---
type: "Bill"
title: "Vehicles: driving under the influence."
description: "Existing law makes it a crime for a person who is under the influence of a drug to drive a vehicle. Existing law also makes it a crime for a person to drive under the influence and proximately cause bodily harm to another person, as specified."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20192020"
identifier: "AB 397"
citation: "California AB 397 (20192020)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Vehicles: driving under the influence."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Chau"]
version_count: 9
action_count: 27
vote_count: 8
first_action: "2019-02-06"
last_action: "2019-10-08"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/8ea7f030-7934-42dc-98c7-18d404dd9154"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB397"
source_hash: "d33999ea4812674cf48378254c8e3ea8ea367241344c1d9269f58d154c5d4688"
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 397 (20192020) — Vehicles: driving under the influence.

Existing law makes it a crime for a person who is under the influence of a drug to drive a vehicle. Existing law also makes it a crime for a person to drive under the influence and proximately cause bodily harm to another person, as specified.

## Version chain

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

1. **02/06/19 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB397&version=20190AB39799INT)
2. **03/21/19 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB397&version=20190AB39798AMD)
3. **05/16/19 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB397&version=20190AB39797AMD)
4. **06/18/19 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB397&version=20190AB39796AMD)
5. **07/11/19 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB397&version=20190AB39795AMD)
6. **08/30/19 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB397&version=20190AB39794AMD)
7. **10/08/19 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB397&version=20190AB39792CHP)
8. **AB397** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB397)
9. **09/10/19 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB397&version=20190AB39793ENR)

## Votes

- AB 397 Chau Assembly Third Reading — **78–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass as amended, and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] with recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **8–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 397 Chau Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **79–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass as amended — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended, but first amend, and re-refer to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- Placed on suspense file — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended. — **18–0** (pass) · lower
- 3rd Reading AB397 Chau et al. By Bates — **40–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Chau — primary (person)
- Bates — coauthor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2019-02-06** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2019-02-07** From printer. May be heard in committee March 9.
- **2019-02-15** Referred to Com. on PUB. S. `referral-committee`
- **2019-03-20** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 8. Noes 0.) (March 19). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, amendment-introduction`
- **2019-03-21** Read second time and amended. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2`
- **2019-03-25** Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee`
- **2019-04-03** In committee: Set, first hearing. Referred to APPR. suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2019-05-16** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended. (Ayes 18. Noes 0.) (May 16). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, amendment-introduction`
- **2019-05-16** Read second time and amended. Ordered returned to second reading. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2`
- **2019-05-20** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2019-05-23** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 78. Noes 0. Page 1931.) `passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2019-05-24** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2019-06-06** Referred to Com. on RLS. `referral-committee`
- **2019-06-18** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on RLS. `reading-1, reading-2, amendment-passage, referral-committee, amendment-introduction`
- **2019-06-26** Re-referred to Com. on PUB. S. `referral-committee`
- **2019-07-11** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (July 9). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, amendment-introduction`
- **2019-07-11** Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `reading-1, reading-2, amendment-passage, referral-committee`
- **2019-08-12** In committee: Referred to APPR. suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2019-08-30** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (August 30). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, amendment-introduction`
- **2019-08-30** Read second time and amended. Ordered returned to second reading. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2`
- **2019-09-03** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2019-09-05** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 40. Noes 0. Page 2578.). `passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2019-09-06** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending. May be considered on or after September 8 pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.
- **2019-09-09** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 79. Noes 0. Page 3153.). `amendment-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2019-09-12** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 3:30 p.m.
- **2019-10-08** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2019-10-08** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 610, Statutes of 2019.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/8ea7f030-7934-42dc-98c7-18d404dd9154`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).