Legislative Progressive Caucus Unveils Priority Legislative and Budget Package

For immediate release:

• Nicholas Chan
• Communications Director, Office of Assemblymember Alex Lee
• (916) 319-2392
• [email protected]

The Legislative Progressive Caucus, composed of 30 Assemblymembers and 7 Senators, announced its priority legislative and budget package. The Caucus' priorities are centered on tackling the affordability crisis, protecting safety net programs, and fighting against ICE's mass deportation campaign.

The Caucus' legislative priority package includes the bills below:

Theme: Thriving, not just surviving

AB 1777 - Assemblymember Robert Garcia

Affirms the state of California's authority to adopt statewide indirect source regulations, prioritizing flexibility and collaboration with regional air districts to reduce air pollution and improve air quality throughout the state.

AB 1900 - Assemblymember Ash Kalra

Creates the policy framework for a single-payer health care coverage system in California, called CalCare, that will provide quality health care coverage for all Californians, regardless of citizenship status, while also eliminating out-of-pocket costs. By streamlining payments and focusing on health equity, CalCare seeks to improve health outcomes and ensure access to essential care services across the state.

AB 2564 - Assemblymember Chris Ward

Prohibits a retailer from using the personal identifiable information collected on a consumer such as their age, gender, marital status, geolocation, or online search history, to adjust the price of goods based off their perceived willingness to pay, a practice known as surveillance pricing. At a time when prices for basic necessities are rising across the board, it is more critical than ever to ensure that people are not being unfairly charged higher prices due to their actual or perceived characteristics.

SB 1200 - Senator Caroline Menjivar

Redefines the age range for an "infant" in a family child care home to mean a child under 18 months, rather than a child under 24 months. As a result, children 18 to 24 months would no longer be counted as infants when determining the age of children a provider may care for. This will address misaligned developmental age ranges, provide greater flexibility for childcare providers, and help expand access to affordable childcare for parents in need.

SB 1422 - Senator Maria Elena Durazo

Restores enrollment in full-scope Medi-Cal for income-eligible undocumented Californians beginning January 1, 2027, reopening access to preventive coverage that was frozen in the 2025-26 state budget.

Theme: Fighting for the People, not the Powerful

AB 1553 - Assemblymember Damon Connolly

The legislative vehicle for SB 131 clean up and its exemption of advanced manufacturing projects from CEQA.

AB 1611 - Assemblymember Matt Haney

Puts families first by stopping large Wall Street landlords from crowding regular buyers out of the market and making homeownership even more out of reach by closing a tax break for Wall Street landlords that costs the state billions of dollars. This bill ends the current tax break for capital gains on sale of single-family houses for corporations that own more than 50 single-family homes. Instead, when a home is sold by a Wall Street landlord, they would pay taxes on the gain, like everyone else.

AB 1790 - Assemblymember Damon Connolly

Ends the corporate tax loophole known as Water's Edge. The Water's Edge Election enables multinational corporations to avoid paying their fair share in taxes by shifting their profits to subsidiaries in tax havens. The loophole costs the state $3-4 billion in revenues annually.

AB 2599 - Assemblymember Isaac Bryan

Requires companies to report whether they or their corporate predecessors bought or sold enslaved people, used enslaved people as collateral, insured slavery-related transactions, or otherwise profited from slavery-era commerce.

AB 2729 - Assemblymember Mia Bonta

Establishes an Employer Responsibility for Medi-Cal Trust Fund, requiring large employers whose workers rely on Medi-Cal for health coverage to contribute to the cost of that coverage. When employers pay wages too low or fail to make health insurance accessible, workers turn to Medi-Cal, and California taxpayers bear the cost. This bill ensures those employers pay their fair share, levels the playing field for businesses that already provide quality coverage, and protects the long-term sustainability of Medi-Cal for the more than 14 million Californians who depend on it.

Theme: Defending Freedom and Liberty for All

AB 1633 - Assemblymember Matt Haney

Imposes a 50 percent tax on a private detention operator's gross receipts from ICE and other federal contracts to operate detention facilities in California, and requires those funds to be reinvested into immigration-related services.

AB 1675 - Assemblymember Alex Lee

Prohibits companies that contract with the Department of Homeland Security from benefiting from state tax breaks, ensuring that California does not spend taxpayer dollars to bankroll corporations that aid and abet in ICE's terror campaign.

AB 1896 - Assemblymember Mark González

Disqualifies anyone who has engaged in immigration enforcement activity from being employed as a state, county, or local public agency employee or peace officer in the State of California, with exceptions for allowed activities under SB 54, the California Values Act (2017).

AB 1930 - Assemblymember Rick Zbur

Protects transgender patients and patients who receive reproductive health care services and their health care providers. The bill requires business entities in California to notify the California Attorney General before they respond to a subpoena or inquiry regarding legally protected health care activity, and also authorizes the Attorney General to respond and intervene to protect them.

SB 995 - Senator Renée Pérez

Expands state oversight and enforcement authority, establishes fines for violations, and allows the state to suspend or revoke the licenses of private detention facilities that fail to comply with California's health, safety, and labor standards.

Theme: Mitigating and Adapting to AI

AB 1577 - Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan

Promotes grid reliability by requiring data centers to report energy usage and efficiency information to the Energy Commission and local planning agencies.

AB 1898 - Assemblymember Nick Schultz

Ensures transparency and accountability by requiring employers to give workers advance notice before they implement artificial intelligence (AI) powered tools in the workplace.

AB 1979 - Assemblymember Mia Bonta

Extends California's medical privacy protections to consumer-facing AI health applications that allow users to connect their medical records and personal health data. Under existing law, health care providers and health plans are required to safeguard personal medical information under the Confidentiality of Medical Information Act. This bill ensures that AI health tools, which millions of Californians are now using, are held to the same enforceable legal obligations to protect sensitive health information rather than vague, voluntary commitments.

AB 2027 - Assemblymember Chris Ward

Prohibits employers from using worker-generated data to train artificial intelligence systems designed to automate or replace workers' jobs. The bill also bans employers and technology developers from selling or sharing worker data for the purpose of developing AI tools that enable job automation, protecting workers from unknowingly training their own replacements.

AB 2575 - Assemblymember Liz Ortega

Establishes basic guardrails for the use of artificial intelligence and clinical decision support systems in health care.