This measure would acknowledge the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and express the Legislature's deepest respect to Muslims across California and throughout the world on this significant occasion.
This measure would proclaim April 2025 as Women in Law Month to honor the contributions of women to the legal profession and to promote continued efforts toward gender equality in the field of law and would encourage law firms, legal organizations, and educational institutions throughout California to commemorate Women in Law Month, as provided.
Maddy summaryCalifornia's Senate passed Senate Resolution 34 (SR 34), declaring April 6-12, 2025, as National Library Week. The resolution encourages all California residents to visit their local libraries during this week to celebrate libraries' roles in providing free access to resources, supporting community engagement, and fostering lifelong learning. It has no binding policy effect and does not create new requirements or affect specific groups.
Maddy summaryCalifornia's Senate Concurrent Resolution 20 designates February 2025 as Peripartum Cardiomyopathy (PPCM) Awareness Month. This symbolic resolution raises public and medical awareness about PPCM, a rare heart condition affecting pregnant or postpartum people that can cause fatigue, swelling, and heart failure if undiagnosed. It does not create new laws or policies, but aims to highlight symptoms (like sudden shortness of breath or rapid weight gain) and risk factors (such as advanced maternal age or pregnancy complications). The resolution was unanimously adopted by the California Legislature in March 2025 and filed with the Secretary of State. It directly affects the public and healthcare providers by promoting education about a condition that contributes to pregnancy-related deaths.
Maddy summarySenate Resolution 15 designates February 2025 as "2-1-1 Month" and February 11, 2025 as "2-1-1 Day" to recognize and promote California's 2-1-1 information and referral service. The resolution does not create new laws or funding but formally encourages public awareness of the free, confidential service that connects residents to community, health, housing, disaster, and other support resources. It acknowledges 2-1-1's role in handling over 2 million annual referrals and supporting emergency response, but the resolution itself has no binding effect on service operations or funding. The measure was unanimously adopted by the Senate on February 27, 2025.
Maddy summarySenate Resolution 8 is a symbolic resolution by the California Senate urging the Pro Football Hall of Fame Selection Committee to induct NFL quarterback Jim Plunkett into the Pro Football Hall of Fame for the 2025 class. The resolution highlights Plunkett's career achievements, including winning two Super Bowls (with the Raiders in 1981 and 1984), being the first Latino to win the Heisman Trophy (1970), and being the only starting quarterback with two Super Bowl rings not yet inducted. It does not create new policy or affect any group through legislation, as it is a non-binding expression of support addressed to the Hall of Fame committee. The resolution specifically notes Plunkett's historic significance as a trailblazing Latino athlete and his 17-year NFL career.
Existing law requires the Secretary of Government Operations to develop a coordinated plan to, among other things, investigate the feasibility of, and obstacles to, developing standards and technologies for state departments to determine digital content provenance. For the purpose of informing that coordinated plan, existing law requires the secretary to evaluate, among other things, the impact of the proliferation of deepfakes, defined to mean audio or visual content that has been generated or manipulated by artificial intelligence that would falsely appear to be authentic or truthful and that features depictions of people appearing to say or do things they did not say or do without their consent, on state government, California-based businesses, and residents of the state. This bill would enact the Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier Artificial Intelligence Models Act to, among other things, require that a developer, before beginning to initially train a covered model, as defined, comply with various requirements, including implementing the capability to promptly enact a full shutdown, as defined, and implement a written and separate safety and security protocol, as specified. The bill would require a developer to retain an unredacted copy of the safety and security protocol for as long as the covered model is made available for commercial, public, or foreseeably public use plus 5 years, including records and dates of any updates or revisions and would require a developer to grant to the Attorney General access to the unredacted safety and security protocol. The bill would prohibit a developer from using a covered model or covered model derivative for a purpose not exclusively related to the training or reasonable evaluation of the covered model or compliance with state or federal law or making a covered model or a covered model derivative available for commercial or public, or foreseeably public, use, if there is an unreasonable risk that the covered model or covered model derivative will cause or materially enable a critical harm, as defined. The bill would require a developer, beginning January 1, 2026, to annually retain a third-party auditor to perform an independent audit of compliance with those provisions, as prescribed. The bill would require the auditor to produce an audit report, as prescribed, and would require a developer to retain an unredacted copy of the audit report for as long as the covered model is made available for commercial, public, or foreseeably public use plus 5 years. The bill would require a developer to grant to the Attorney General access to the unredacted auditor's report upon request. The bill would exempt from disclosure under the California Public Records Act the safety and security protocol and the auditor's report described above. This bill would require a developer of a covered model to submit to the Attorney General a statement of compliance with these provisions, as specified. The bill would also require a developer of a covered model to report each artificial intelligence safety incident affecting the covered model or any covered model derivative controlled by the developer to the Attorney General, as prescribed. This bill would require a person that operates a computing cluster, as defined, to implement written policies and procedures to do certain things when a customer utilizes compute resources that would be sufficient to train a covered model, including assess whether a prospective customer intends to utilize the computing cluster to train a covered model. This bill would authorize the Attorney General to bring a civil action, as provided. The bill would also provide for whistleblower protections, including by prohibiting a developer of a covered model or a contractor or subcontractor of the developer from preventing an employee from disclosing information, or retaliating against an employee for disclosing information, to the Attorney General or Labor Commissioner if the employee has reasonable cause to believe the information indicates the developer is out of compliance with certain requirements or that the covered model poses an unreasonable risk of critical harm. This bill would create the Board of Frontier Models within the Government Operations Agency, independent of the Department of Technology, and provide for the board's membership. The bill would require the Government Operations Agency to, on or before January 1, 2027, and annually thereafter, issue regulations to, among other things, update the definition of a "covered model," as provided, and would require the regulations to be approved by the board before taking effect. This bill would establish in the Government Operations Agency a consortium required to develop a framework for the creation of a public cloud computing cluster to be known as "CalCompute" that advances the development and deployment of artificial intelligence that is safe, ethical, equitable, and sustainable by, among other things, fostering research and innovation that benefits the public, as prescribed. The bill would, on or before January 1, 2026, require the Government Operations Agency to submit a report from the consortium to the Legislature with that framework. The bill would make those provisions operative only upon an appropriation in a budget act for its purposes. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.
