---
type: "Bill"
title: "Groundwater sustainability agency: transparency."
description: "Existing law, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, requires all groundwater basins designated as high- or medium-priority basins by the Department of Water Resources to be managed under a groundwater sustainability plan or coordinated groundwater sustainability plans, except as specified. Existing law requires a groundwater sustainability plan to be developed and implemented for each medium- or high-priority basin by a groundwater sustainability agency. Existing law authorizes any local agency or combination of local agencies overlying a groundwater basin to decide to become a groundwater sustainability agency for that basin, as provided. Existing law requires members of the board of directors and the executive, as defined, of a groundwater sustainability agency to file statements of economic interests with the Fair Political Practices Commission using the commission's online system for filing statements of economic interests."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20252026"
identifier: "AB 293"
citation: "California AB 293 (20252026)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Groundwatersustainabilityagency", "transparency"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Bennett"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 15
vote_count: 4
first_action: "2025-01-22"
last_action: "2025-10-06"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/324c3ae3-0cdb-46f9-a18c-463a81d8d4ac"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB293"
source_hash: "a1fd4d7f7ff6ad92bf4face0d828b540bd81a59d04d07c86c3fbe66e08e3a6c1"
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 293 (20252026) — Groundwater sustainability agency: transparency.

Existing law, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, requires all groundwater basins designated as high- or medium-priority basins by the Department of Water Resources to be managed under a groundwater sustainability plan or coordinated groundwater sustainability plans, except as specified. Existing law requires a groundwater sustainability plan to be developed and implemented for each medium- or high-priority basin by a groundwater sustainability agency. Existing law authorizes any local agency or combination of local agencies overlying a groundwater basin to decide to become a groundwater sustainability agency for that basin, as provided. Existing law requires members of the board of directors and the executive, as defined, of a groundwater sustainability agency to file statements of economic interests with the Fair Political Practices Commission using the commission's online system for filing statements of economic interests.

## Version chain

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

1. **01/22/25 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB293&version=20250AB29399INT)
2. **10/06/25 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB293&version=20250AB29397CHP)
3. **AB293** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB293)
4. **09/05/25 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB293&version=20250AB29398ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass — **5–0** (pass) · upper
- 3rd Reading AB293 Bennett By Hurtado — **31–3** (pass) · upper
- Do pass. — **11–2** (pass) · lower
- AB 293 Bennett Assembly Third Reading — **62–5** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Bennett — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2025-01-22** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2025-01-23** From printer. May be heard in committee February 22.
- **2025-02-18** Referred to Com. on W. P., & W. `referral-committee`
- **2025-03-25** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 11. Noes 2.) (March 25). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2025-03-26** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2025-04-01** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 62. Noes 5.) `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2025-04-02** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2025-05-07** Referred to Com. on N.R. & W. `referral-committee`
- **2025-06-10** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 5. Noes 0.) (June 10). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2025-06-11** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2025-09-03** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 31. Noes 3. Page 2426.). `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2025-09-03** In Assembly. Ordered to Engrossing and Enrolling. `committee-passage`
- **2025-09-09** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 3 p.m.
- **2025-10-06** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2025-10-06** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 359, Statutes of 2025. `became-law`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/324c3ae3-0cdb-46f9-a18c-463a81d8d4ac`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).