republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20172018/ab-2961.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Emergency medical services."
description: "Existing law creates the Commission on Emergency Medical Services, within the California Health and Human Services Agency, to, among other things, advise the Emergency Medical Services Authority on the development of an emergency medical data collection system. Existing law requires the Emergency Medical Services Authority to develop a statewide standard methodology for the calculation and reporting of ambulance patient offload time, as defined, by a local emergency medical services (EMS) agency. Existing law authorizes a county to develop an emergency medical services program, and authorizes a local EMS agency to adopt policies and procedures to calculate and report ambulance patient offload time."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20172018"
identifier: "AB 2961"
citation: "California AB 2961 (20172018)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Emergency medical services."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["O'Donnell"]
version_count: 8
action_count: 29
vote_count: 8
first_action: "2018-02-16"
last_action: "2018-09-21"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/e26b1db1-09c1-43c5-a8e7-5f69c015e847"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB2961"
source_hash: "c5f5bf80d24cd7bb8b2c0a83bd408f41737c7098ee1a50e8487b353cdb1d99e4"
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 2961 (20172018) — Emergency medical services.

Existing law creates the Commission on Emergency Medical Services, within the California Health and Human Services Agency, to, among other things, advise the Emergency Medical Services Authority on the development of an emergency medical data collection system. Existing law requires the Emergency Medical Services Authority to develop a statewide standard methodology for the calculation and reporting of ambulance patient offload time, as defined, by a local emergency medical services (EMS) agency. Existing law authorizes a county to develop an emergency medical services program, and authorizes a local EMS agency to adopt policies and procedures to calculate and report ambulance patient offload time.

## Version chain

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

1. **02/16/18 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB2961&version=20170AB296199INT)
2. **03/20/18 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB2961&version=20170AB296198AMD)
3. **05/25/18 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB2961&version=20170AB296197AMD)
4. **07/03/18 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB2961&version=20170AB296196AMD)
5. **08/24/18 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB2961&version=20170AB296195AMD)
6. **09/21/18 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB2961&version=20170AB296193CHP)
7. **AB2961** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB2961)
8. **09/04/18 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB2961&version=20170AB296194ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass as amended. — **12–0** (pass) · lower
- 3rd Reading AB2961 O'Donnell et al. By Hernandez — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- AB 2961 O'DONNELL Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **80–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **14–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 2961 O'DONNELL Assembly Third Reading — **78–0** (pass) · lower
- Placed on suspense file — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended, but first amend, and re-refer to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **9–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- O'Donnell — primary (person)
- Rodriguez — coauthor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2018-02-16** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2018-02-17** From printer. May be heard in committee March 19.
- **2018-03-19** Referred to Com. on HEALTH. `referral-committee`
- **2018-03-20** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on HEALTH. Read second time and amended. `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-2, reading-1`
- **2018-03-21** Re-referred to Com. on HEALTH. `referral-committee`
- **2018-04-11** Coauthors revised.
- **2018-04-11** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 14. Noes 0.) (April 10). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2018-04-25** In committee: Set, first hearing. Referred to APPR. suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2018-05-25** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended. (Ayes 12. Noes 0.) (May 25). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, amendment-introduction`
- **2018-05-25** Read second time and amended. Ordered returned to second reading. `reading-1, amendment-passage, reading-2`
- **2018-05-29** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2018-05-30** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 78. Noes 0. Page 5540.) `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2018-05-31** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2018-06-13** Referred to Com. on HEALTH. `referral-committee`
- **2018-07-02** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 9. Noes 0.) (June 27). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, amendment-introduction`
- **2018-07-03** Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `amendment-passage, reading-2, referral-committee, reading-1`
- **2018-08-06** In committee: Referred to APPR. suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2018-08-17** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (August 16). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2018-08-17** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2018-08-21** Ordered to special consent calendar.
- **2018-08-22** Ordered to third reading.
- **2018-08-24** Read third time and amended. Ordered to second reading. `amendment-passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2018-08-27** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2018-08-29** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 39. Noes 0. Page 5970.). `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2018-08-29** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending.
- **2018-08-30** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 80. Noes 0. Page 7012.). `committee-passage-favorable, amendment-passage`
- **2018-09-11** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 4:30 p.m.
- **2018-09-21** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2018-09-21** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 656, Statutes of 2018.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/e26b1db1-09c1-43c5-a8e7-5f69c015e847`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).