---
type: "Bill"
title: "State contracts."
description: "(1) Existing law, with regard to certain state contracts, requires the awarding department to award the contract to the lowest responsible bidder meeting or making a good faith effort to meet specified statewide participation goals for disabled veteran business enterprises. Existing law requires that, if a bidder cites an approved utilization plan in response to the disabled veteran business enterprise participation requirements of a solicitation that calls for specified business participation, and the solicitation specifies higher participation goals than the utilization plan, the bidder shall meet the goals in the solicitation or make a good faith effort to do so."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20092010 Special Session 4"
identifier: "AB 21"
citation: "California AB 21 (20092010 Special Session 4)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["State contracts."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Evans"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 21
vote_count: 3
first_action: "2009-07-02"
last_action: "2009-07-28"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/11b62e50-6213-4125-a664-4dc1725c56eb"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=200920104AB21"
source_hash: "7a35d66f7b517c2ddaa2d1a9060f126f25ee1443da6c473bb819e80b8ff75169"
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 21 (20092010 Special Session 4) — State contracts.

(1) Existing law, with regard to certain state contracts, requires the awarding department to award the contract to the lowest responsible bidder meeting or making a good faith effort to meet specified statewide participation goals for disabled veteran business enterprises. Existing law requires that, if a bidder cites an approved utilization plan in response to the disabled veteran business enterprise participation requirements of a solicitation that calls for specified business participation, and the solicitation specifies higher participation goals than the utilization plan, the bidder shall meet the goals in the solicitation or make a good faith effort to do so.

## Version chain

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

1. **07/02/09 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=200920104AB21&version=20094AB2199INT)
2. **07/23/09 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=200920104AB21&version=20094AB2198AMD)
3. **07/28/09 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=200920104AB21&version=20094AB2196CHP)
4. **AB21** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=200920104AB21)
5. **07/28/09 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=200920104AB21&version=20094AB2197ENR)

## Votes

- AB 21 EVANS Concurrence- Urgency Added Fourth Extraordinary Session — **pass** (pass) · lower
- AB 21 EVANS Assembly Third Reading Fourth Extraordinary Session — **pass** (pass) · lower
- Assembly 3rd Reading AB21 Evans — **pass** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Evans — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2009-07-02** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2009-07-06** From printer.
- **2009-07-06** Without reference to committee. `referral-committee`
- **2009-07-06** Ordered to second reading.
- **2009-07-06** Read second time. To third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2009-07-09** Read third time, passed, and to Senate. (Ayes 47. Noes 2. Page 30.) `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2009-07-09** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2009-07-15** Withdrawn from committee. Ordered placed on second reading file.
- **2009-07-15** Read second time. To third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2009-07-23** Read third time, amended, and returned to third reading. `reading-3, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2009-07-23** Joint Rule 10.5 suspended.
- **2009-07-23** (Ayes 37. Noes 1. Page 43.)
- **2009-07-23** Senate Rule 29.3 suspended.
- **2009-07-23** (Ayes 24. Noes 12. Page 43.)
- **2009-07-23** Read third time. Urgency clause adopted. Passed and to Assembly. (Ayes 38. Noes 0. Page 58.) `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2009-07-23** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending.
- **2009-07-23** Assembly Rule 77 suspended.
- **2009-07-23** Urgency clause adopted. Senate amendments concurred in. To enrollment. (Ayes 76. Noes 2. Page 71.) `amendment-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2009-07-24** Enrolled and to the Governor at 4:30 p.m.
- **2009-07-28** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2009-07-28** Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 19, Statutes of 2009-10 Fourth Extraordinary Session.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/11b62e50-6213-4125-a664-4dc1725c56eb`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).