republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20172018/ab-1659.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Healing arts boards: inactive licenses."
description: "Existing law establishes healing arts boards in the Department of Consumer Affairs to ensure private businesses and professions deemed to engage in activities which have potential impact upon the public health, safety, and welfare are adequately regulated in order to protect the people of California. Existing law requires each healing arts board to issue inactive licenses to holders of active licenses whose license is not punitively restricted by that board. Existing law prohibits the holder of an inactive license from engaging in any activity for which an active license is required. Existing law requires the renewal fee for an active license to apply to an inactive license."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20172018"
identifier: "AB 1659"
citation: "California AB 1659 (20172018)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Healing arts boards: inactive licenses."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Low"]
version_count: 6
action_count: 25
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2017-02-17"
last_action: "2018-09-05"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/41820402-e3f1-4155-9fad-b57c3147991e"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB1659"
source_hash: "a07d09b5689cf45333d4fa608da9e5df208d0bae6f39fe7f0b20ab434c356911"
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 1659 (20172018) — Healing arts boards: inactive licenses.

Existing law establishes healing arts boards in the Department of Consumer Affairs to ensure private businesses and professions deemed to engage in activities which have potential impact upon the public health, safety, and welfare are adequately regulated in order to protect the people of California. Existing law requires each healing arts board to issue inactive licenses to holders of active licenses whose license is not punitively restricted by that board. Existing law prohibits the holder of an inactive license from engaging in any activity for which an active license is required. Existing law requires the renewal fee for an active license to apply to an inactive license.

## Version chain

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

1. **02/17/17 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB1659&version=20170AB165999INT)
2. **01/03/18 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB1659&version=20170AB165997AMD)
3. **04/04/17 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB1659&version=20170AB165998AMD)
4. **09/05/18 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB1659&version=20170AB165995CHP)
5. **AB1659** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB1659)
6. **08/23/18 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB1659&version=20170AB165996ENR)

## Votes

- 3rd Reading AB1659 Low By Nguyen — **38–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Low — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2017-02-17** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2017-02-19** From printer. May be heard in committee March 21.
- **2017-04-03** Referred to Com. on NAT. RES. `referral-committee`
- **2017-04-04** 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-2, reading-1`
- **2017-04-05** Re-referred to Com. on NAT. RES. `referral-committee`
- **2017-04-24** In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
- **2018-01-03** 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-2, reading-1`
- **2018-01-04** Re-referred to Com. on NAT. RES. `referral-committee`
- **2018-01-04** Re-referred to Com. on B. & P. pursuant to Assembly Rule 96. `referral-committee`
- **2018-01-11** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 15. Noes 0.) (January 9). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2018-01-18** From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 17. Noes 0.) (January 18). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2018-01-22** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2018-01-29** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 75. Noes 0. Page 3868.) `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2018-01-29** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2018-04-19** Referred to Com. on B., P. & E.D. `referral-committee`
- **2018-06-11** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 8. Noes 0.) (June 11). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2018-06-25** From committee: Be ordered to second reading file pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8 and ordered to Consent Calendar. `committee-passage, reading-2`
- **2018-06-26** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2018-06-28** From Consent Calendar.
- **2018-06-28** Ordered to third reading.
- **2018-08-22** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 38. Noes 0. Page 5606.). `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2018-08-22** In Assembly. Ordered to Engrossing and Enrolling. `committee-passage`
- **2018-08-27** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 3 p.m.
- **2018-09-05** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2018-09-05** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 249, Statutes of 2018.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/41820402-e3f1-4155-9fad-b57c3147991e`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).