SB 401 California Senate · 2025-2026 Regular Session

Political Reform Act of 1974: filing deadlines: emergency situations.

Summary

Under the Political Reform Act of 1974, various individuals and entities, including candidates, committees that support candidates and ballot measures, lobbyists, slate mailer organizations, and public officials, are required to periodically file certain statements and reports that disclose their financial activities. When an original statement or report is filed after the deadline for its filing under the act, the person responsible for making the filing is subject to a late filing penalty of $10 per day, as specified, in addition to any other penalties or remedies under the act. This bill would authorize the Fair Political Practices Commission to extend any filing deadline established by the act, by no more than 60 days, for individuals that live in an area impacted by an emergency situation if the emergency situation is reasonably likely to affect the individual's ability to timely file. The bill would prohibit the commission from extending a deadline under these provisions during the 90 days before an election. The bill would define emergency situation to mean an emergency proclaimed by the Governor or a local governing body pursuant to a specified law. The Political Reform Act of 1974, an initiative measure, provides that the Legislature may amend the act to further the act's purposes upon a 23 vote of each house of the Legislature and compliance with specified procedural requirements. This bill would declare that it furthers the purposes of the act.

Bill status passed both 4 of 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Feb 2025

Committee Review

Aug 2026

Senate Passage

Jan 2026

Assembly Passage

Aug 2026

Governor

Introduced Feb 14, 2025 Last action Aug 30, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 5 comparisons

What changed between versions

06/01/26 - Amended Assembly → 08/25/26 - Enrolled · 3 edits · Aug 25, 2026

MINOR

SB 401 moved from its Amended Assembly version to its final Enrolled version after passing both chambers. The substantive policy content is unchanged; the differences are limited to formatting, removal of amendment line numbers, correction of a stray subsection letter, and standard enrolled-bill header/footer updates.

TECHNICAL

Removed a stray '(b)' subsection label that appeared between subsections (c) and (d) in the old version, resulting in clean (a)-(d) numbering in the enrolled text.

Corrected a duplicated word 'act act' to 'act' in the legislative counsel's digest.

Replaced amendment tracking headers (introduced-by line, amendment dates, line numbers) with standard enrolled-bill formatting including passage dates for both chambers and a governor approval block.

03/25/25 - Amended Senate → 01/05/26 - Amended Senate · 5 edits · Jan 5, 2026

MODERATE

SB 401 was substantially reworked between these versions. The previous version included a broad legislative intent section outlining future conflicts-of-interest rules for all state employees and officers (covering financial interest prohibitions, recusal requirements, disciplinary actions, and FPPC audits). That entire section was removed. In its place, the bill now adds a new Section 91013.1 to the Government Code authorizing the Fair Political Practices Commission to extend filing deadlines for individuals living in areas affected by a declared emergency. The bill shifted from an aspirational conflicts-of-interest framework to a practical emergency relief provision.

Scope change

The bill's scope narrowed dramatically. It no longer addresses broad conflicts-of-interest policy for state employees (which was framed as legislative intent for future legislation). Instead, it now provides a targeted emergency relief mechanism allowing the FPPC to extend Political Reform Act filing deadlines for people in disaster-affected areas.

SCOPE

The entire Section 1 expressing legislative intent to enact future conflicts-of-interest legislation for all state employees and officers was removed. This section had outlined prohibitions on financial interests in regulated businesses, recusal requirements, disciplinary actions, annual disclosure filings, department policy adoption, and FPPC compliance audits.

The bill's title and digest were rewritten. The old version described the bill as relating to 'state employees and officers: conflicts of interest.' The new version describes it as relating to 'filing deadlines: emergency situations' under the Political Reform Act of 1974.

REQUIREMENT

New Section 91013.1 is added to the Government Code, authorizing the Fair Political Practices Commission to extend any filing deadline established by the Political Reform Act for individuals living in an area impacted by an emergency situation.

DEFINITION

'Emergency situation' is defined as an emergency proclaimed by the Governor or a local governing body pursuant to Section 8625 or Section 8630 of the California Emergency Services Act.

FISCAL

The fiscal committee vote changed from 'no' to 'yes,' and the state-mandated local program designation changed from 'yes' to 'no.'

01/05/26 - Amended Senate → 06/01/26 - Amended Assembly · 5 edits · Jun 1, 2026

MODERATE

The Assembly stripped out the bill's most significant provision - a new prohibition on state agency employees owning financial interests in businesses regulated by or doing business with their own agency (Section 87106) - leaving only the emergency filing deadline extension provision. The Assembly also added three important limitations to that remaining provision: extensions are capped at 60 days, require a showing the emergency is likely to affect the individual's ability to file on time, and cannot be granted for campaign filings during the 90 days before an election.

Scope change

The bill's scope narrowed substantially. It went from covering two distinct policy areas - state employee conflict of interest restrictions AND emergency filing deadline flexibility - to covering only emergency filing deadline flexibility, and even that provision was made more restrictive with new time limits and eligibility conditions.

