---
type: "Bill"
title: "Vehicles: high-occupancy vehicle lanes."
description: "Existing federal law authorizes, until September 30, 2019, a state to allow low emission and energy-efficient vehicles, as specified, to use lanes designated for high-occupancy vehicles (HOVs) . Existing federal law also authorizes, until September 30, 2025, a state to allow alternative fuel vehicles, as defined, and new qualified plug-in electric drive motor vehicles, as defined, to use those HOV lanes."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20172018"
identifier: "AB 544"
citation: "California AB 544 (20172018)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Vehicles: high-occupancy vehicle lanes."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Bloom"]
version_count: 10
action_count: 31
vote_count: 7
first_action: "2017-02-13"
last_action: "2017-10-10"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/403f3ae9-7d32-4331-888b-1ee78abb865b"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB544"
source_hash: "002ee22594a9f0c5e697e71e05fce99ea699fe7e1b103acb35d50e8ddcdf72bd"
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 544 (20172018) — Vehicles: high-occupancy vehicle lanes.

Existing federal law authorizes, until September 30, 2019, a state to allow low emission and energy-efficient vehicles, as specified, to use lanes designated for high-occupancy vehicles (HOVs) . Existing federal law also authorizes, until September 30, 2025, a state to allow alternative fuel vehicles, as defined, and new qualified plug-in electric drive motor vehicles, as defined, to use those HOV lanes.

## Version chain

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

1. **02/13/17 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB544&version=20170AB54499INT)
2. **03/21/17 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB544&version=20170AB54498AMD)
3. **04/27/17 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB544&version=20170AB54497AMD)
4. **05/30/17 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB544&version=20170AB54496AMD)
5. **07/03/17 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB544&version=20170AB54495AMD)
6. **09/01/17 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB544&version=20170AB54494AMD)
7. **09/08/17 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB544&version=20170AB54493AMD)
8. **10/10/17 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB544&version=20170AB54491CHP)
9. **AB544** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB544)
10. **09/15/17 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB544&version=20170AB54492ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass as amended — **5–2** (pass) · upper
- AB 544 BLOOM Assembly Third Reading — **63–9** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **12–0** (pass) · upper
- 3rd Reading AB544 Bloom By Wieckowski — **32–5** (pass) · upper
- AB 544 Bloom Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **62–15** (pass) · lower
- Placed on suspense file — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended. — **12–5** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Bloom — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2017-02-13** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2017-02-14** From printer. May be heard in committee March 16.
- **2017-03-20** Referred to Com. on TRANS. `referral-committee`
- **2017-03-21** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on TRANS. Read second time and amended. `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-2, reading-1`
- **2017-03-22** Re-referred to Com. on TRANS. `referral-committee`
- **2017-04-26** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 11. Noes 3.) (April 24). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, amendment-introduction`
- **2017-04-27** Read second time and amended. `reading-1, amendment-passage, reading-2`
- **2017-05-01** Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee`
- **2017-05-17** In committee: Set, first hearing. Referred to APPR. suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2017-05-26** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended. (Ayes 12. Noes 5.) (May 26). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, amendment-introduction`
- **2017-05-30** Read second time and amended. Ordered returned to second reading. `reading-1, amendment-passage, reading-2`
- **2017-05-30** Assembly Rule 63 suspended. (Ayes 52. Noes 24. Page 1776.)
- **2017-05-30** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2017-06-01** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 63. Noes 9. Page 2068.) `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2017-06-05** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2017-06-14** Referred to Com. on T. & H. `referral-committee`
- **2017-07-03** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on T. & H. `amendment-passage, referral-committee, reading-2, reading-1, amendment-introduction`
- **2017-07-12** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 12. Noes 0.) (July 11). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2017-08-21** In committee: Referred to APPR. suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2017-09-01** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended. (Ayes 5. Noes 2.) (September 1). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, amendment-introduction`
- **2017-09-01** Read second time and amended. Ordered returned to second reading. `reading-1, amendment-passage, reading-2`
- **2017-09-05** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2017-09-08** Read third time and amended. Ordered to second reading. `amendment-passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2017-09-11** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2017-09-12** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 32. Noes 5. Page 2781.). `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2017-09-13** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending. May be considered on or after September 15 pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.
- **2017-09-13** Assembly Rule 77(a) suspended. (Ayes 54. Noes 25. Page 3255.)
- **2017-09-13** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 62. Noes 15. Page 3325.). `committee-passage-favorable, amendment-passage`
- **2017-09-20** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 4:30 p.m.
- **2017-10-10** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2017-10-10** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 630, Statutes of 2017.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/403f3ae9-7d32-4331-888b-1ee78abb865b`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).