Written by Gordon M. Webster Jr.
It’s make or break time in Sacramento. Saturday, Aug. 31, marks the end of the legislative session. Gov. Gavin Newsom has until Sept. 30 to decide on bills that reach his desk.
With only days left in the session, the California Chamber of Commerce is celebrating some of its wins in the form of harmful bills stopped in fiscal committees.
“Some of yesterday’s big wins include stopping or amending down AI bills, labor-backed legislation, broadband, health care and burdensome regulatory proposals, among many others,” said Ben Golombek, CalChamber executive vice president and chief of staff of policy, on Aug. 16.
Here are some the priority bills that were stopped on Aug. 15, according to the CalChamber Alert:
AB 1757 (Kalra; D-San Jose): Website Accessibility. Creates further litigation abuses in California related to online website accessibility, while providing illusory protection against such abuse.
- AB 2239 (Bonta; D-Alameda): Slows Broadband Deployment. Slows down the deployment of broadband in California and will likely lead to litigation.
- AB 2374 (Haney; D-San Francisco): Joint Liability for Businesses of All Sizes. Originally imposed new statutory joint liability on business of any size that contracts for janitorial services if a contractor violates the Displaced Janitor Opportunity Act and placed new mandates on those businesses that should be assigned to the contractor.
- AB 2877 (Bauer-Kahan; D-Orinda): Restricting Information Available to Train AI. Amends the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) to prohibit a developer, as defined, from using the personal information (PI) of a consumer less than 16 years of age, as specified, to train or “fine-tune” an AI system or service unless affirmative authorization is provided pursuant to the CCPA’s provisions providing opt-out/opt-in rights.
- AB 1791 (Weber; D-San Diego): Digital Content Provenance. Mandates removal of certain information from user-generated content; however, technology doesn’t currently exist to do so. Conflicts with other pending legislation.
- AB 2557 (Ortega; D-San Leandro): Local Entity Contracts. Significantly limits the ability of public entities to contract with local small businesses or nonprofits.