---
type: "Bill"
title: "Legislature: Legislative Employee Whistleblower Protection Act."
description: "Existing law generally protects employees who disclose illegal or improper workplace activities by prohibiting interference with, and retaliation for, making such disclosures. Existing law provides procedures for a person to file a complaint alleging violations of legislative ethics. Existing law also authorizes each house of the Legislature to adopt rules for its proceedings and to select committees necessary for the conduct of its business."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20172018"
identifier: "AB 403"
citation: "California AB 403 (20172018)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Legislature: Legislative Employee Whistleblower Protection Act."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Melendez"]
version_count: 6
action_count: 27
vote_count: 8
first_action: "2017-02-09"
last_action: "2018-02-05"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/e271f3ae-50bd-4718-8a5b-43e81819e53e"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB403"
source_hash: "bfb133ad1c9ebe74e7a70a5db883a631e9fe16e1f7c0bec9aef20fa2b5ca32ce"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 403 (20172018) — Legislature: Legislative Employee Whistleblower Protection Act.

Existing law generally protects employees who disclose illegal or improper workplace activities by prohibiting interference with, and retaliation for, making such disclosures. Existing law provides procedures for a person to file a complaint alleging violations of legislative ethics. Existing law also authorizes each house of the Legislature to adopt rules for its proceedings and to select committees necessary for the conduct of its business.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/09/17 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB403&version=20170AB40399INT)
2. **01/23/18 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB403&version=20170AB40398AMD)
3. **01/29/18 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB403&version=20170AB40397AMD)
4. **02/05/18 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB403&version=20170AB40395CHP)
5. **AB403** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB403)
6. **02/05/18 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB403&version=20170AB40396ENR)

## Votes

- AB 403 MELENDEZ Concurrence - Urgency Added — **75–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] with the recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- Placed on suspense file — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- AB 403 MELENDEZ Consent Calendar Second Day — **77–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Rules] with recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **11–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass. To Consent Calendar. — **16–0** (pass) · lower
- 3rd Reading AB403 Melendez et al. By Bates Urgency Clause — **38–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **11–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Melendez — primary (person)
- Acosta — coauthor (person)
- Allen — coauthor (person)
- Anderson — coauthor (person)
- Arambula — coauthor (person)
- Baker — coauthor (person)
- Bates — coauthor (person)
- Berman — coauthor (person)
- Berryhill — coauthor (person)
- Bigelow — coauthor (person)
- Bonta — coauthor (person)
- Bradford — coauthor (person)
- Brough — coauthor (person)
- Cannella — coauthor (person)
- Cervantes — coauthor (person)
- Chau — coauthor (person)
- Chen — coauthor (person)
- Chiu — coauthor (person)
- Choi — coauthor (person)
- Chu — coauthor (person)
- Chávez — coauthor (person)
- Cristina Garcia — author (person)
- Dahle — author (person)
- Dodd — coauthor (person)
- Flora — coauthor (person)
- Fong — coauthor (person)
- Friedman — author (person)
- Fuller — coauthor (person)
- Gaines — coauthor (person)
- Galgiani — coauthor (person)
- Gallagher — coauthor (person)
- Gray — coauthor (person)
- Harper — coauthor (person)
- Hill — coauthor (person)
- Irwin — coauthor (person)
- Kiley — coauthor (person)
- Lackey — coauthor (person)
- Levine — coauthor (person)
- Leyva — coauthor (person)
- Limón — coauthor (person)
- Maienschein — coauthor (person)
- Mayes — coauthor (person)
- McGuire — coauthor (person)
- Moorlach — coauthor (person)
- Morrell — coauthor (person)
- Mullin — coauthor (person)
- Muratsuchi — coauthor (person)
- Nazarian — coauthor (person)
- Nguyen — coauthor (person)
- Nielsen — coauthor (person)
- Patterson — coauthor (person)
- Portantino — principal coauthor (person)
- Quirk — coauthor (person)
- Rodriguez — coauthor (person)
- Roth — coauthor (person)
- Steinorth — coauthor (person)
- Stone — coauthor (person)
- Ting — coauthor (person)
- Travis Allen — coauthor (person)
- Vidak — principal coauthor (person)
- Voepel — coauthor (person)
- Waldron — coauthor (person)
- Wiener — coauthor (person)
- Wilk — coauthor (person)
- Wood — coauthor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2017-02-09** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2017-02-10** From printer. May be heard in committee March 12.
- **2017-02-21** Referred to Coms. on JUD. and RLS. `referral-committee`
- **2017-03-14** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on RLS. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 11. Noes 0.) (March 14). Re-referred to Com. on RLS. `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2017-04-24** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 11. Noes 0.) (April 24). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2017-05-03** From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 16. Noes 0.) (May 3). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2017-05-04** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2017-05-11** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 77. Noes 0. Page 1487.) `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2017-05-11** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2017-05-24** Referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2017-06-13** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (June 13). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2017-06-26** In committee: Referred to suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2017-09-01** In committee: Held under submission.
- **2018-01-03** Withdrawn from committee.
- **2018-01-03** Re-referred to Com. on RLS. `referral-committee`
- **2018-01-23** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on RLS. `amendment-passage, referral-committee, reading-2, reading-1, amendment-introduction`
- **2018-01-24** Withdrawn from committee.
- **2018-01-24** Ordered to second reading.
- **2018-01-25** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2018-01-29** Read third time and amended. Ordered to second reading. `amendment-passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2018-01-30** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2018-02-01** Read third time. Urgency clause adopted. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 38. Noes 0. Page 3237.). `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2018-02-01** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending. May be considered on or after February 3 pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.
- **2018-02-05** Urgency clause adopted. Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 75. Noes 0. Page 3924.). `committee-passage-favorable, amendment-passage`
- **2018-02-05** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 3 p.m.
- **2018-02-05** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2018-02-05** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 2, Statutes of 2018.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/e271f3ae-50bd-4718-8a5b-43e81819e53e`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).