorded actions from the last 30 days; Bill Commons may record an action after it happened at the legislature.
Quick answers
Did CA AB 426 pass?
Not yet. CA AB 426 is in committee and has not come to a final vote. Latest recorded action (2025-08-29): In committee: Held under submission.
What is CA AB 426 about?
Existing law makes it a crime for a person to operate or use an unmanned aerial vehicle, remote piloted aircraft, or drone at the scene of an emergency for the purpose of viewing the scene or emergency or military personnel, and thereby impede the emergency or military personnel, in the performance of their duties in coping with the emergency. Existing law excuses a local public entity or public employee from liability for damage to an unmanned aircraft or unmanned aircraft system, if the damage was caused while the local public entity or public employee of a local public entity was providing, and the unmanned aircraft or unmanned aircraft system was interfering with, the operation, support, or enabling of any emergency service, as specified. Existing law imposes liability for physical invasion of privacy on a person if the person knowingly enters onto the land or into the airspace above the land of another person without permission or otherwise commits a trespass in order to capture any image or recording of the other person engaging in a private activity and the invasion occurs in a manner that is offensive to a reasonable person. This bill would prohibit a person from operating or using an unmanned aerial vehicle, remote piloted aircraft, or drone at the scene of an emergency and thereby impeding firefighters, peace officers, medical personnel, military personnel, or other emergency personnel in the performance of their fire suppression, law enforcement, or emergency response duties, unless the person has a federal operational waiver, as specified. The bill would authorize the Attorney General or a county counsel or city attorney to bring civil action to enforce the prohibition and authorize a prevailing plaintiff to recover civil penalties, injunctive relief, or reasonable attorney's fees and costs, as specified.
Who sponsors CA AB 426?
Dixon is the primary sponsor of CA AB 426.
Description
Existing law makes it a crime for a person to operate or use an unmanned aerial vehicle, remote piloted aircraft, or drone at the scene of an emergency for the purpose of viewing the scene or emergency or military personnel, and thereby impede the emergency or military personnel, in the performance of their duties in coping with the emergency. Existing law excuses a local public entity or public employee from liability for damage to an unmanned aircraft or unmanned aircraft system, if the damage was caused while the local public entity or public employee of a local public entity was providing, and the unmanned aircraft or unmanned aircraft system was interfering with, the operation, support, or enabling of any emergency service, as specified. Existing law imposes liability for physical invasion of privacy on a person if the person knowingly enters onto the land or into the airspace above the land of another person without permission or otherwise commits a trespass in order to capture any image or recording of the other person engaging in a private activity and the invasion occurs in a manner that is offensive to a reasonable person. This bill would prohibit a person from operating or using an unmanned aerial vehicle, remote piloted aircraft, or drone at the scene of an emergency and thereby impeding firefighters, peace officers, medical personnel, military personnel, or other emergency personnel in the performance of their fire suppression, law enforcement, or emergency response duties, unless the person has a federal operational waiver, as specified. The bill would authorize the Attorney General or a county counsel or city attorney to bring civil action to enforce the prohibition and authorize a prevailing plaintiff to recover civil penalties, injunctive relief, or reasonable attorney's fees and costs, as specified.
- Introduced
- 2025-04-02
- Latest action
- 2025-08-29 — In committee: Held under submission.
- Bill type
- bill
- Last updated
- —
Subjects
Sponsors
- Dixonauthor
Committees
Not provided by source.
Action timeline
Newest first
2025-08-29
In committee: Held under submission.
2025-08-18
In committee: Referred to suspense file.
referral-committee
2025-07-09
From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 12. Noes 0.) (July 8). Re-referred to Com. on APPR.
committee-passage,committee-passage-favorable,referral-committee
2025-06-18
Referred to Com. on JUD.
referral-committee
2025-06-09
In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment.
reading-1,referral-committee
2025-06-05
Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 76. Noes 0. Page 2105.)
passage,reading-1,reading-3
2025-05-27
Read second time. Ordered to third reading.
reading-1,reading-2,reading-3
2025-05-23
From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 14. Noes 0.) (May 23).
committee-passage,committee-passage-favorable
2025-04-30
In committee: Set, first hearing. Referred to suspense file.
referral-committee
2025-04-22
From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 12. Noes 0.) (April 22). Re-referred to Com. on APPR.
committee-passage,committee-passage-favorable,referral-committee
2025-04-08
From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on JUD. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (April 7). Re-referred to Com. on JUD.
committee-passage,committee-passage-favorable,referral-committee
2025-04-03
Re-referred to Com. on E.M.
referral-committee
2025-04-02
From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on E.M. Read second time and amended.
amendment-introduction,amendment-passage,committee-passage,reading-1,reading-2,referral-committee
2025-03-17
Referred to Coms. on E.M and JUD.
referral-committee
2025-02-06
From printer. May be heard in committee March 8.
