republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20132014/ab-1397.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "State civil service: veterans preference data."
description: "The California Constitution requires civil service appointments to be made under a general system based on merit ascertained by competitive examination. The California Constitution allows the Legislature to provide preference for veterans and their surviving spouses. Under existing law, whenever any veteran achieves a passing score on an entrance examination, the veteran is required to be ranked in the top rank of the resulting eligibility list."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20132014"
identifier: "AB 1397"
citation: "California AB 1397 (20132014)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["State civil service: veterans preference data."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Committee on Veterans Affairs"]
version_count: 7
action_count: 26
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2013-03-06"
last_action: "2014-09-27"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/522c84ce-899a-468d-9d08-97ff00796214"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201320140AB1397"
source_hash: "247f586e79dfcc0d545a29cad74ee2656391d8bf368d68f595d533b948258572"
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 1397 (20132014) — State civil service: veterans preference data.

The California Constitution requires civil service appointments to be made under a general system based on merit ascertained by competitive examination. The California Constitution allows the Legislature to provide preference for veterans and their surviving spouses. Under existing law, whenever any veteran achieves a passing score on an entrance examination, the veteran is required to be ranked in the top rank of the resulting eligibility list.

## Version chain

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

1. **03/06/13 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201320140AB1397&version=20130AB139799INT)
2. **06/17/14 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201320140AB1397&version=20130AB139797AMD)
3. **08/12/13 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201320140AB1397&version=20130AB139798AMD)
4. **08/13/14 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201320140AB1397&version=20130AB139796AMD)
5. **09/27/14 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201320140AB1397&version=20130AB139794CHP)
6. **AB1397** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201320140AB1397)
7. **09/04/14 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201320140AB1397&version=20130AB139795ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass. — **8–0** (pass) · lower
- 3rd Reading AB1397 Committee on V. A. (Quirk-Silva) By Hueso — **34–0** (pass) · upper
- AB 1397 V. A. Concurrence in Senate Amendments By QUIRK-SILVA — **78–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 1397 V. A. Assembly Third Reading By MURATSUCHI — **71–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, but re-refer to the Committee on Appropriations Recommend Consent. — **6–0** (pass) · upper
- amendments be concurred in. — **7–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Committee on Veterans Affairs — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2013-03-06** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2013-03-07** From printer. May be heard in committee April 6.
- **2013-03-14** Referred to Com. on V.A. `referral-committee`
- **2013-05-01** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 8. Noes 0.) (April 30). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2013-05-02** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2013-05-24** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 71. Noes 0. Page 1590.) `reading-3, reading-1, passage`
- **2013-05-24** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2013-06-06** Referred to Com. on V.A. `referral-committee`
- **2013-07-03** In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
- **2013-08-12** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on V.A. `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-2, reading-1, referral-committee`
- **2014-06-17** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on V.A. `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-2, reading-1, referral-committee`
- **2014-06-25** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: to consent calendar. (Ayes 6. Noes 0.) (June 24). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee, committee-passage`
- **2014-08-04** From committee: Be placed on second reading file pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8 and ordered to consent calendar. `committee-passage`
- **2014-08-05** Read second time. Ordered to consent calendar. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2014-08-07** From consent calendar.
- **2014-08-07** Ordered to third reading.
- **2014-08-13** Read third time and amended. Ordered to second reading. `reading-3, reading-1, amendment-passage`
- **2014-08-14** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2014-08-20** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 34. Noes 0. Page 4650.). `reading-3, reading-1, passage`
- **2014-08-20** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending. May be considered on or after August 22 pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.
- **2014-08-21** Re-referred to Com. on V.A. pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.2. `referral-committee`
- **2014-08-27** From committee: That the Senate amendments be concurred in. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (August 27). `committee-passage`
- **2014-08-28** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 78. Noes 0. Page 6627.). `committee-passage-favorable, amendment-passage`
- **2014-09-10** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 4 p.m.
- **2014-09-27** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2014-09-27** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 645, Statutes of 2014.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/522c84ce-899a-468d-9d08-97ff00796214`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).