republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20152016/ab-1546.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Vital records."
description: "Existing law requires the State Registrar to administer the registration of births, deaths, fetal deaths, and marriages. Existing law requires the State Registrar to arrange and permanently preserve the certificates in a systematic manner and to prepare and maintain a comprehensive and continuous index of all certificates registered. Existing law requires that specified birth, death, and marriage record indices prepared or maintained by local registrars and county recorders be kept confidential. Existing law requires, notwithstanding these provisions, local registrars and county recorders to release, when requested, their comprehensive birth, death, and nonconfidential marriage record indices to the State Registrar."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20152016"
identifier: "AB 1546"
citation: "California AB 1546 (20152016)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Vital records."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Olsen"]
version_count: 8
action_count: 29
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2015-09-09"
last_action: "2016-09-09"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/ca31d5f3-a27c-4114-9efc-ae0eca092eff"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB1546"
source_hash: "6a5307538799fd828c09c4ad76a51479769d621d04878fbc870de5bb844a6874"
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 1546 (20152016) — Vital records.

Existing law requires the State Registrar to administer the registration of births, deaths, fetal deaths, and marriages. Existing law requires the State Registrar to arrange and permanently preserve the certificates in a systematic manner and to prepare and maintain a comprehensive and continuous index of all certificates registered. Existing law requires that specified birth, death, and marriage record indices prepared or maintained by local registrars and county recorders be kept confidential. Existing law requires, notwithstanding these provisions, local registrars and county recorders to release, when requested, their comprehensive birth, death, and nonconfidential marriage record indices to the State Registrar.

## Version chain

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

1. **09/09/15 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB1546&version=20150AB154699INT)
2. **01/07/16 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB1546&version=20150AB154698AMD)
3. **03/29/16 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB1546&version=20150AB154697AMD)
4. **04/14/16 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB1546&version=20150AB154696AMD)
5. **06/21/16 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB1546&version=20150AB154695AMD)
6. **09/09/16 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB1546&version=20150AB154693CHP)
7. **AB1546** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB1546)
8. **08/23/16 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB1546&version=20150AB154694ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **19–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass. — **17–0** (pass) · lower
- 3rd Reading AB1546 Olsen By Allen Urgency Clause — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- AB 1546 OLSEN Third Reading Urgency — **79–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 1546 OLSEN Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **77–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass as amended, but first amend, and re-refer to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **9–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Olsen — primary (person)
- Bates — coauthor (person)
- Cristina Garcia — coauthor (person)
- Daly — coauthor (person)
- Ting — coauthor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2015-09-09** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2015-09-09** (Introduced pursuant to Joint Rule 54) `introduction`
- **2015-09-10** From printer. May be heard in committee October 10.
- **2015-12-09** Referred to Com. on HEALTH. `referral-committee`
- **2016-01-07** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on HEALTH. Read second time and amended. `reading-2, amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2016-01-11** Re-referred to Com. on HEALTH. `referral-committee`
- **2016-01-13** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 19. Noes 0.) (January 12). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee, committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2016-01-21** In committee: Set, first hearing. Referred to APPR. suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2016-01-21** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 17. Noes 0.) (January 21). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2016-01-21** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2016-01-27** Read third time. Urgency clause adopted. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 79. Noes 0. Page 3501.). `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2016-01-27** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2016-02-04** Referred to Com. on RLS. `referral-committee`
- **2016-03-29** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on RLS. `referral-committee, reading-2, amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2016-04-04** Re-referred to Com. on HEALTH. `referral-committee`
- **2016-04-14** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on HEALTH. `referral-committee, reading-2, amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2016-06-06** In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
- **2016-06-08** In committee: Hearing postponed by committee.
- **2016-06-20** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 9. Noes 0.) (June 15). `amendment-introduction, committee-passage, amendment-passage`
- **2016-06-21** Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee, reading-2, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2016-06-27** From committee: Be placed on second reading file pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8. `committee-passage`
- **2016-06-28** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2016-08-16** Read third time. Urgency clause adopted. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 39. Noes 0. Page 5030.). `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2016-08-16** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending. May be considered on or after August 18 pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.
- **2016-08-22** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 77. Noes 0. Page 6053.). `committee-passage-favorable, amendment-passage`
- **2016-08-29** Enrolled measure version corrected.
- **2016-08-31** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 4 p.m.
- **2016-09-09** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2016-09-09** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 255, Statutes of 2016.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/ca31d5f3-a27c-4114-9efc-ae0eca092eff`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).