republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20152016/sb-1234.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Retirement savings plans."
description: "Existing federal law provides for tax-qualified retirement plans and individual retirement accounts or individual retirement annuities by which private citizens may save money for retirement. Existing law, the California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Trust Act, establishes the California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Program, administered by the California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Investment Board, contingent on specified funding and interest criteria being met. Existing law prescribes the composition of the board and its duties and provides that it acts as trustee in entering contracts and accepting moneys, among other things. Existing law prohibits the board from permitting enrollment in the program until enactment of a statute expressing legislative approval of program implementation. The program requires specified eligible employers, as defined, to offer a payroll deposit retirement savings arrangement and requires eligible employees, as defined, who do not opt out of the program, to contribute a portion of their salary or wages to a retirement savings account in the program, as specified. Existing law requires contributions from the wages of employees participating in the program to be deposited in the California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Trust, which is continuously appropriated and administered by the board. Existing law authorizes the board to adjust the employee contribution amount between 2% and 4%, inclusive, of the employee's annual salary or wages, as specified."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20152016"
identifier: "SB 1234"
citation: "California SB 1234 (20152016)"
classification: ["bill", "appropriation"]
subjects: ["Retirement savings plans."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["De León"]
version_count: 9
action_count: 30
vote_count: 8
first_action: "2016-02-18"
last_action: "2016-09-29"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/b95073fc-3aa2-4c82-846a-caa9d5e596d3"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160SB1234"
source_hash: "9f76a36829b0fb3fb4ecc9b5bb72fd2cf78690129af876e9fb0d9be344f024df"
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 SB 1234 (20152016) — Retirement savings plans.

Existing federal law provides for tax-qualified retirement plans and individual retirement accounts or individual retirement annuities by which private citizens may save money for retirement. Existing law, the California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Trust Act, establishes the California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Program, administered by the California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Investment Board, contingent on specified funding and interest criteria being met. Existing law prescribes the composition of the board and its duties and provides that it acts as trustee in entering contracts and accepting moneys, among other things. Existing law prohibits the board from permitting enrollment in the program until enactment of a statute expressing legislative approval of program implementation. The program requires specified eligible employers, as defined, to offer a payroll deposit retirement savings arrangement and requires eligible employees, as defined, who do not opt out of the program, to contribute a portion of their salary or wages to a retirement savings account in the program, as specified. Existing law requires contributions from the wages of employees participating in the program to be deposited in the California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Trust, which is continuously appropriated and administered by the board. Existing law authorizes the board to adjust the employee contribution amount between 2% and 4%, inclusive, of the employee's annual salary or wages, as specified.

## Version chain

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

1. **02/18/16 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160SB1234&version=20150SB123499INT)
2. **04/05/16 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160SB1234&version=20150SB123498AMD)
3. **05/31/16 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160SB1234&version=20150SB123497AMD)
4. **06/15/16 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160SB1234&version=20150SB123496AMD)
5. **08/15/16 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160SB1234&version=20150SB123495AMD)
6. **08/18/16 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160SB1234&version=20150SB123494AMD)
7. **09/29/16 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160SB1234&version=20150SB123492CHP)
8. **SB1234** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160SB1234)
9. **09/07/16 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160SB1234&version=20150SB123493ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass as amended. — **14–6** (pass) · lower
- W/O REF. TO FILE SB1234 De León — **27–12** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended — **5–2** (pass) · upper
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **3–2** (pass) · upper
- 3rd Reading SB1234 De León — **26–13** (pass) · upper
- SB 1234 De León Senate Third Reading By GATTO — **52–26** (pass) · lower
- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **6–1** (pass) · lower
- Placed on suspense file — **7–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- De León — primary (person)
- Beall — coauthor (person)
- Cristina Garcia — coauthor (person)
- Dodd — coauthor (person)
- Gatto — principal coauthor (person)
- Gonzalez — coauthor (person)
- Hall — coauthor (person)
- Hertzberg — coauthor (person)
- Leno — coauthor (person)
- McCarty — coauthor (person)
- Pan — coauthor (person)
- Williams — coauthor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2016-02-18** Introduced. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. To print. `introduction, reading-1`
- **2016-02-19** From printer. May be acted upon on or after March 20.
- **2016-03-03** Referred to Com. on P.E. & R. `referral-committee`
- **2016-04-05** From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on P.E. & R. `referral-committee, reading-2, amendment-passage, committee-passage, reading-1`
- **2016-04-06** Set for hearing April 11.
- **2016-04-12** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 3. Noes 2. Page 3497.) (April 11). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee, committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2016-04-15** Set for hearing April 25.
- **2016-04-25** April 25 hearing postponed by committee.
- **2016-04-26** Set for hearing May 2.
- **2016-05-02** May 2 hearing: Placed on APPR. suspense file.
- **2016-05-20** Set for hearing May 27.
- **2016-05-27** From committee: Do pass as amended. (Ayes 5. Noes 2. Page 4006.) (May 27). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, amendment-passage`
- **2016-05-31** Read second time and amended. Ordered to third reading. `amendment-passage, reading-2, reading-1`
- **2016-06-02** Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 26. Noes 13. Page 4122.) Ordered to the Assembly. `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2016-06-02** In Assembly. Read first time. Held at Desk. `reading-1`
- **2016-06-13** Referred to Com. on L. & E. `referral-committee`
- **2016-06-15** From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on L. & E. `referral-committee, reading-2, amendment-passage, committee-passage, reading-1`
- **2016-06-23** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 6. Noes 1.) (June 22). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee, committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2016-08-03** August 3 set for first hearing. Placed on APPR. suspense file.
- **2016-08-12** From committee: Do pass as amended. (Ayes 14. Noes 6.) (August 11). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, amendment-passage`
- **2016-08-15** Read second time and amended. Ordered to second reading. `amendment-passage, reading-2, reading-1`
- **2016-08-16** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2016-08-18** Read third time and amended. `reading-3, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2016-08-18** Ordered to third reading.
- **2016-08-25** Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 52. Noes 26. Page 6271.) Ordered to the Senate. `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2016-08-31** In Senate. Concurrence in Assembly amendments pending.
- **2016-08-31** Assembly amendments concurred in. (Ayes 27. Noes 12. Page 5596.) Ordered to engrossing and enrolling. `committee-passage-favorable, amendment-passage`
- **2016-09-09** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 3:30 p.m.
- **2016-09-29** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2016-09-29** Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 804, Statutes of 2016.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/b95073fc-3aa2-4c82-846a-caa9d5e596d3`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).