Government Watch: May 30, 2026

Under California law, cities and counties must adopt housing elements that demonstrate how they will meet Regional Housing Needs Assessment goals. These plans are comprehensive, complex and hyperlocal, requiring communities to balance unique local needs with extensive state requirements. A recent State Auditor report found that the California Department of Housing and Community Development’s housing element review process often provides inconsistent and nonindividualized feedback, leaving local governments with little guidance and contributing to delays in housing element certification, according to Papan’s office.

Assembly Bill 2296 seeks to improve the bureaucratic process by beginning the RHNA timeline six months earlier and staggering housing element submission deadlines within regional Councils of Government. AB 2296 will next be heard in the Senate.

• The California Senate unanimously passed Senate Bill 923, authored by state Sen. Josh Becker, D–Menlo Park, legislation strengthening Californians’ right to control and delete their personal information under the California Consumer Privacy Act.

SB 923, the Expanding Privacy Rights Act, closes a major loophole in existing law by allowing consumers to request deletion of personal information businesses obtained from third parties, including data brokers. The bill also requires online-only businesses to provide clear and accessible tools for consumers to access, correct, or delete their data, according to Becker’s office. It will be next heard in the Assembly.

• The California Senate passed Senate Bill 913 by Becker to create an improved path for customer-owned resources such as home batteries, electric vehicles and thermostats to compete fairly with other resources like peaker plants, diesel generators to offer the least cost option for providing reliability to the electric grid, according to Becker’s office.

SB 913 allows customer-owned clean energy resources like home batteries, electric vehicles, and smart thermostats to compete on a level playing field with traditional power sources to provide grid reliability at the lowest cost. It now heads to the Assembly for consideration.