Gov. Gavin Newsom today signed Sen. Jerry McNerney’s SB 1168, which is designed to protect Californians from skyrocketing utility rates caused by data centers.
SB 1168 directs the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to examine data centers’ use of excessive amounts of energy and ensure that Californians don’t face rate hikes as a result.

VAN NUYS, CA - Following a challenging year of budget negotiations, Senator Caroline Menjivar (D–San Fernando Valley) has secured $19 million in state funding for Senate District 20, delivering on priorities that Valley families, first responders, and community organizations have long pushed for.

SB 1218 allows jurisdictions to boot vehicles involved in violations for illegal dumping

Today, Senator Thomas J. Umberg (D-Santa Ana), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced that Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 884, the Protect Our Polls Act. The new law takes effect immediately, establishing safeguards against voter intimidation and arrests by federal agents, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), at polling places ahead of the November general election.

On Friday, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 1418 by Senator Sabrina Cervantes (D-Riverside), a bill that directly improves defenses against election interference in California. SB 1418 builds on Senate Bill 73, which the Governor signed into law earlier this year, by extending many of the chain-of-custody protections for voted ballots in that bill to other forms of election records. To provide these protections for the November midterm elections, SB 1418 includes an urgency clause that allows its provisions to take effect immediately. California Attorney General Rob Bonta sponsored the bill.

The California Voting Rights Act of 2026 (CVRA 2026), authored by Senator Sabrina Cervantes (D-Riverside), was signed by Governor Gavin Newsom yesterday. CVRA 2026, which includes Senate Bills 1164 and 1360, provides stronger protections against vote dilution and voter suppression and expands language access assistance to more limited-English proficient (LEP) voters. CVRA 2026, a long-needed update to the California Voting Rights Act of 2001, also strengthens defenses against other forms of voter discrimination that Section 2 of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibited before the unfortunate U.S. Supreme Court decision in Louisiana v. Callais.

SACRAMENTO – Sen. Catherine S. Blakespear, D-Encinitas, on Friday issued the following statement regarding the Governor’s decision to veto SB 954, legislation she authored to rein in overly broad CEQA exemptions:

Senator Jesse Arreguin celebrates the approval of vital funding after campaigning to convert the former horse racetrack into a regional park

SB 936 prohibits the sale of nitrous oxide, except as needed for industry uses, to limit its widespread use as a recreational drug
SACRAMENTO – Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday signed legislation by Sen. Catherine S. Blakespear, D-Encinitas, aimed at preventing the widespread abuse of nitrous oxide as a recreational drug by limiting its sale to specific uses in certain industries. 

SB 955 increases the locations where consumers can take bottles and cans to get their deposits returned, eliminates recycling ‘dead zones’
SACRAMENTO – Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday signed legislation by Sen. Catherine S. Blakespear, D-Encinitas, to boost bottle recycling by ensuring communities have the capacity to take back and recycle 100 percent of the bottles sold by stores in their area.