republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20172018/sb-218.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "The Qualified ABLE Program: tax-advantaged savings accounts."
description: "Existing federal law, the Stephen Beck, Jr., Achieving a Better Life Experience Act of 2014 (ABLE Act) , encourages and assists individuals and families to save private funds in a tax-advantaged savings account for the purpose of supporting persons with disabilities to maintain their health, independence, and quality of life by excluding from gross income distributions used for qualified disability expenses by a designated beneficiary of a qualified ABLE program established and maintained by a state, as specified. Existing state law authorizes a designated beneficiary, as defined, to have one ABLE account for these purposes. Existing state law creates the California ABLE Program Trust, the purposes, powers, and duties of which are vested in, and exercised by, the California ABLE Act Board, which is established under the Qualified ABLE Program."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20172018"
identifier: "SB 218"
citation: "California SB 218 (20172018)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["The Qualified ABLE Program: tax-advantaged savings accounts."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Dodd"]
version_count: 7
action_count: 29
vote_count: 8
first_action: "2017-02-01"
last_action: "2017-10-04"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/dc20905a-2fd2-41b1-8734-5ab3792af126"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB218"
source_hash: "16d24b646d05278012f66cd122400b00664ce070b97da0eba6dfcb788e3fbe62"
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 218 (20172018) — The Qualified ABLE Program: tax-advantaged savings accounts.

Existing federal law, the Stephen Beck, Jr., Achieving a Better Life Experience Act of 2014 (ABLE Act) , encourages and assists individuals and families to save private funds in a tax-advantaged savings account for the purpose of supporting persons with disabilities to maintain their health, independence, and quality of life by excluding from gross income distributions used for qualified disability expenses by a designated beneficiary of a qualified ABLE program established and maintained by a state, as specified. Existing state law authorizes a designated beneficiary, as defined, to have one ABLE account for these purposes. Existing state law creates the California ABLE Program Trust, the purposes, powers, and duties of which are vested in, and exercised by, the California ABLE Act Board, which is established under the Qualified ABLE Program.

## Version chain

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

1. **02/01/17 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB218&version=20170SB21899INT)
2. **04/19/17 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB218&version=20170SB21898AMD)
3. **07/17/17 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB218&version=20170SB21897AMD)
4. **09/05/17 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB218&version=20170SB21896AMD)
5. **10/04/17 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB218&version=20170SB21894CHP)
6. **SB218** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB218)
7. **09/18/17 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB218&version=20170SB21895ENR)

## Votes

- Placed on suspense file — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- Special Consent Calendar # SB218 — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- SB 218 Dodd Senate Third Reading By IRWIN — **79–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass as amended. — **16–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass as amended and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **10–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Rules] — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- Unfinished Business SB218 Dodd Concurrence — **40–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Dodd — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2017-02-01** Introduced. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. To print. `introduction, reading-1`
- **2017-02-02** From printer. May be acted upon on or after March 4.
- **2017-02-09** Referred to Com. on GOV. & F. `referral-committee`
- **2017-03-08** Set for hearing March 29.
- **2017-03-29** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on RLS. (Ayes 7. Noes 0. Page 537.) (March 29). Re-referred to Com. on RLS. `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2017-04-17** Withdrawn from committee.
- **2017-04-17** Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee`
- **2017-04-19** From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `reading-2, referral-committee, amendment-passage, committee-passage, reading-1`
- **2017-04-21** Set for hearing May 1.
- **2017-05-01** May 1 hearing: Placed on APPR. suspense file.
- **2017-05-19** Set for hearing May 25.
- **2017-05-25** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 7. Noes 0. Page 1179.) (May 25). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2017-05-26** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2017-05-26** Ordered to special consent calendar.
- **2017-05-31** Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 40. Noes 0. Page 1354.) Ordered to the Assembly. `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2017-06-01** In Assembly. Read first time. Held at Desk. `reading-1`
- **2017-06-15** Referred to Com. on REV. & TAX. `referral-committee`
- **2017-07-13** From committee: Do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 10. Noes 0.) (July 10). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, amendment-passage`
- **2017-07-17** Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `amendment-passage, reading-2, referral-committee, reading-1`
- **2017-08-23** August 23 set for first hearing. Placed on APPR. suspense file.
- **2017-09-01** From committee: Do pass as amended. (Ayes 16. Noes 0.) (September 1). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, amendment-passage`
- **2017-09-05** Read second time and amended. Ordered to second reading. `reading-1, amendment-passage, reading-2`
- **2017-09-06** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2017-09-13** Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 79. Noes 0. Page 3262.) Ordered to the Senate. `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2017-09-14** In Senate. