---
type: "Bill"
title: "California DREAM Loan Program: limits."
description: "Existing law establishes the California DREAM Loan Program, which authorizes a student attending a participating campus of the University of California or California State University to receive a loan, referred to as a DREAM loan, if the student satisfies certain requirements. Existing law prohibits a student from borrowing more than $4,000 within a single academic year and more than $40,000 in the aggregate under the program. Existing law prohibits a student enrolled in an undergraduate program from borrowing more than $20,000 as an undergraduate student and prohibits a student enrolled in a graduate program from borrowing more than $20,000 as a graduate student."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20252026"
identifier: "AB 681"
citation: "California AB 681 (20252026)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["CaliforniaDREAMLoanProgram", "limits"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Elhawary"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 18
vote_count: 7
first_action: "2025-02-14"
last_action: "2025-10-13"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/0544f320-93ca-4b0e-ba6d-b1dc6f4fa3b2"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB681"
source_hash: "8e43ab0b5704aeb6701986f2c0bdba8eeb1a41086bfdc5de9da0c67084181618"
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 681 (20252026) — California DREAM Loan Program: limits.

Existing law establishes the California DREAM Loan Program, which authorizes a student attending a participating campus of the University of California or California State University to receive a loan, referred to as a DREAM loan, if the student satisfies certain requirements. Existing law prohibits a student from borrowing more than $4,000 within a single academic year and more than $40,000 in the aggregate under the program. Existing law prohibits a student enrolled in an undergraduate program from borrowing more than $20,000 as an undergraduate student and prohibits a student enrolled in a graduate program from borrowing more than $20,000 as a graduate student.

## Version chain

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

1. **02/14/25 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB681&version=20250AB68199INT)
2. **10/13/25 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB681&version=20250AB68197CHP)
3. **AB681** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB681)
4. **09/08/25 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB681&version=20250AB68198ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass. — **10–4** (pass) · lower
- 3rd Reading AB681 Elhawary By Pérez — **30–9** (pass) · upper
- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **8–2** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **5–1** (pass) · upper
- AB 681 Elhawary Assembly Third Reading — **61–10** (pass) · lower
- Do pass — **5–2** (pass) · upper
- Placed on suspense file — **7–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Elhawary — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2025-02-14** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2025-02-15** From printer. May be heard in committee March 17.
- **2025-03-03** Referred to Com. on HIGHER ED. `referral-committee`
- **2025-03-19** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 8. Noes 2.) (March 18). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee`
- **2025-04-09** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 10. Noes 4.) (April 9). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2025-04-10** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2025-05-05** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 61. Noes 10. Page 1419.) `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2025-05-06** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2025-05-14** Referred to Com. on ED. `referral-committee`
- **2025-06-11** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 5. Noes 1.) (June 11). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee`
- **2025-06-23** In committee: Referred to suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2025-08-29** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 5. Noes 2.) (August 29). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2025-08-29** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2025-09-04** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 30. Noes 9. Page 2516.). `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2025-09-04** In Assembly. Ordered to Engrossing and Enrolling. `committee-passage`
- **2025-09-11** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 4 p.m.
- **2025-10-13** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2025-10-13** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 702, 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/0544f320-93ca-4b0e-ba6d-b1dc6f4fa3b2`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).