---
type: "Bill"
title: "Emergency medical services: dispatch."
description: "Existing law, the Warren-911-Emergency Assistance Act, requires every local public agency to establish within its jurisdiction a basic emergency telephone system that includes, at a minimum, police, firefighting, and emergency medical and ambulance services. Existing law authorizes a public agency to incorporate private ambulance service into the system."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20192020"
identifier: "SB 438"
citation: "California SB 438 (20192020)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Emergency medical services: dispatch."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Hertzberg"]
version_count: 8
action_count: 27
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2019-02-21"
last_action: "2019-10-01"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/57c5f8b0-fbf2-41bb-810d-0d778f8511b2"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB438"
source_hash: "29bbff53089c7691e2a1115278223344ba43e0b7eee5175a484e7d9a71e8458c"
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 SB 438 (20192020) — Emergency medical services: dispatch.

Existing law, the Warren-911-Emergency Assistance Act, requires every local public agency to establish within its jurisdiction a basic emergency telephone system that includes, at a minimum, police, firefighting, and emergency medical and ambulance services. Existing law authorizes a public agency to incorporate private ambulance service into the system.

## Version chain

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

1. **02/21/19 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB438&version=20190SB43899INT)
2. **03/25/19 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB438&version=20190SB43898AMD)
3. **05/02/19 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB438&version=20190SB43897AMD)
4. **06/18/19 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB438&version=20190SB43896AMD)
5. **07/11/19 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB438&version=20190SB43895AMD)
6. **10/01/19 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB438&version=20190SB43893CHP)
7. **SB438** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB438)
8. **09/06/19 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB438&version=20190SB43894ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass as amended. — **13–0** (pass) · lower
- SB 438 Hertzberg Senate Third Reading By Eggman — **68–4** (pass) · lower
- Do pass as amended — **9–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Health] — **6–1** (pass) · upper
- 3rd Reading SB438 Hertzberg et al. — **32–4** (pass) · upper
- Unfinished Business SB438 Hertzberg et al. Concurrence — **33–6** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Hertzberg — primary (person)
- Aguiar-Curry — coauthor (person)
- Bonta — coauthor (person)
- Eggman — principal coauthor (person)
- Galgiani — coauthor (person)
- Rodriguez — coauthor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2019-02-21** Introduced. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. To print. `introduction, reading-1`
- **2019-02-22** From printer. May be acted upon on or after March 24.
- **2019-03-07** Referred to Com. on RLS. `referral-committee`
- **2019-03-25** From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on RLS. `reading-1, reading-2, amendment-passage, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2019-04-03** Re-referred to Coms. on GOV. & F. and HEALTH. `referral-committee`
- **2019-04-04** Set for hearing April 10.
- **2019-04-11** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on HEALTH. (Ayes 6. Noes 1. Page 713.) (April 10). Re-referred to Com. on HEALTH. `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2019-04-12** Set for hearing April 24.
- **2019-04-22** April 24 hearing postponed by committee.
- **2019-04-23** Set for hearing May 1.
- **2019-05-01** From committee: Do pass as amended. (Ayes 9. Noes 0. Page 904.) (May 1). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, amendment-passage`
- **2019-05-02** Read second time and amended. Ordered to third reading. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2`
- **2019-05-22** Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 32. Noes 4. Page 1208.) Ordered to the Assembly. `passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2019-05-22** In Assembly. Read first time. Held at Desk. `reading-1`
- **2019-06-13** Referred to Coms. on L. GOV. and HEALTH. `referral-committee`
- **2019-06-18** From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on L. GOV. `reading-1, reading-2, amendment-passage, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2019-06-26** July 3 hearing postponed by committee.
- **2019-06-27** Re-referred to Com. on HEALTH pursuant to Assembly Rule 96. `referral-committee`
- **2019-07-10** From committee: Do pass as amended. (Ayes 13. Noes 0.) (July 9). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, amendment-passage`
- **2019-07-11** Read second time and amended. Ordered to second reading. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2`
- **2019-08-12** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2019-09-03** Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 68. Noes 4. Page 2952.) Ordered to the Senate. `passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2019-09-03** In Senate. Concurrence in Assembly amendments pending.
- **2019-09-04** Assembly amendments concurred in. (Ayes 33. Noes 6. Page 2501.) Ordered to engrossing and enrolling. `amendment-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2019-09-10** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 4 p.m.
- **2019-10-01** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2019-10-01** Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 389, Statutes of 2019.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/57c5f8b0-fbf2-41bb-810d-0d778f8511b2`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).