CU Bills Passed, Held, or Amended from CA’s Fiscal Committees

The California Senate and Assembly Appropriation committees held their “suspense file” hearings, where the California Credit Union League monitored the fate of more than 1,000 legislative bills that were passed, amended, or held — including important bills that credit unions oppose or support.

The suspense file is for bills reaching a particular financial-cost threshold, which differs slightly between the two houses. This process occurs twice a year, with numerous bills the California Credit Union League has official positions on.

During the hearings, a brief description of bill amendments were read out loud but were not made immediately available. The League will have to wait for a few bills that passed with amendments to understand the full scope of their impact.

Meanwhile, Senate Bill 278 (Dodd) — the elder financial abuse liability bill — was not a part of these hearings as it was tagged as “non-fiscal.” The bill has been amended to include a safe harbor.

“However, there is still a great deal of work needing to be accomplished on Senate Bill 278,” said Robert Wilson, senior vice president of state government affairs for the California and Nevada Credit Union Leagues. “We are still in conversations with the author, but we remain opposed.”

Below are top-priority bills and how they fared this week:

CU-Related Bills That ‘Held’
Bills that were held (they are dead) and supported by the League:

• Assembly Bill 743 (Petrie-Norris): This bill would have established remote online notarization (RON) in California. The second RON bill in the Senate passed.

Bills that were held (they are dead) and opposed by the League:

• Assembly Bill 331 (Bauer-Kahan): This bill would have required a deployer (which included credit unions) of an automated-decision tool to complete a robust report on how the technologies were being used. The bill also included a private right of action.
• Senate Bill 809 (Smallwood-Cuevas): This bill would have upended the current background-check process for hiring employees.

CU-Related Bills That ‘Passed’
Bills that passed and are supported by the League:

• Assembly Bill 39 (Grayson): This bill is a licensure bill for digital asset companies. The League supports this consumer-friendly legislation.
• Assembly Bill 984 (McCarty): This bill requires that a high school semester course in economics (a graduation requirement) include content in personal finance aligned to the history/social science curriculum framework. The League supports this bill.
• Senate Bill 696 (Portantino): This bill establishes remote online notarization in California.

Bills that passed and are opposed by the League:

• Senate Bill 478 (Dodd): This bill is a junk fee bill that states if you advertise a price, it must include all “mandatory fees.” The sponsor (Attorney General Rob Bonta) and author have cited resort fees as the target. However, the bill is very broad. The League is opposed to the bill until it does not include financial institutions. Meanwhile, the bill was amended to carve out particular industries, but it is unclear if the League’s amendments were included.
• Senate Bill 399 (Wahab): This bill is a de-facto ban on political speech in the workplace and would have severe impacts on grassroots, regulatory, and fundraising activities. This is quickly becoming the League’s top-priority bill.