2025-02-05
Read first time. To print.
reading-1
Versions
Documents
- application/pdf
- application/pdf
- text/html
- application/pdf(no extracted text yet)
- application/pdf(no extracted text yet)
- application/pdf(no extracted text yet)
- application/pdf(no extracted text yet)
- application/pdf(no extracted text yet)
- application/pdf(no extracted text yet)
Votes
Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Judiciary]
2025-04-07 · pass · 7-0
Member-level votes (7)
- Bennett: yes
- DeMaio: yes
- Arambula: yes
- Calderon: yes
- Bains: yes
- Hadwick: yes
- Ransom: yes
Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] with recommendation: To Consent Calendar
2025-04-22 · pass · 12-0
Member-level votes (12)
- Kalra: yes
- Harabedian: yes
- Bauer-Kahan: yes
- Macedo: yes
- Sanchez: yes
- Lee: yes
- Dixon: yes
- Stefani: yes
- Zbur: yes
- Connolly: yes
- Pacheco: yes
- Bryan: yes
Do pass.
2025-05-23 · pass · 14-0
Member-level votes (15)
- Calderon: yes
- Elhawary: yes
- Dixon: yes
- Hart: yes
- Mark González: yes
- Arambula: yes
- Pacheco: yes
- Solache: yes
- Ta: yes
- Caloza: yes
- Wicks: yes
- Pellerin: yes
- Fong: yes
- Tangipa: yes
- Sanchez: other
AB 426 Dixon Assembly Third Reading
2025-06-05 · pass · 76-0
Member-level votes (79)
- Gallagher: yes
- Tangipa: yes
- Castillo: yes
- Hadwick: yes
- Petrie-Norris: yes
- Jeff Gonzalez: yes
- Schultz: yes
- Aguiar-Curry: yes
- Carrillo: yes
- Patel: yes
- Solache: yes
- Quirk-Silva: yes
- Nguyen: yes
- Flora: yes
- Alanis: yes
- Wallis: yes
- Macedo: yes
- Gabriel: yes
- Gipson: yes
- Kalra: yes
- Patterson: yes
- Bains: yes
- Haney: yes
- Lackey: yes
- Krell: yes
- Ransom: yes
- Sharp-Collins: yes
- Ward: yes
- Wicks: yes
- Fong: yes
- Addis: yes
- Harabedian: yes
- Lowenthal: yes
- Ávila Farías: yes
- Dixon: yes
- Chen: yes
- Hart: yes
- Sanchez: yes
- Muratsuchi: yes
- Schiavo: yes
- Bauer-Kahan: yes
- Papan: yes
- Rivas: yes
- McKinnor: yes
- Michelle Rodriguez: yes
- Ahrens: yes
- Davies: yes
- Arambula: yes
- Garcia: yes
- Ramos: yes
- Celeste Rodriguez: yes
- Bennett: yes
- Caloza: yes
- Connolly: yes
- Irwin: yes
- Mark González: yes
- Pacheco: yes
- Wilson: yes
- Blanca Rubio: yes
- Bonta: yes
- Calderon: yes
- Hoover: yes
- Rogers: yes
- DeMaio: yes
- Pellerin: yes
- Alvarez: yes
- Stefani: yes
- Valencia: yes
- Ta: yes
- Boerner: yes
- Elhawary: yes
- Ellis: yes
- Jackson: yes
- Berman: yes
- Soria: yes
- Zbur: yes
- Ortega: other
- Bryan: other
- Lee: other
Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations]
2025-07-08 · pass · 12-0
Member-level votes (13)
- Arreguín: yes
- Valladares: yes
- Allen: yes
- Stern: yes
- Caballero: yes
- Wahab: yes
- Laird: yes
- Niello: yes
- Wiener: yes
- Ashby: yes
- Durazo: yes
- Umberg: yes
- Weber Pierson: other
Placed on suspense file
2025-08-18 · pass · 7-0
Member-level votes (7)
- Richardson: yes
- Seyarto: yes
- Caballero: yes
- Cabaldon: yes
- Dahle: yes
- Wahab: yes
- Grayson: yes
Related bills
No related bills recorded for this bill.
Official source
Attribution
Data from openstates_bulk_csv, retrieved 2026-07-24T01:34:27.960412Z
Inspect retained evidence for changes recorded after evidence tracking began:
Session-wide evidence can include changes to other bills:
Use this data
Every field on this page is available from the free public API — no key or licence required. Fetch this bill as JSON: GET /api/v1/bills?jurisdiction=CA&identifier=AB 426. See the API docs or the MCP server for AI assistants.
Known limitations
- Sponsor party and chamber affiliation are not yet captured by this API.
- Committee referrals are not yet captured.
- Some documents have no extracted text yet, so version comparison may be limited.
See the methodology page for data sources and limitations.