---
type: "Bill"
title: "CalWORKs: welfare-to-work: self-employment."
description: "Existing law establishes the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program, under which each county provides cash assistance and other benefits to qualified low-income families using federal, state, and county funds. Existing law requires a recipient of CalWORKs to participate in welfare-to-work activities for a specified number of hours per week as a condition of eligibility. Existing law identifies the welfare-to-work activities in which a recipient may participate, including, among others, self-employment."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20212022"
identifier: "AB 461"
citation: "California AB 461 (20212022)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["CalWORKs: welfare-to-work: self-employment."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Villapudua"]
version_count: 6
action_count: 26
vote_count: 8
first_action: "2021-02-08"
last_action: "2021-10-06"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/56e48050-f13b-4727-bf94-3b63c6ce0b2d"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB461"
source_hash: "5a3d2b461bf461fa5ec5473943ea047d37a74f3be779a45f86fa7a3c313352c2"
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 461 (20212022) — CalWORKs: welfare-to-work: self-employment.

Existing law establishes the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program, under which each county provides cash assistance and other benefits to qualified low-income families using federal, state, and county funds. Existing law requires a recipient of CalWORKs to participate in welfare-to-work activities for a specified number of hours per week as a condition of eligibility. Existing law identifies the welfare-to-work activities in which a recipient may participate, including, among others, self-employment.

## Version chain

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

1. **02/08/21 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB461&version=20210AB46199INT)
2. **04/12/21 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB461&version=20210AB46198AMD)
3. **06/14/21 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB461&version=20210AB46197AMD)
4. **10/06/21 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB461&version=20210AB46195CHP)
5. **AB461** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB461)
6. **09/09/21 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB461&version=20210AB46196ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **8–0** (pass) · lower
- Placed on suspense file — **6–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **5–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass. — **16–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 461 Villapudua Assembly Third Reading — **78–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 461 Villapudua Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **73–0** (pass) · lower
- Special Consent AB461 — **37–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Villapudua — primary (person)
- Jones — coauthor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2021-02-08** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2021-02-09** From printer. May be heard in committee March 11.
- **2021-02-18** Referred to Com. on HUM. S. `referral-committee`
- **2021-04-07** In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
- **2021-04-12** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on HUM. S. Read second time and amended. `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-04-13** Re-referred to Com. on HUM. S. `referral-committee`
- **2021-04-22** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 8. Noes 0.) (April 21). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee`
- **2021-05-05** In committee: Set, first hearing. Referred to APPR. suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2021-05-20** Coauthors revised.
- **2021-05-20** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 16. Noes 0.) (May 20). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-05-24** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-06-01** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 78. Noes 0. Page 1726.) `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2021-06-02** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2021-06-09** Referred to Com. on HUMAN S. `referral-committee`
- **2021-06-14** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on HUMAN S. `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2, referral-committee`
- **2021-06-23** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 5. Noes 0.) (June 22). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee`
- **2021-07-05** In committee: Referred to suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2021-08-26** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (August 26). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-08-26** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-08-31** Ordered to special consent calendar.
- **2021-09-03** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 37. Noes 0. Page 2389.). `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2021-09-03** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending. May be considered on or after September 5 pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.
- **2021-09-07** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 73. Noes 0. Page 2843.). `amendment-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-09-13** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 3 p.m.
- **2021-10-06** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2021-10-06** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 582, Statutes of 2021. `became-law`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/56e48050-f13b-4727-bf94-3b63c6ce0b2d`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).