AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JANUARY 14, 2026
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JANUARY 5, 2026
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 21, 2025
california legislature—2025–26 regular session
ASSEMBLY BILL No. 35
Introduced by Assembly Member Alvarez
(Principal coauthor: Assembly Member Hadwick)
(Principal coauthor: Senator Arreguín)
(Coauthor: Assembly Member Connolly)
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Alanis, Ávila Farías, Berman, Boerner, Carrillo, Connolly, Davies, Jeff Gonzalez, Mark González, Hoover, Kalra, Patel, Pellerin, Petrie-Norris, Rogers, Solache, Stefani, Wallis, Ward, Wicks, and Zbur)
(Coauthor: Senator Allen)
(Coauthors: Senators Allen, Blakespear, Grayson, Jones, Padilla, Seyarto, and Valladares)
December 2, 2024
An act to amend Section 90135 of the Public Resources Code, relating to en vironmental protection. pr otection, and declaring the ur gency thereof, to take effect immediately.
legislative counsel’s digest
AB 35, as amended, Alvarez. Safe Drinking Water, Wildfire Prevention, Drought Preparedness, and Clean Air Bond Act of 2024:
Administrative Procedure Act: e xemption: program guidelines and selection criteria.
96 Existing la w, the Administrative Procedure Act, sets forth the requirements for the adoption, publication, review, and implementation of regulations by state agencies.
The Safe Drinking Water, Wildfire Prevention, Drought Preparedness, and Clean Air Bond Act of 2024 (act), appro ved by the v oters as Proposition 4 at the No vember 5, 2024, state wide general election, authorized the issuance of bonds in the amount of $10,000,000,000 pursuant to the State General Obligation Bond Law to finance projects for safe drinking w ater, drought, flood, and w ater resilience, wildfire and forest resilience, coastal resilience, e xtreme heat mitig ation, biodiversity and nature-based climate solutions, climate-smart, sustainable, and resilient f arms, ranches, and w orking lands, park creation and outdoor access, and clean air programs.
Existing law authorizes certain re gulations needed to ef fectuate or implement programs of the act to be adopted as emergency regulations in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act, as pro vided.
Existing law requires the emer gency regulations to be filed with the Office of Administrative Law and requires the emergency regulations to remain in ef fect until repealed or amended by the adopting state agency.
This bill would delete the above provisions relating to the adoption of regulations to implement the act as emergency regulations and would instead exempt the adoption of those regulations from the Administrative Procedure Act.
This bill, notwithstanding the abo ve, would exempt the adoption of regulations needed to effectuate or implement programs of the act from the requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act, as provided. The bill would require a state entity that r eceives funding to administer a competitive gr ant pr ogram established using the Administrative Procedure Act exemption to do certain things, including develop draft project solicitation and e valuation guidelines and to submit those guidelines to the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency, except as provided. The bill would require the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency to post an electronic form of the guidelines submitted by a state entity and the subsequent verifications on the Natur al Resour ces Agency’s internet website. The bill would authorize the use of certain previously de veloped pr ogram guidelines and selection criteria for these purposes, as provided.
This bill would declar e that it is to tak e effect immediately as an urgency statute.
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Vote: majority 2⁄3. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
line 1 SECTION 1. Section 90135 of the Public Resources Code is line 2 amended to read:
line 3 90135. (a) The Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency line 4 shall publish a list of all program and project expenditures pursuant line 5 to this division not less than annually , in written form, and shall line 6 post an electronic form of the list on the agency’s internet website line 7 in a do wnloadable spreadsheet format. The spreadsheet shall line 8 include all of the following information:
line 9 (1) Information about the location and footprint of each funded line 10 project.
line 11 (2) The project’s objectives.
line 12 (3) The status of the project.
line 13 (4) Anticipated outcomes.
line 14 (5) The public benefits to be derived from the project, including line 15 whether the project has meaningful and direct benefits to vulnerable line 16 populations, disadvantaged communities, or severely disadvantaged line 17 communities.
line 18 (6) The total cost of the project, if known.
line 19 (7) The amount of bond funding provided.
line 20 (8) Any matching moneys provided for the project by the grant line 21 recipient or other partners.
line 22 (9) The applicable chapter of this di vision pursuant to which line 23 the recipient received moneys.
line 24 (b) The Department of Finance shall provide for an independent line 25 audit of expenditures pursuant to this division. If an audit, required line 26 by la w, of an y entity that recei ves funding authorized by this line 27 division is conducted pursuant to state la w and re veals an y line 28 impropriety, the California State Auditor or the Controller may line 29 conduct or arrange for a full audit of an y or all of the acti vities line 30 funded pursuant to this division. Any audit of a federal Department line 31 of Ener gy or National Aeronautics and Space Administration line 32 research and development center pursuant to this section shall be line 33 conducted in accordance with the Federal Laboratory Contracting line 34 Act (Chapter 7 (commencing with Section 12500) of P art 2 of line 35 Division 2 of the Public Contract Code).
