---
type: "Bill"
title: "California Environmental Quality Act: exemption: passenger rail projects."
description: "The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20232024"
identifier: "AB 2503"
citation: "California AB 2503 (20232024)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["California Environmental Quality Act", "exemption", "passenger rail projects"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Lee"]
version_count: 9
action_count: 26
vote_count: 7
first_action: "2024-02-13"
last_action: "2024-09-27"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/a8e96cb6-05b9-402a-aacd-2f962cb8fe98"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB2503"
source_hash: "32f4279bccd78379f78a8acad87211dc6171a2c04f89ed51be31ce0f80fc4713"
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 2503 (20232024) — California Environmental Quality Act: exemption: passenger rail projects.

The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment.

## Version chain

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

1. **02/13/24 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB2503&version=20230AB250399INT)
2. **04/01/24 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB2503&version=20230AB250398AMD)
3. **04/11/24 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB2503&version=20230AB250397AMD)
4. **05/16/24 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB2503&version=20230AB250396AMD)
5. **06/10/24 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB2503&version=20230AB250395AMD)
6. **06/27/24 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB2503&version=20230AB250394AMD)
7. **09/27/24 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB2503&version=20230AB250392CHP)
8. **AB2503** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB2503)
9. **08/26/24 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB2503&version=20230AB250393ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass as amended, but first amend, and re-refer to the Committee on [Transportation] — **5–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended, but first amend, and re-refer to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **10–3** (pass) · upper
- AB 2503 Lee Consent Calendar Second Day — **73–0** (pass) · lower
- 3rd Reading AB2503 Lee By Wiener — **31–5** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **11–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 2503 Lee Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **60–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass. To Consent Calendar. — **14–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Lee — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2024-02-13** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2024-02-14** From printer. May be heard in committee March 15.
- **2024-03-04** Referred to Com. on NAT. RES. `referral-committee`
- **2024-04-01** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on NAT. RES. Read second time and amended. `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2`
- **2024-04-02** Re-referred to Com. on NAT. RES. `referral-committee`
- **2024-04-10** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 11. Noes 0.) (April 8). `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2024-04-11** Read second time and amended. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2`
- **2024-04-15** Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee`
- **2024-04-24** From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 14. Noes 0.) (April 24). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2024-04-25** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2024-05-02** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 73. Noes 0. Page 5089.) `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2024-05-02** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2024-05-15** Referred to Coms. on E.Q. and TRANS. `referral-committee`
- **2024-05-16** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on E.Q. `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2, referral-committee`
- **2024-06-06** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on TRANS. (Ayes 5. Noes 0.) (June 5). `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2024-06-10** Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on TRANS. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2, referral-committee`
- **2024-06-26** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 10. Noes 3.) (June 25). `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2024-06-27** Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2, referral-committee`
- **2024-08-05** From committee: Be ordered to second reading pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8. `committee-passage, reading-2`
- **2024-08-06** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2024-08-20** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 31. Noes 5. Page 5233.). `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2024-08-20** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending. May be considered on or after August 22 pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.
- **2024-08-22** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 60. Noes 0. Page 6432.). `amendment-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2024-08-28** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 4 p.m.
- **2024-09-27** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2024-09-27** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 718, Statutes of 2024. `became-law`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/a8e96cb6-05b9-402a-aacd-2f962cb8fe98`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).