The Governor finished signing/vetoing all bills yesterday. CalChamber was tracking 62 bills on his desk, 32 supported and 30 opposed. So how did we do?
Out of the 30 opposed bills, the Governor vetoed 11, including Job Killer SB (1) (Atkins) that could have impacted voluntary water agreements, existing water projects, and water flows for agriculture as well as development. Some of the other significant bills vetoed included:
- AB 1451 (Low), which would have limited the ability to qualify an initiative or recall petition for the ballot
- AB 1478 (Carrillo), which would have added another private right of action to various Labor Code provisions
- AB 171 (Gonzalez), which would have created inconsistent standards for sexual harassment that would result in more unnecessary litigation
- AB 589 (Gonzalez), which would have required all employers to provide employees with an unnecessary notice about their rights regarding immigration related documents.
- SB 218 (Bradford), which would have lifted the existing preemption under the Fair Employment and Housing Act and allowed LA County to enforce state law.
One of the opposed bills that Governor Newsom signed was Job Killer AB 51 (Gonzalez) that bans employment arbitration agreements made as a condition of employment. This bill is similar to a bill last year that Governor Brown vetoed on the basis that it “clearly violated federal law,” meaning the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA). As indicated by both the author and opponents during the legislative process, the legality of this bill will undoubtedly be challenged in litigation.
Out of the 32 bills we supported, the Governor signed 25 of the bills. Some of the notable bills he signed focused on cleaning up the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and protecting small businesses including:
- AB 25 (Chau), which delays the application of the CCPA to employment related data for one year
- AB 874 (Irwin), which clarifies the definition of personal information and fixes a provision of the CCPA that violated the First Amendment
- AB 1355 (Chau), which delays the application of the CCPA with regard to business to business data for one year, clarifies the definition of personal information, and corrected a drafting error with regard to the private right of action in the CCPA
- AB 1607 (Boerner-Horvath), which provides small businesses with notice of the law regarding price differentials based upon gender for such services as dry cleaning and haircuts so that they can protect themselves from predatory lawsuits.
Overall, CalChamber had a successful legislative year. 29 of the 31 Job Killers were stopped in the Legislature and only SB 1 (Atkins) and AB 51 (Gonzalez) made it the Governor’s desk, where he vetoed one. Out of the 113 bills we opposed this year, 93 were ultimately stopped or vetoed.
Time to prepare for next year!