Existing law prohibits the production, development, duplication, distribution, or possession, as specified, of matter, in specified formats, that depicts a person under 18 years of age engaging in or simulating sexual conduct, as defined. Existing law separately prohibits this conduct where it is done for consideration or where such matter is shared with a minor. Existing law provides an enhanced punishment when these offenses are committed using government property. This bill would expand the scope of certain of these provisions to include matter that is digitally altered or generated by the use of artificial intelligence, as such matter is defined. By expanding the scope of an existing crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. This bill would become operative only if SB 1381 of the 2023–24 Regular Session is enacted and takes effect on or before January 1, 2025.
Existing law, commonly known as the Cyberbullying Protection Act, requires a social media platform, as defined, to disclose all cyberbullying reporting procedures in the social media platform's terms of service and to establish a mechanism within its internet-based service that allows an individual, whether or not that individual has a profile on the internet-based service, to report cyberbullying or content that violates the existing terms of service. The act defines "cyberbullying" to mean any severe or pervasive conduct made by an electronic act, as specified, committed by a pupil or group of pupils directed toward one or more pupils that has, or can reasonably be predicted to have, certain effects, including placing a reasonable pupil in fear of harm to that pupil's person or property. The act makes a social media platform that violates its provisions liable for a civil penalty of not more than $7,500 for each intentional violation to be assessed and recovered in a civil action brought in the name of the people of the State of California by the Attorney General. The act also authorizes a court to order injunctive relief to obtain compliance with these provisions. This bill would generally apply the act's provisions to minors rather than pupils. The bill would define the phrase "severe or pervasive conduct" to include only content that has, or can be reasonably predicted to have, specified harmful, detrimental, or substantially interfering effects. The bill would provide that "severe conduct" may also include conduct that, among other things, calls for self-injury or suicide of a minor or a specific person or of a group of individuals related to a minor. The bill would additionally require the mechanism required by the act to meet additional criteria, including that the mechanism provides, within 36 hours of receipt of a report, written confirmation to the reporting individual that the social media platform received that individual's report. The bill would authorize civil actions for relief only by a parent, legal guardian, or administrator who submits a report of cyberbullying to the social media platform, a city attorney, a district attorney, a county counsel, or the Attorney General. The bill would increase the civil liability for violating the act to $10,000 and would make a social media platform that violates the act's provisions liable for compensatory and punitive damages, as provided. The bill would authorize a court to award reasonable attorney's fees and costs to the prevailing plaintiff, as specified. This bill would state that its provisions are severable. The bill would also make a nonsubstantive change.
Existing unemployment compensation disability law requires workers to pay contribution rates based on, among other things, wages received in employment and benefit disbursement, for payment into the Unemployment Compensation Disability Fund, for purposes of compensating in part for the wage loss sustained by any individual who is unable to work due to the employee's own sickness or injury, among other reasons. Existing law sets forth standards for eligibility to receive unemployment compensation disability benefits. Existing law establishes, within the above state disability insurance program, a family temporary disability insurance program, also known as the paid family leave program, for the provision of wage replacement benefits for up to 8 weeks to workers who take time off work for prescribed purposes, including to care for a seriously ill family member. Existing law requires, for purposes of unemployment compensation disability benefits, the Employment Development Department to issue the initial payment for unemployment compensation disability benefits to a monetarily eligible claimant who is otherwise determined eligible by the department within 14 days of receipt of the claimant's properly completed first disability claim. Existing law provides for purposes of the paid family leave program that eligible workers shall receive benefits generally in accordance with unemployment and disability compensation law. This bill would instead require, for purposes of unemployment compensation disability benefits, the issuance of the initial payment for those benefits within 14 days of receipt of the claimant's properly completed first disability claim or as soon as eligibility begins, whichever is later. The bill would apply the same initial payment issuance schedule applicable to unemployment compensation disability benefits to the paid family leave program and repeal the requirement that eligible workers receive benefits generally in accordance with unemployment and disability compensation law. The bill would make these changes operative when these changes are incorporated in the Employment Development Department's integrated claims management system as part of the EDDNext project. Under the state disability insurance and paid family leave programs, a first claim is required to be filed not later than the 41st consecutive day following the first compensable day with respect to which the claim is made for benefits, as specified. This bill would authorize an individual to initiate the claims process up to 30 days in advance of the anticipated first compensable day. The bill would make these changes operative when the changes are incorporated in the Employment Development Department's integrated claims management system as part of the EDDNext project.
