The landmark bills were signed into law Monday evening and represent a major step forward, making it faster and less expensive for Californians to build homes and ultimately achieve more affordable housing
- Cynthia Moreno
- Press Secretary
- 916-319-2029
- Cynthia.Moreno@asm.ca.gov
SACRAMENTO— Landmark new housing bills championed by Speaker Robert Rivas and Assembly Democrats were signed into law on Monday. The historic legislation will alter the trajectory of affordability in the state, leading to faster construction of new homes and more housing options for renters and future homeowners.
Assembly Bill 130, the budget bill signed by Governor Gavin Newsom, incorporates the policy of AB 609 (Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland) and AB 306 (Assemblymember Nick Schultz, D-Burbank), which will lead to more infill housing and provide more certainty and fewer delays for builders.
Also signed into law was Senate Bill 131, which will help streamline the process to build more homes, break down development barriers, modernize CEQA protections, and reduce costs.
The entire package represents a major step forward to make it easier and less expensive for Californians to build — and ultimately achieve — more affordable housing. The solution also comes at no fiscal cost to the state.
The newly signed legislation had broad support from a variety of community groups, including workers and environmental justice organizations, and will be essential to ensuring that hardworking California families can live near their jobs, schools and the communities they call home.
Here is What Labor, Business, and Community Groups Say About the Landmark Housing Laws.
For Speaker Robert Rivas’ Full Remarks, Click on the Picture Below
What California Leaders Say About This Landmark Housing Affordability Solution
"Workers, business owners, and all Californians deserve the opportunity to live near their jobs, in the communities they help build. I’m committed to making that a reality,” said Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Salinas). “This budget delivers smart, sustainable, and transformative housing solutions that cut red tape and streamline approvals — because building more homes, faster, is essential to making California more affordable and expanding opportunity for all.”
“This is what we’ve all been waiting for — a long-overdue step to stop CEQA from being weaponized against housing,” said Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland). “With AB 130, we’re taking a major step toward building desperately needed homes faster, fairer, and with more certainty. This is what our working-class families deserve and how we move California’s housing goals from promise to reality.”
Media Say California Addressed ‘One of the Biggest Obstacles’ to Building New, Affordable Housing
New York Times: California Rolls Back Its Landmark Environmental Law
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/30/us/california-environment-newsom-ceqa.html
“Robert Rivas, the speaker of the State Assembly, framed the vote as a social issue for Democrats during a news conference after the vote. ‘Affordable housing is the civil rights struggle of our time here in California,’ he said, ‘and today we take a transformative step forward in that fight.’”
CalMatters: One of the biggest obstacles to building new CA housing has now vanished
https://calmatters.org/housing/2025/06/ceqa-urban-development-infill-budget/
“Saying ‘no’ to housing in my community will no longer be state sanctioned,” said Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, an Oakland Democrat who introduced the CEQA law as a separate bill in March. “This isn’t going to solve all of our housing problems in the state, but it is going to remove the single biggest impediment to building environmentally friendly housing.”
San Jose Mercury: California approves most significant environmental law rollback in decades
“Assembly Bills 130 and 131 shield a slew of projects — from new apartments to rail stations and advanced manufacturing facilities — from the California Environmental Quality Act. None of us thought this would have been possible a couple of months ago,” Wicks, an Oakland Democrat, said. “But I think the winds of change are with us. Our constituents are demanding it.”
Los Angeles Times: Newsom pushes major housing reform through California Legislature
“Experts in development said the new legislation could provide the most significant reforms to CEQA in its 55-year history, especially for urban housing.”
San Francisco Chronicle: ‘Holy Grail reform’: California passes major overhaul of CEQA
https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/california-ceqa-reform-20401081.php
“Gov. Gavin Newsom and California lawmakers on Monday enacted some of the most significant changes to the state’s environmental review law since its inception that supporters say will lessen a major barrier to building housing and which the governor called “Holy Grail reform.”
POLITICO: California is about to roll back a landmark environmental law
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/06/30/california-landmark-environmental-ceqa-housing-00434678
“Industry and pro-housing groups like the California Chamber of Commerce and California YIMBY are cheering the win. Matthew Lewis, a spokesperson for California YIMBY, called the measure “the biggest housing legislation in a generation.”’
Wall Street Journal: California Dismantles Landmark Environmental Law to Tackle Housing Crisis
“But California sits at the epicenter of America’s home shortage. The state has faced a homelessness crisis. Nine of the 10 least affordable cities in the country are located there, according to a May 20 report by WalletHub, a personal-finance company. And the heart of the problem, say housing experts, are the regulatory barriers to construction. The state needs 3.5 million units, but only about 100,000 are built annually.”
“We have turned off the spigot on housing for the last 20 to 30 years,” said Michael Lens, a professor of urban planning and policy at the University of California, Los Angeles.
KCRA: California makes major changes to the state's landmark environmental law to build more housing
https://www.kcra.com/article/california-changes-environmental-law-housing/65259715
“California lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday passed major changes to the California Environmental Quality Act in what supporters say is a historic move to get more housing built across the state.”
“Today we told the world we are ready to be open for business, the business of being open for housing,” Wicks said Monday night.
The Hill: Newsom signs sweeping rollbacks of key California environmental review law
“Among the reforms included in the new bills are measures to speed up housing and infrastructure projects by streamlining their environmental review. Some such projects are infill housing — residences built in unused urban lots, high-speed rail, utilities, broadband — as well as community centers, farmworker housing and wildfire prevention structures.”
“No longer will CEQA be leveraged to stall critical county wildfire, water and housing projects,” Jeff Griffiths, president of the California State Association of Counties, said in a statement.”
Newsweek: California Housing To Change Under New Law: What to Know
https://www.newsweek.com/california-housing-change-under-new-law-what-know-2092859
“Many are thrilled about the changes the new bills will enable.”
“With the new laws in effect as of July 1, housing developers are expected to move quickly to initiate projects previously hindered by CEQA litigation.”
Washington Examiner: California rolls back strict environmental law to address housing shortage
“The bills mean most new apartment buildings will no longer face the open threat of environmental litigation. Proponents believe CEQA’s overhaul will help relieve the housing shortage in California, which has some of the most expensive housing markets in the country and the highest homeless rates in the nation.”
Speaker Rivas’s Actions to Improve Housing Affordability
California’s housing crisis is real. The state is experiencing a 2.5-million-unit shortfall — and it first must be addressed by jump-starting construction of new homes that work for all residents.
At the beginning of the 2025-26 Legislative Session, Speaker Robert Rivas urged his colleagues to consider every bill through the lens of Californians’ concerns about affordability, and specifically to focus on building more housing.
“The country looks to California for leadership, and we will continue to lead,” Speaker Rivas said to a packed Assembly chamber in December. “But our ability to protect these essential California values of equality, diversity, and opportunity depends on delivering for constituents in practical, concrete ways. Practical solutions like building more housing for lower- and middle-class families. Affordable decent housing isn’t just a policy challenge – it’s the civil rights struggle of our time. Every worker has the right to live near their jobs in the communities they help build, serve, and enrich. And we have a responsibility to make that a reality.”
A longtime housing affordability advocate, Speaker Rivas has prioritized housing solutions since he joined the Assembly in 2018.
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Instagram: @caspeakerrivas
Facebook: www.facebook.com/CASpeakerRivas/