Affordability and immigration: what bills did the CA Senate move forward?
Good morning and welcome to the A.M. Alert!
HOUSE OF ORIGIN DEADLINE
The Senate adjourned early Thursday morning ahead of Friday’s deadline to pass bills out of their house of origin. Here are some of the bills now headed to the Assembly:
- The “Investing in Your California Dream” package is Senate Democrats’ answer to California’s affordability crisis. The three bills passed address three areas: energy, housing and employment. Senate Republicans have been critical of the package and the supposed efficacy of its bills.
- Senate Bill 254, which addresses a wide range of energy issues. Bill author, state Sen. Josh Becker, D-Menlo Park, says the omnibus bill would modernize utility pricing, increase transparency, and improve wildfire mitigation planning. The bill would add to the state’s complex energy infrastructure by introducing a Clean Energy Infrastructure Authority. The California Chamber of Commerce opposes the bill, which they say will “move costs around, without eliminating them.”
- Senate Bill 681 is the housing-focused bill in the package that Democrats say would streamline home building across the state. It would also stop landlords and homeowners associations from imposing excessive fees. Opponents are concerned about the impact of certain provisions on landlords and HOAs.
- Becker and Padilla also introduced Senate Bill 243 that aims to regulate AI companion chatbots and safeguard users from potentially harmful interfaces. Among other precautions, the bill would require the operator of a chatbot to have a protocol to address suicidal ideation, suicide or self-harm mentioned by a user to the platform.
- The Youth Rehabilitation & Opportunity Act, Senate Bill 672 is also headed to the Assembly for consideration after facing considerable backlash. The bill would allow those facing life without parole for crimes committed before they were 26 years old to request a parole hearing after serving at least 25 years of their sentence. Republican Senators have said this bill would allow violent killers out early, but the bill does not guarantee parole for any offenders. The bill also excludes “the most serious crimes” according to an FAQ statement on the website of author state Sen. Susan Rubio, D-Baldwin Park. Despite strong opposition, the bill passed the Senate with a vote of 24-11, with one Democrat joining Republican senators in voting against it.
- Two bills, Senate Bills 98 and 48, aimed at protecting students from immigration enforcement passed with the support of Democrats and Republican state Sen. Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh, R-Yucaipa. SB 98 would require education institutions to notify community members if immigration enforcement is on the premises. On school sites, SB 48 would stop immigration enforcement from accessing nonpublic areas, questioning students or conducting searches without a court order.
AMERICORPS IS BACK, BABY
Via Lia Russell
Gov. Gavin Newsom cheered a federal judge’s ruling that the White House must restore funding for AmeriCorps after Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency dismantled it.
California, as part of a coalition of states led by Democratic attorneys general, sued the Trump administration in April after AmeriCorps laid off thousands of volunteer members as part of Musk’s downsizing of federal agencies. The firings and slashed funding impacted organizations like Sacramento’s Improve Your Tomorrow, which mentors young men of color and prepares them for higher education and joining the workforce.
The ruling from Maryland District Court Judge Deborah Boardman requires Americorps to immediately restore the terminated grants and reinstate fired workers, but only in the states that sued, including California, Maryland, Oregon, Vermont and Washington.
Newsom claimed victory on Thursday amid Musk and Donald Trump’s very public online break=up. He had previously called DOGE’s actions a “middle finger” to volunteers, which includes those who helped pack food boxes and distribute supplies to victims of January’s wildfires in Los Angeles.
“Common sense has prevailed over cruelty. The court is rightly siding with volunteers and service workers,” Newsom said in a statement. “Today, we’re doing right by John F. Kennedy and Sargent Shriver and all those who put others before themselves.”
Josh Fryday, Newsom’s director of Service and Community Engagement, said the ruling “affirmed” that the defundings were “wrong and illegal.”
“DOGE made our communities weaker and less efficient by cutting service,” Fryday said. “We will continue this critical work and continue to defend these programs.”
