republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20172018/ab-3224.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Public social services: county employees."
description: "Existing law establishes various programs that are partially federally funded and that provide cash assistance and other benefits relating to health care, food, and housing, among other benefits, to qualified low-income families and individuals, including the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program, Medi-Cal, and CalFresh. Existing federal law requires that certain decisions and actions relating to these programs be made by government agencies that maintain personnel standards on a merit basis or that state agency personnel used in the certification process for these programs be employed in accordance with a merit system."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20172018"
identifier: "AB 3224"
citation: "California AB 3224 (20172018)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Public social services: county employees."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Thurmond"]
version_count: 7
action_count: 23
vote_count: 5
first_action: "2018-02-16"
last_action: "2018-08-20"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/c4c0eb24-e811-4166-a775-5ba5f410914c"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB3224"
source_hash: "16a37e29d7a086562b04b9eb2f6820946428c385cf1c964ccf0006532dbd9439"
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 3224 (20172018) — Public social services: county employees.

Existing law establishes various programs that are partially federally funded and that provide cash assistance and other benefits relating to health care, food, and housing, among other benefits, to qualified low-income families and individuals, including the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program, Medi-Cal, and CalFresh. Existing federal law requires that certain decisions and actions relating to these programs be made by government agencies that maintain personnel standards on a merit basis or that state agency personnel used in the certification process for these programs be employed in accordance with a merit system.

## 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=201720180AB3224&version=20170AB322499INT)
2. **03/20/18 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB3224&version=20170AB322498AMD)
3. **04/18/18 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB3224&version=20170AB322497AMD)
4. **06/20/18 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB3224&version=20170AB322496AMD)
5. **08/20/18 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB3224&version=20170AB322494CHP)
6. **AB3224** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB3224)
7. **08/07/18 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB3224&version=20170AB322495ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass. — **5–1** (pass) · lower
- Do pass — **5–0** (pass) · upper
- 3rd Reading AB3224 Thurmond By Leyva — **26–11** (pass) · upper
- AB 3224 THURMOND Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **56–20** (pass) · lower
- AB 3224 THURMOND Assembly Third Reading — **54–22** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Thurmond — primary (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 HUM. S. `referral-committee`
- **2018-03-20** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on HUM. S. Read second time and amended. `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-2, reading-1`
- **2018-03-21** Re-referred to Com. on HUM. S. `referral-committee`
- **2018-04-10** In committee: Hearing postponed by committee.
- **2018-04-18** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on HUM. S. Read second time and amended. `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-2, reading-1`
- **2018-04-19** Re-referred to Com. on HUM. S. `referral-committee`
- **2018-04-25** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 5. Noes 1.) (April 24). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2018-04-26** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2018-04-30** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 54. Noes 22. Page 4936.) `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2018-04-30** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2018-05-10** Referred to Com. on HUMAN S. `referral-committee`
- **2018-06-13** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 5. Noes 0.) (June 12). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2018-06-14** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2018-06-20** Read third time and amended. Ordered to second reading. `amendment-passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2018-06-21** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2018-07-02** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 26. Noes 11. Page 5046.). `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2018-07-03** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending. May be considered on or after July 5 pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.
- **2018-08-06** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 56. Noes 20. Page 6140.). `committee-passage-favorable, amendment-passage`
- **2018-08-09** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 11:30 a.m.
- **2018-08-20** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2018-08-20** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 179, Statutes of 2018.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/c4c0eb24-e811-4166-a775-5ba5f410914c`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).