Delivering on Affordability, Charting a New Path to Build More Housing and Lower Energy Costs
Speaker Robert Rivas began the two-year 2025-26 Legislative Session by urging his Assembly colleagues to “chart a new path forward and renew the California Dream by focusing on affordability.”
Almost immediately, California also faced unprecedented attacks from the Trump administration, including harmful cuts to programs that provide for working families and costly tariffs that continue to drive-up prices for families and businesses.
The Assembly has risen to meet these challenges and is altering the trajectory of this country’s affordability crisis — charting a course to continue addressing the biggest cost drivers for California families. This work is ongoing through year one of the Legislative Session, and will continue through next year and beyond.
Some of the historic, significant legislative accomplishments from 2025 include:
Landmark Housing Affordability Solutions to Build More Homes Faster
Early in the year, Speaker Rivas and the Assembly passed a bipartisan legislative package designed to speed-up housing construction and support communities rebuilding after the devastating firestorms in Los Angeles. These measures streamline approvals and remove barriers so more homes can be built faster.
Additionally, the Assembly also advanced landmark housing policy that will alter the trajectory of housing affordability in California, leading to quicker construction times and more options for renters and future homeowners — because all Californians deserve the opportunity to live near their jobs, in the communities they serve and help enrich.
Streamlining Housing Development: Passed legislation to fast-track housing construction by reducing regulatory barriers, modernizing CEQA, and cutting costs—at no fiscal cost to the state.
Investing in Affordable Housing: Allocated $500 million for the Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) and $120 million for multifamily housing developments.
Combating Homelessness: Invested $1.5 billion through the Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention (HHAP) program to provide shelter and services for unhoused Californians.
Improving Project Approval Time: Empowered homeowners and developers to use licensed third-party professionals for plan checks when local agencies exceed 30-day review windows, speeding up the building process for small-scale housing.
Holding State Agencies Accountable: Required state departments reviewing post-entitlement housing permits to meet the same deadlines already imposed on local agencies.
Preventing Cost Increases for Future Housing: Enacted a temporary moratorium (2025–2031) on new state and local residential building standards that could increase construction costs, ensuring more affordability in the development process.
Comprehensive Energy Affordability Solutions
The California legislature passed a historic package of six energy, climate and affordability bills, delivering bigger rebates directly on family’s electricity bills.
The legislation, authored and advanced by Speaker Robert Rivas in partnership with the Senate and Governor’s office, marks one of the most ambitious energy affordability efforts in the nation, a historic accomplishment that will:
Lower electricity bills for working families: Extending “Cap and Invest” is estimated to return $3 billion in Climate Credits every year to Californians on their utility bills, with higher rebates to Californians annually.
Allow partnership between states across the West on cleaner, cheaper, more dependable energy: Integrating California’s grid with western states will save Californians upward of $1 billion every year on energy costs.
Create new jobs: These solutions are estimated to create 287,000 jobs through 2045. Cap and Invest has already created 122,000 jobs , plus nearly 14,000 affordable housing projects, and over $9 billion to benefit neighborhoods hit hardest by pollution the program has already achieved.
Make significant investments in affordable housing, cleaner buses, safer drinking water, wildfire prevention and healthier air.
Protect vulnerable communities: The legislation strengthens environmental protections and ensures regulators can act quickly to crack down on polluters and protect public health. It also dedicates Cap and Invest proceeds to support climate change adaptation and the resiliency of disadvantaged communities.
Stabilize gasoline prices and supply: These proposals secure the safe and affordable supply of transportation fuels to better shield families from sudden increases at the pump.
Child Literacy and Education Advancements
Speaker Rivas has made improving California’s education system a top priority by advancing legislation to ensure childhood literacy statewide and securing a $200 million budget investment to equip educators and school leaders with evidence-based tools to improve reading outcomes statewide.
The Speaker’s bill, AB 1454, will advance evidence-based early literacy and provide direct support to help California’s children learn to read in a proficient and timely manner through:
Updating instructional materials: Requires the State Board of Education to adopt instructional materials that align with evidence-based means of teaching foundational reading skills.
Supporting administrator preparation: Requires the Commission on Teacher Credentialing to update school administrator and reading specialist standards to include training to support effective literacy instruction.