CALIFORNIA ELECTEDS RESPOND TO TRUMP’S TRAVEL BAN, PT. 2
Via Rebecca-Ann Jattan
President Donald Trump announced a controversial travel ban against 12 countries and restrictions against seven others on Wednesday, and California Democrats were quick to decry it.
Trump cited national security concerns in the proclamation, adding that the countries facing restrictions have deficient screening and vetting processes to protect against individuals who threaten U.S. national interests.
He also claimed that several of these countries have exploited the U.S. visa system and failed to comply by accepting removed nationals, many of whom have overstayed their visas.
The 12 countries facing a full travel ban include Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
Nationals from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela will be partially restricted.
Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., a Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, condemned President Trump’s “inhumane” ban and “irrational impulses,” in a statement Thursday.
“This senseless, prejudicial policy is an abuse of power that also threatens U.S. citizen relatives from the targeted countries,” he said. “We cannot allow this Administration to continue scapegoating individuals based on religion or nationality. Our country is better than this.”
Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., joined in criticizing the move, harkening back to the travel ban implemented during Trump’s first term. He claimed the ban would “further isolate the U.S. from the rest of world” while failing to address national security risks, in an X post.
“Bigotry is not a national security strategy,” Schiff said on X.
Rep. Judy Chu, D-Monterey Park, blasted the ban, noting the similarity to the administration’s “2017 Muslim ban”. Along with Sen. Chris Coons, D-Delaware, Chu reintroduced a National Origin-Based Antidiscrimination for Nonimmigrants Act, known as the No Ban Act, earlier in February. The bill passed the House in 2021 but stalled in the Senate.
On Thursday, she was joined by fellow House Democrats all denouncing the travel ban as a discriminatory practice against Black and Brown nations.
“We stood up to Trump’s cruel bans before, and we’re ready to do it again,” she said in a post on X. “We’re not backing down. This latest move is not just a distraction from his recent failures, it is dangerous, and we’ll keep fighting.”
REPUBLICANS STOP BILL AGAINST NAVY SHIP RENAMING
Via David Lightman
Senate Republicans Thursday blocked an effort by Sen. Adam Schiff objecting to the recent Trump administration decision to rename the USNS Harvey Milk.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the unusual change, and a new name is expected later in June. The Associated Press reported that the change is prompted by a desire to comply with President Donald Trump’s aim to “re-establish the warrior culture.”
Milk, who served in the Navy during the Korean War, was the first openly gay person to win public office in California when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. He was assassinated in 1978 by an angry city supervisor.
“The Navy has seen fit to honor these civil rights icons — who spent their lives fighting for the rights of the American people — by naming ships in their honor,” Schiff, D-Calif., told colleagues. “We learned this week, however, that the Secretary of Defense does not share the view that these leaders are worthy of the honor of recognition that the Navy has bestowed upon them.”
The senator added that he suspected “it is no coincidence that the Pentagon released the news of renaming the USNS Harvey Milk at the beginning of Pride Month and while Washington D.C. hosts World Pride.”
Schiff and Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., tried to bring up their proposal in the Senate, but were blocked by Sen. Ted Budd, R-North Carolina, a Senate Armed Services Committee member.
Budd told the Senate that naming Navy ships “is a tradition that goes back to the frigates by Congress. It is not a top-down affair. It demands input and consideration of the journey men and women who constructed her, right down to the lowest rank honors.”
But, Budd said, the Biden administration “took a top-down approach to the naming” of such ships. “In doing so they broke with important Naval customs and traditions .”
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“For all those folks out there that are so consumed by personalities, who’s up, who’s down, what Elon Musk tweeted today and what Trump said tomorrow, I hope you can focus on what matters.”
— Gov. Gavin Newsom during a presser in Compton on student literacy
Best of The Bee:
- Will Elon Musk punish California Republicans for their Big, Beautiful bill vote? via David Lightman
- California governor candidates clash over minimum wage, high speed rail via Nicole Nixon
- Sacramento Bacon Fest celebrates all things bacon, from pork to Kevin via Camila Pedrosa
This story was originally published June 6, 2025 at 4:55 AM.
