CA SB 1159

withdrawn

Artificial intelligence: transparency and governance.

California · 2025-2026 Regular Session · upper

Description

The California Constitution provides that people have the right of access to information concerning the conduct of the people's business. Various provisions of existing law, including the California Public Records Act, the Legislative Open Records Act, the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act, and the Ralph M. Brown Act, provide, with some exceptions, for public access to government records and meetings of government bodies. Among those acts, the California Public Records Act defines "person" to include any natural person, corporation, partnership, limited liability company, firm, or association. Existing law, the Administrative Procedure Act, governs, among other things, the procedures for the adoption, amendment, or repeal of regulations by state agencies and for the review of those regulatory actions by the Office of Administrative Law. Existing law, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) , requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA defines "person" to include any person, firm, association, organization, partnership, business, trust, corporation, limited liability company, company, district, county, city and county, city, town, and, among other things, the state. Existing law, the California Coastal Act of 1976, establishes the California Coastal Commission and prescribes procedures for the preparation, approval, and certification of local coastal programs that regulate development in the coastal zone, as defined, in jurisdictions that have a certified local coastal program. This bill would specify that, for purposes of the California Public Records Act, the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act, the Ralph M. Brown Act, the Legislative Open Records Act, the Administrative Procedure Act, the California Coastal Act of 1976, and CEQA, "person," "interested person," "participant," "member of the public," as applicable, and any other similar terms under each act referring to those who may engage with governmental agencies, do not include artificial intelligence, as defined, systems, autonomous agents, or robots, whether physical or digital. The bill would authorize governmental agencies to use a disclosure verification tool to determine if artificial intelligence is present. The bill would make findings and declarations related to these provisions. The bill would prohibit a person from knowingly using artificial intelligence to falsely represent that a natural person appeared before, submitted information to, or otherwise engaged with a governmental agency. The California Constitution requires local agencies, for the purpose of ensuring public access to the meetings of public bodies and the writings of public officials and agencies, to comply with a statutory enactment that amends or enacts laws relating to public records or open meetings and contains findings demonstrating that the enactment furthers the constitutional requirements relating to this purpose. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.

Introduced: 2026-02-18
Status date: —
Latest action: 2026-07-02 — Read second time. Ordered to third reading.
Bill type: bill
Last updated: —

Subjects

Committees

Not provided by source.

Action timeline

2026-02-18
Introduced. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. To print.
introduction,reading-1,referral-committee
2026-02-19
From printer. May be acted upon on or after March 21.
2026-03-04
Referred to Coms. on JUD. and P., D.T., & C.P.
referral-committee
2026-03-16
Set for hearing March 24.
2026-03-24
From committee: Do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on P., D.T., & C.P. (Ayes 12. Noes 0. Page 3659.) (March 24).
amendment-passage,committee-passage,committee-passage-favorable,referral-committee
2026-03-25
Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on P., D.T., & C.P.
amendment-passage,reading-1,reading-2,referral-committee
2026-03-27
Set for hearing April 6.
2026-04-07
From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 9. Noes 0. Page 3742.) (April 6). Re-referred to Com. on APPR.
committee-passage,committee-passage-favorable,referral-committee
2026-04-07
Withdrawn from committee.
withdrawal
2026-04-07
Ordered to second reading.
reading-1,reading-2
2026-04-08
Read second time. Ordered to third reading.
reading-1,reading-2,reading-3
2026-05-04
Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 38. Noes 0. Page 4129.) Ordered to the Assembly.
passage,reading-1,reading-3
2026-05-04
In Assembly. Read first time. Held at Desk.
reading-1
2026-05-18
Referred to Coms. on P. & C.P. and JUD.
referral-committee
2026-06-09
From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on P. & C.P.
amendment-passage,committee-passage,reading-1,reading-2,referral-committee
2026-06-24
From committee: Do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on JUD. (Ayes 15. Noes 0.) (June 23).
amendment-passage,committee-passage,committee-passage-favorable,referral-committee
2026-06-25
Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on JUD.
amendment-passage,reading-1,reading-2,referral-committee
2026-07-01
From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 12. Noes 0.) (June 30).
committee-passage,committee-passage-favorable
2026-07-02
Read second time. Ordered to third reading.
reading-1,reading-2,reading-3

Versions

02/18/26 - Introduced — 2026-02-18Compare
03/25/26 - Amended Senate — 2026-03-25Compare
06/09/26 - Amended Assembly — 2026-06-09Compare
06/25/26 - Amended Assembly — 2026-06-25Compare
SB1159Compare
(document, no version)Compare

Documents

Votes

Do pass as amended, but first amend, and re-refer to the Committee on [Privacy, Digital Technologies, and Consumer Protection]
2026-03-24 · pass · 12-0
Member-level votes (13)
- Wahab: yes
- Wiener: yes
- Reyes: yes
- Caballero: yes
- Umberg: yes
- Stern: yes
- Laird: yes
- Allen: yes
- Valladares: yes
- Weber Pierson: yes
- Niello: yes
- Durazo: yes
- Ashby: other
Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations]
2026-04-06 · pass · 9-0
Member-level votes (9)
- Reyes: yes
- Jones: yes
- Ochoa Bogh: yes
- McNerney: yes
- Wiener: yes
- Cabaldon: yes
- Padilla: yes
- Gonzalez: yes
- Umberg: yes
3rd Reading SB1159 Cabaldon et al.
2026-05-04 · pass · 38-0
Member-level votes (40)
- Cervantes: yes
- Laird: yes
- Arreguín: yes
- Reyes: yes
- Richardson: yes
- Stern: yes
- Valladares: yes
- Padilla: yes
- Rubio: yes
- Allen: yes
- Durazo: yes
- Wahab: yes
- Cortese: yes
- Gonzalez: yes
- McGuire: yes
- Smallwood-Cuevas: yes
- Cabaldon: yes
- Grayson: yes
- Archuleta: yes
- Jones: yes
- Ochoa Bogh: yes
- Menjivar: yes
- Hurtado: yes
- Limón: yes
- Weber Pierson: yes
- Strickland: yes
- Grove: yes
- Niello: yes
- Umberg: yes
- Blakespear: yes
- Caballero: yes
- Pérez: yes
- Ashby: yes
- Wiener: yes
- Choi: yes
- Alvarado-Gil: yes
- Becker: yes
- McNerney: yes
- Dahle: other
- Seyarto: other
Do pass as amended and be re-referred to the Committee on [Judiciary]
2026-06-23 · pass · 15-0
Member-level votes (15)
- Ortega: yes
- Hoover: yes
- Bauer-Kahan: yes
- Patterson: yes
- Lowenthal: yes
- Irwin: yes
- Ward: yes
- Wicks: yes
- Wilson: yes
- DeMaio: yes
- McKinnor: yes
- Pellerin: yes
- Bryan: yes
- Petrie-Norris: yes
- Macedo: yes
Do pass.
2026-06-30 · pass · 12-0
Member-level votes (12)
- Bryan: yes
- Stefani: yes
- Dixon: yes
- Connolly: yes
- Bauer-Kahan: yes
- Macedo: yes
- Kalra: yes
- Pacheco: yes
- Sanchez: yes
- Zbur: yes
- Harabedian: yes
- Papan: yes

Related bills

No related bills recorded for this bill.

Official source

http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB1159

Attribution

Data from openstates_bulk_csv, retrieved 2026-07-24T01:34:27.960412Z

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