AB 1926 California Assembly · 2025-2026 Regular Session

Residential construction costs: regulation.

Summary

Existing law, the California Building Standards Law, establishes the California Building Standards Commission within the Government Operations Agency. Existing law requires the commission to approve and adopt building standards and to codify those standards in the California Building Standards Code. Existing law requires the commission to publish, or cause to be published, editions of the code in its entirety every 3 years, and to publish, or cause to be published, supplements as necessary in the intervening period. Existing law requires any building standard adopted or proposed by state agencies to be submitted to, and approved or adopted by, the commission before codification, in compliance with certain procedures, and accompanied by an analysis written by the adopting agency or state agency that proposes the building standards that justifies the approval of the standards in terms of specified criteria. Existing law establishes the Department of Housing and Community Development. Existing law, the State Housing Law, requires the department to propose the adoption, amendment, or repeal of building standards to the commission and to adopt, amend, or repeal other rules and regulations for the protection of the health, safety, and general welfare of the occupant and the public relating to specified residential structures, as provided, which apply throughout the state. This bill would require a building standard adopted or proposed by a state agency and submitted to the commission for approval or adoption that could increase the cost of residential construction, as determined by the department, to have the written approval of the department. Existing law, the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) , sets forth requirements for the adoption, publication, review, and implementation of regulations by state agencies. The APA requires the Office of Administrative Law to review all regulations adopted, amended, or repealed and submitted to it for publication in the California Code of Regulations and for transmittal to the Secretary of State and to make determinations using specified standards, as defined. This bill would prohibit a new regulation, or the amendment or repeal of a regulation, that could increase construction costs for single-family and multifamily residential construction from being valid or effective unless it is submitted by, or approved in writing by, the Department of Housing and Community Development before transmittal to the Secretary of State or the Office of Administrative Law.

Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Feb 2026

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Feb 12, 2026 Last action May 14, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 3 comparisons

What changed between versions

03/19/26 - Amended Assembly → 04/13/26 - Amended Assembly · 4 edits · Apr 13, 2026

MODERATE

The April 13 amendment makes two major substantive changes to AB 1926: it completely removes the Health Care Payments Data Program provisions (Section 127673) that required health plans, insurers, and other entities to submit claims and pricing data to the state, narrowing the bill to focus solely on residential construction costs and building standards. It also broadens the Department of Housing and Community Development approval requirement in Section 18930(a)(10) from covering only 'proposed' building standards to covering 'proposed or adopted' building standards that could increase residential construction costs.

SCOPE

Entirely removed the Health Care Payments Data Program provisions (Section 127673 of the Health and Safety Code), which had required health care service plans, insurers, self-insured entities, and the Department of Health Care Services to submit claims data, pricing information, personally identifiable information, and personal health information to the state. This included mandatory and voluntary submitter definitions, emergency regulation authority, reporting requirements, and privacy provisions.

The bill's stated topic changed from 'public health. housing' to simply 'housing,' reflecting the removal of the health care data collection component and confirming the bill is now exclusively about residential construction costs and building standards regulation.

REQUIREMENT

Section 18930(a)(10) was changed from requiring DHCD written approval for 'the proposed building standard' that could increase residential construction costs to 'the proposed or adopted building standard,' extending the approval requirement to standards that have already been adopted, not just those still in proposal stage.

FISCAL

The fiscal committee vote changed from 'no' to 'yes,' indicating the bill was determined to have fiscal implications or received fiscal committee approval in this version.

02/12/26 - Introduced → 03/19/26 - Amended Assembly · 7 edits · Mar 19, 2026

MODERATE

AB 1926 was dramatically expanded from a narrow technical fix to the Health Care Payments Data Program into a major housing affordability bill targeting residential construction costs. The amended version adds new requirements for the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) to review and reduce construction cost pressures, creates a regulatory approval gate requiring HCD sign-off on any regulation that could increase residential construction costs, rewrites the building standards approval process with new cost-comparison criteria, and imposes a de facto moratorium on new residential building standards from October 2025 through June 2031 (with narrow exceptions). The original health care data changes are retained but demoted to a secondary section.

SCOPE

The bill now covers residential construction costs and building standards regulation in addition to the original Health Care Payments Data Program. It adds provisions to the Government Code and substantially rewrites Health and Safety Code sections on building standards.

REQUIREMENT

New Government Code Section 11359.1 prohibits any new or amended state regulation that could increase single-family or multifamily residential construction costs from taking effect unless HCD submits it or approves it in writing before it goes to the Secretary of State or Office of Administrative Law.

New Health and Safety Code Section 17921.14 requires HCD to review construction cost pressures from building standards by January 1, 2031 and propose revisions to lower those costs. It also requires HCD to review cost pressures from other state regulation, develop recommendations to reduce them, and report to the Legislature's housing committees by January 1, 2031.

For each triennial update of the California Building Standards Code on or after January 1, 2032, HCD and other applicable state agencies must propose revisions to lower up-front residential construction costs while maintaining health and safety standards.

Section 18930 is rewritten to add two new approval criteria for building standards: (1) if a standard could increase residential construction costs, it requires HCD's written approval; and (2) the standard must not cost more than reasonable alternatives, determined by comparing all direct and indirect implementation costs.

TIMELINE

A moratorium provision (Section 18930(g)) blocks consideration, approval, or adoption of proposed building standards affecting residential units from October 1, 2025 through June 1, 2031, unless they fall within narrow exceptions such as emergency health and safety standards, Wildland-Urban Interface Code amendments, model code incorporation, federal accessibility alignment, or standards taking effect on or after January 1, 2032.

FISCAL

The fiscal committee designation changed from 'no' to 'yes,' indicating the amended bill now carries a state fiscal impact that requires fiscal committee review.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Amendments

May 14, 2026

Lower · Passed

In committee: Held under submission.

lower

May 6, 2026

Committee

In committee: Set, first hearing. Referred to APPR. suspense file.

lower

Apr 23, 2026

Lower · Passed

From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 12. Noes 0.) (April 22). Re-referred to Com. on APPR.

lower

Apr 14, 2026

Committee

Re-referred to Com. on H. & C.D.

lower

Apr 13, 2026

Introduced

From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on H. & C.D. Read second time and amended.

lower

Apr 9, 2026

Lower · Passed

In committee: Hearing postponed by committee.

lower

Mar 23, 2026

Committee

Re-referred to Com. on H. & C.D.

lower

Mar 19, 2026

Introduced

From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on H. & C.D. Read second time and amended.

lower

Mar 19, 2026

Committee

Referred to Coms. on H. & C.D. and JUD.

lower

Feb 13, 2026

Lower · Passed

From printer. May be heard in committee March 15.

lower

1 primary · 0 co-sponsors