California’s Laundry List of IT Bills: Where Are They Now?

There’s a lot that can happen to a bill on its long and dangerous journey to lawhood — and, like baby sea turtles making the breakneck run to open water, a lot don’t make it to the governor’s desk. It can change by the minute, and the recent flood of IT-focused bills is no exception.

Here are some of the bills we’ve been keeping our eye on and where they stand now:

AB 3013: Court Reporting – This bill was sponsored by Assemblymember Brian Maienschein, D-San Diego, and would allow for pilot projects to examine the feasibility of virtual court reporting in civil cases before Superior Courts in 11 counties.

This bill was most recently added to the Assembly Committee on Appropriations suspense file April 24, joining a lengthy list of other bills. For the uninitiated, the “suspense file” does not mean that this bill is not dead or suspended as the name suggests. Bills that meet a certain fiscal impact threshold are moved to the suspense file for either a Senate floor vote or further committee action. Long story short: Stay tuned.

Assembly Bill 3236: Small Business Procurement and Contract Act – This bill from Assemblymember Josh Hoover, R-District 7, would increase the certified small-business contracting thresholds from $250,000 to $500,000 for goods, services and information technology. The last time this threshold was increased was 2009.

The bill was most recently passed by the Assembly Committee on Jobs, Economic Development, and the Economy and re-referred to the Assembly Committee on Appropriations on April 16.

Senate Bill 893: California Artificial Intelligence Research Hub – This legislation from Sens. Steve Padilla, D-District 18, and Bill Dodd, D-District 3, is aimed at establishing a research hub between the Government Operations Agency (GovOps), the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) and the California Department of Technology (CDT). The hub would “facilitate collaboration” and identify risks across government and the private sector with regards to AI technologies.

A hearing was held April 29 and the legislation was placed on the Assembly Committee on Appropriations’ suspense file.

Senate Bill 896: Artificial Intelligence Accountability Act – This proposal is aimed at creating reporting requirements for GovOps and CDT on the risks and benefits of AI technology. The bill would also require the California Cybersecurity Integration Center and the State Threat Assessment Center to perform joint risk analysis of generative AI as often as the director of Emergency Services deems necessary. Additionally, the bill would mandate that state agencies clearly identify when they are using AI for external communications and that any decision-making system be evaluated for risk before adoption.

A hearing was held April 29 and the legislation was placed in the Senate Appropriations Committee suspense file.