Last Friday was the deadline for introducing bills in the 2026 California Legislative Session. Between the Assembly and Senate, nearly 1,800 bills were introduced, which is lowest number in the past 20 years.

About 600 of the bills are either “spot” or “intent” bills, which basically act as placeholders until there are amendments with substantive language.

Despite the lower overall bill count, California’s Credit Unions anticipates numerous bills that will impact credit unions. The league has a busy year ahead in the state legislature. Below are some of the highlight bills the league is already engaged in.

• Assembly Bill 2674 (Schiavo): Financial Abuse and Deception/Preventive Measures – Another bill on preventing financial abuse and deception, as well as holding financial institutions liable similar to prior bills the league has seen over the last couple of years.
• Assembly Bill 2243 (Haney and Kalra): State Bank – Currently, this is an intent bill regarding public banking with the consideration of creating a state-owned depository bank or an expanded role for the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank.
• Assembly Bill 1542 (Ward): Sensitive Personal Information – A bill that would prohibit a business, service provider, or contractor from selling or sharing sensitive personal information to a third party.
• Two bills expanding mortgage forbearance for victims of the 2025 Los Angeles-area firestorms: Assembly Bill1847 and Assembly Bill 1842, authored by California Assemblymember John Harabedian.
• Multiple bills on the use of workplace surveillance tools, artificial intelligence, and automated decisions systems: Assembly Bill 1883 (Bryan), Assembly Bill 1898 (Schultz), and Senate Bill 947 (McNerney).

California’s Credit Unions’ Legislative Advocacy Committee will hold its first meeting on March 10 to take official bill positions.

If you haven’t already, please register for the California Government Relations Rally (GRR) on April 13-14 in Sacramento, CA so legislators can hear directly how bills impact your credit union.