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line 1 (c) A state agenc y issuing an y grant with funding authorized line 2 by this division shall require adequate reporting of the expenditures line 3 of the funding from the grant.
line 4 (d) The costs associated with the publications, audits, statewide line 5 bond tracking, cash management, and related oversight activities line 6 provided for in this section shall be funded from the proceeds of line 7 bonds authorized by this di vision. These costs shall be shared line 8 proportionally by each program funded by this di vision. Actual line 9 costs incurred to administer nongrant programs authorized by this line 10 division shall be paid from the proceeds of bonds authorized by line 11 this division.
line 12 (e) (1) A regulation for the purposes of developing and adopting line 13 program guidelines and selection criteria needed to effectuate or line 14 implement the programs included in Chapter 2 (commencing with line 15 Section 91000) to Chapter 9 (commencing with Section 94500), line 16 inclusive, of this division may be adopted as an emer gency line 17 regulation in accor dance with Chapter 3.5 (commencing with line 18 Section 11340) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government line 19 Code, and for purposes of that chapter, including Section 11349.6 line 20 of the Go vernment Code , the adoption of r egulations is an line 21 emergency and shall be considered by the Office of Administrative line 22 Law as necessary for the immediate pr eservation of the public line 23 peace, health, safety, and general welfare. A state agency shall be line 24 exempt from the r equirement that it describe facts showing the line 25 need for immediate action.
line 26 (2) Notwithstanding Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section line 27 11340) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code, line 28 an emer gency r egulation adopted pur suant to this subdivision line 29 shall be filed with, b ut not be r epealed by , the Office of line 30 Administrative Law, and shall r emain in effect until repealed or line 31 amended by the adopting state agency.
line 32 (f) (1) Notwithstanding subdivision (e), a r egulation for the line 33 purpose of de veloping and adopting pr ogram guidelines and line 34 selection criteria needed to effectuate or implement the programs line 35 included in Chapter 2 (commencing with Section 91000) to Chapter line 36 9 (commencing with Section 94500), inclusive , of this division, line 37 may be adopted pursuant to this subdivision.
line 38 (e)
line 39 (2) Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1 of line 40 Division 3 of Title 2 of the Go vernment Code does not apply to 96 — 4 — AB 35
line 1 the development and adoption of program guidelines and selection line 2 criteria needed to effectuate or implement the programs included line 3 in Chapter 2 (commencing with Section 91000) to Chapter 9, 9 line 4 (commencing with Section 94500), inclusive, of this division. line 5 (3) Before disbursing grants pursuant to this division, a state line 6 entity that r eceives funding to administer a competitive gr ant line 7 program, established using the e xemption pur suant to this line 8 subdivision, shall do all of the following:
line 9 (A) Develop draft project solicitation and evaluation guidelines. line 10 (B) Publish the draft solicitation and evaluation guidelines on line 11 its internet website for a public comment period of at least 30 days. line 12 All written public comments received shall be posted on the state line 13 entity’s internet website, unless indicated otherwise by the person line 14 who provided the written public comment. The state entity shall line 15 respond to each public comment.
line 16 (C) Offer opportunity for tribal consultation to impacted tribes. line 17 (D) After completing the r equirements contained in line 18 subparagraphs (A) to (C), inclusive , finalize project solicitation line 19 and evaluation guidelines.
line 20 (E) (i) Submit the final guidelines to the Secretary of the Natural line 21 Resources Agency. The Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency line 22 shall verify that the guidelines ar e consistent with applicable line 23 statutes and for all the purposes enumerated in this division. The line 24 Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency shall post an electronic line 25 form of the guidelines submitted by a state entity and the line 26 subsequent verifications on the Natur al Resour ces Agency’s line 27 internet website.
line 28 (ii) The requirement to submit final guidelines to the Secretary line 29 of the Natur al Resour ces shall not apply to the State Water line 30 Resources Control Board.
line 31 (4) Notwithstanding paragraph (3), if a state entity, before the line 32 effective date of the act adding this par agraph, developed and line 33 adopted project solicitation and evaluation guidelines that comply line 34 with the requirements of this division for a program described in line 35 Chapter 2 (commencing with Section 91000) to Chapter 9 line 36 (commencing with Section 94500), inclusive, of this division, the line 37 use of those guidelines shall constitute compliance with the line 38 requirements of this subdivision.
line 39 SEC. 2. This act is an ur gency statute necessary for the line 40 immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within 96 AB 35 — 5 —
line 1 the meaning of Article IV of the California Constitution and shall line 2 go into immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
line 3 Climate change has intensified wildfire risk, drought conditions, line 4 and threats to safe and reliable drinking water, including impacts line 5 to farmland and a gricultural communities. Immediate ef fect is line 6 necessary to prevent increased risks to public health and safety , line 7 and to allow state agencies to promptly administer and distribute line 8 funds appropriated pursuant to the Safe Drinking Water, Wildfire line 9 Prevention, Drought Preparedness, and Clean Air Bond Act of line 10 2024, approved by the voters as Proposition 4 at the November 5, line 11 2024, statewide general election, consistent with voter intent, to line 12 support wildfir e r esilience, climate adaptation, pr otection of line 13 agricultural water resources, and access to safe drinking water.
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