Capitol Briefs: Mayors, legislative agendas and ‘Farmworkers Day’

Next week is Spring Break so this week was busier than usual. Here is our Capitol Briefs roundup of a few of the things we found notable around the Capitol.

Chavez Day out, Farmworkers Day in: Barely a week after damning revelations about iconic civil rights leader Cesar Chavez’s history of sexual abuse became public, Assembly and Senate lawmakers voted unanimously to change the name of the March 31 holiday honoring his memory to Farmworkers Day. The measure passed 70- in the Assembly and 37-0 in the Senate. As expected, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed it into law right away to have it go into effect before next Tuesday.

Mayors to Newsom – ‘show us the money’: A group of mayors from around California representing the Big City Mayors (BCM) coalition came to Sacramento on Wednesday to lobby lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newsom to commit to allocating $1 billion annually to the Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention (HHAP) Program, which they call “a lifeline for cities addressing our most daunting shared challenge.”

The mayors say the initial six years of the HHAP program have been funded at the $1 billion level, but this year’s budget was cut entirely. Funding has been renewed for 2026-2027, but for only $500 million.

The group said HHAP has led to a collective 9 percent reduction in unsheltered homelessness, 17,000 new shelter beds and 2,300 permanent housing units to get residents off the streets.

“Any responsible legislator, any responsible governor would continue to make the investments that are yielding the benefits and the progress in city after city,” said Irvine Mayor Larry Agran.

BCM also urged all gubernatorial candidates to sign a pledge committing to funding HHAP as on ongoing line-item in the budget.

A variety of caucuses and individual lawmakers rolled out their 2026 legislative agendas this week. Here are a few of them.

Legislative Women’s Caucus announces 2026 priorities: The California Women’s Legislative Caucus (LWC) unveiled its 14-bill legislative package for 2026, centered on economic equity, public safety, healthcare and support for vulnerable families on Wednesday.

The package, selected by caucus members, focuses heavily on affordability and access, particularly for women navigating work, caregiving and rising costs. Members pointed to cases where survivors of domestic violence were dragged into yearslong court battles, or where women in public office were forced to publicly disclose pregnancies just to take leave.

Among the proposals are measures to expand paid pregnancy leave for educators, eliminate out-of-pocket costs for diagnostic breast imaging and reform CalWORKs policies that advocates say penalize low-income families for working too many hours.

“We must remain a national leader in equal pay, protection, affordability and women’s health and safety. And this Legislative Women’s Caucus will not stop prioritizing these issues until women stop getting assaulted in prison or on the streets forever, until our children are protected and thrive, until domestic violence is a bad memory and until we obtain universal childcare and our voices are reflected recognized and respected historically and politically” said Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry (D-Winters), chair of LWC.

Find the full list of the caucus’s priority bills here.

Anti-gun violence groups unveil nine-bill package: A coalition of lawmakers and anti-gun violence groups released their list of priority bills this session aimed at reducing gun violence in California. The bills include:

AB 2047, a bill authored by Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D-Orinda), requires all three-dimensional printers sold in California to be equipped with firearm blocking features designed to prevent the printing of dangerous gun parts and ghost guns. It is in the Assembly Judiciary Committee.

AB 2378, from Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino), would create an Office of Community Violence Intervention within the Board of State and Community Corrections to expand proven strategies to reduce gun violence. It is now in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

SB 948, authored by Sen. Jesse Arreguín (D-Oakland), a bill that would require firearm safety certificate applicants to complete a training course including live-fire shooting exercises. The proposal, which would also mandate that gun owners moving to California from another state obtain a firearms safety certificate within 60 days of bringing that weapon into the state, ids in the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Housing innovation bill package: A bipartisan group of Assembly lawmakers unveiled a six-bill package aimed at bolstering housing construction in California. Some of the measures include:

AB 1815, from Assemblymember Buffy Wicks(D-Oakland), which would bar local jurisdictions from imposing or enforcing building standards that exceed the state minimum building standards on a factory-built housing project. The proposal is in the Assembly Committee on Housing and Community Development.

AB 2012, a bill from Assemblymember Josh Hoover (R-Folsom) that would modify shipping procedures to reduce factory-built housing transportation costs associated with highway escorts. It is in the Assembly Transportation Committee.

AB 2166, a proposal from Assemblymember Juan Carrillo(D-Palmdale): Directs a state entity to provide a financial backstop to make projects whole in case of factory failure. It is in the Assembly Committee on Housing and Community Development.

CEQA cleanup bill: Sen. Catherine Blakespear (D-Encinitas) introduced SB 954, so-called cleanup legislation for 2025’s SB 131, legislation that provides a CEQA exemption for nearly all manufacturing facilities. In a statement Blakespear said her bill “specifies the intent of the Legislature to further narrow the definition of advanced manufacturing, allowing room for stakeholders and the Legislature to discuss, and decide on, what is appropriate.” It is now in the Senate Rules Committee.

This issue of Capitol Briefs was compiled by Capitol Weekly editor Rich Ehisen and senior correspondent Leah O’Tarrow.