Skip to main content

How Assembly Democrats Are Prioritizing Affordability During This Two-Year Legislative Session

For immediate release:

Speaker 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 after, California has 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 while 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, as well. Learn more, below:

 

‘The Year of Housing’ – Landmark Reforms to Build More Homes and Approve Affordability Now

Housing is the No. 1 cost drive for California families, and putting California on a path toward building more housing was Speaker Rivas’ top affordability priority in 2025, “The Year of Housing.”

The Assembly prioritized housing for several reasons, including poll after poll indicating that families want and expect more reliable, affordable housing options, and studies that show households and individuals are increasingly spending more of their monthly income on the rent or mortgage.

All Californians deserve the opportunity to live near their jobs, in the communities they serve and help enrich. In the “Year of Housing,” the Assembly Democratic Caucus is taking a major step toward making that a reality. 

This includes landmark housing policy that will alter the trajectory of housing affordability in California, leading to faster construction of new homes, more options for renters and future homeowners and more certainty — and less red tape — for people who want to build.

  • 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.
  • Combatting 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.

 

Protecting California’s Progress in the Face of Trump’s Economic Attacks

California’s 2025-26 budget fights to protect opportunity and affordability in the face of relentless economic attacks by the Trump administration and Republicans in Washington, D.C. 

It cuts red tape to build more housing faster, and preserves critical investments in health care, women’s health, education, and public safety. 

And it honors the Assembly’s commitment not to raise taxes on families, workers, or small businesses. 

Assembly Democrats fought for a budget that not only resists devastating cuts, but also invests in real solutions. 

Read a full budget summary here.

  • No new taxes on individual or families
  • Rejects deep cuts to In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) and long-term care.
  • Blocks the elimination of Proposition 56 payments that support Planned Parenthood and other reproductive and women’s health providers.
  • Preserves Medi-Cal access for undocumented adults by reducing and delaying premiums and maintaining dental benefits.
  • Invests $52 million in food banks and securing a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for child care providers, while transitioning to prospective pay based on enrollment.
  • Protects and expands housing investments, including $500 million in Low-Income Housing Tax Credits and $120 million for the Multifamily Housing Program.
  • Allocates $209 million for housing and homelessness prevention, and securing a new $500 million “Round 7” of Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention (HHAP) funding.
  • Ensures continued funding for public schools, with per-pupil spending rising above $25,000 and a 2.3% COLA for K–12 education.
  • Avoids ongoing cuts to UC and CSU, while allowing some deferred payments.
  • Protects California’s fiscal stability, using rainy day and special fund reserves strategically without raising taxes.

 

Putting More Money Back in Working Family’s Pocketbooks

In today’s economy, every dollar counts — and California’s Legislature is prioritizing real relief. 

From lowering renting costs to raising wages and protecting paid leave, the Legislature has taken meaningful steps to ease financial burdens for working families. These commonsense reforms are about one thing: helping Californians keep more of what they earn while improving access to essential services.

Several new laws have gone into effect or been passed in 2025, including:

 

Long-Term Affordability Solutions and Next Steps

California’s affordability crisis didn’t begin overnight and will not be solved in one legislative session — especially given Trump’s renewed efforts to dismantle the programs and services that support and uplift our workers and businesses.

Tackling the cost of living in a meaningful and lasting way requires sustained attention and real engagement with the everyday challenges working families face. That’s why Speaker Rivas is leading a long-term strategy to confront the root causes of economic pressure and deliver lasting relief by:

  • Creating the Committee on Economic Development, Growth, and Household Impact in order to provide a long term assessment chaired by Assemblymember José Luis Solache Jr., to examine real cost pressures facing Californians—from macroeconomic trends to day-to-day household impacts. These hearings will continue this summer and throughout the year in communities across California.
  • Launching four select committees focused on the largest cost-drivers for California families:
    • Select Committee on Child Care Costs
      • The first hearing was held on Wednesday, August 25th, bringing together parents, educators, providers, and experts to examine and begin to explore solutions for the shortage of child care slots, skyrocketing costs, low educator pay, and the economic toll on families and California’s workforce.
    • Select Committee on Housing Finance and Affordability
      • The first hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, August 27th, exploring creative financing solutions to accelerate affordable housing production.
    • Select Committee on Transportation Costs and Impact of the Low Carbon Fuel Standard
      • The first hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, August 27th, looking into whether the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) program is effectively balancing environmental goals with the rising cost of living for Californians and working to improve transparency, accountability, and benefits for residents. 
    • Select Committee on CalFresh Enrollment and Nutrition.
  • The Utilities & Energy Committee, chaired by Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris, also has begun a series of oversight hearings to examine different cost pressures on utility service affordability, including two hearings already completed on wildfire mitigation and transmission infrastructure costs. These hearings will continue throughout this year on other utility cost issues.

 

Standing-up and Challenging Adversity From Donald Trump 

While California Democrats work to advance affordability, President Trump’s actions are driving the cost-of-living up for Californians. 

Trump and Republican policies are threatening the state’s economy and the essential services people rely on like healthcare, food assistance, and public education programs. 

  • Inflation is increasing under Trump due to his reckless tariffs, which will be paid by consumers
    • The Consumer Price Index rose 2.7% in June from a year earlier, with Trump’s tariffs and trade war accelerating costs
    • Trump’s tariffs are making family essentials and basic household items more expensive: clothing and shoes, food and groceries, auto parts and vehicle repairs, school supplies and electronics
  • Trump’s “Big Ugly Bill” contains massive cuts to our social safety net, harming Californians who already struggle to access health care and afford healthy food. 

The Assembly has been forced to pause meaningful affordability efforts, including lowering broadband costs, because of threats from Washington