SCOPE

Section 87106 was deleted entirely. This provision would have prohibited state agency employees from owning or controlling a financial interest in any business entity subject to their agency's regulatory authority or that does business with the agency, with a waiver process available from the agency head. Its removal eliminates what would have been a new misdemeanor-level conflict of interest rule for state employees.

New subdivision (c) prohibits the commission from extending deadlines for campaign statements or reports during the 90 days before an election, creating a carve-out that protects the integrity of pre-election disclosure timelines even during emergencies.

REQUIREMENT

A new condition was added: the commission may only extend a filing deadline if the emergency situation is reasonably likely to affect the individual's ability to timely file. Previously, simply living in an area impacted by an emergency was sufficient.

New subdivision (b) caps any filing extension at 60 days from the original deadline, preventing open-ended extensions during emergencies.

FISCAL

The state-mandated local program designation changed from 'yes' to 'no,' and the specific reimbursement exemption tied to creating a new crime was removed, consistent with the deletion of the criminal prohibition in Section 87106.

02/14/25 - Introduced → 03/25/25 - Amended Senate · 6 edits · Mar 25, 2025

MODERATE

SB 401 was fundamentally transformed from a non-operative legislative intent statement into an actual law adding Section 87106 to the Government Code. The amended bill now prohibits state agency employees from owning or controlling a financial interest in any business entity their agency regulates or does business with, subject to a waiver process by the agency head. The original broad list of intended future prohibitions was preserved but moved to a secondary section as a roadmap for subsequent legislation.

Scope change

The bill shifted from a purely aspirational statement of legislative intent with no legal effect to an operative statute creating a specific criminal prohibition (misdemeanor) on state agency employees holding financial interests in entities they regulate or do business with, while preserving the broader intent language as a roadmap for future legislation.

REQUIREMENT

New Section 87106 prohibits state agency employees from owning or controlling a financial interest in any business entity subject to their agency's regulatory authority or that does business with the agency.

ELIGIBILITY

A waiver mechanism allows the head of a state agency to exempt an employee from the prohibition, but only upon finding that (1) the ownership is consistent with the Political Reform Act and (2) the employee will not make or influence decisions in which they have a financial interest.

ENFORCEMENT

The Fair Political Practices Commission must adopt implementing regulations and provide advisory opinions on the new section. Waiver decisions are final and constitute public records under the Public Records Act.

SCOPE

The bill's title expanded from 'An act relating to state employees' to also reference adding Section 87106 to the Government Code relating to the Political Reform Act of 1974, anchoring the prohibition in existing conflict-of-interest law.

The original Section 1, which listed nine categories of intended future prohibitions (gifts, recusal, disclosure, disciplinary action, audits, etc.), was moved to the end of the bill as a preserved intent statement rather than the primary operative provision.

TECHNICAL

Voting threshold changed from majority to two-thirds vote, fiscal committee review changed from no to yes, and state-mandated local program changed from no to yes, reflecting that the bill now amends an initiative measure (the Political Reform Act) and creates a new crime.

Floor votes · Senate Jan 27, 2026 · Assembly Aug 19, 2026

How they voted

40–0

Passed

Total votes 40

Jan 27, 2026

D Democratic30

30 Yea

100% Yea

R Republican10

10 Yea

100% Yea

Vote distribution

All Yea All Nay Mixed No data

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Amendments

Aug 24, 2026

Upper · Passed

Assembly amendments concurred in. (Ayes 39. Noes 0.) Ordered to engrossing and enrolling.

upper

Aug 19, 2026

Introduced

In Senate. Concurrence in Assembly amendments pending.

upper

Aug 19, 2026

Lower · Passed

Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate.

lower

Aug 13, 2026

Lower · Passed

From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 15. Noes 0.) (August 13).

lower

Jun 17, 2026

Lower · Passed

From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To consent calendar. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (June 17). Re-referred to Com. on APPR.

lower

Jun 1, 2026

Lower · Passed

From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on ELECTIONS.

lower

May 4, 2026

Committee

Referred to Com. on ELECTIONS.

lower

Jan 27, 2026

Upper · Passed

Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 40. Noes 0. Page 3307.) Ordered to the Assembly.

upper

Jan 20, 2026

Upper · Passed

From committee: Be ordered to second reading pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8.

upper

Jan 14, 2026

Committee

Re-referred to Com. on APPR.

upper

Jan 13, 2026

Upper · Passed

From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on L., P.E. & R. (Ayes 5. Noes 0. Page 3212.) (January 13). Re-referred to Com. on L., P.E. & R.

upper

Jan 5, 2026

Upper · Passed

From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on E. & C.A.

upper

Apr 2, 2025

Committee

Re-referred to Coms. on E. & C.A. and L., P.E. & R.

upper

Mar 25, 2025

Upper · Passed

From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on RLS.

upper

Feb 26, 2025

Committee

Referred to Com. on RLS.

upper

Feb 14, 2025

Introduced

Introduced. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. To print.

upper

1 primary · 0 co-sponsors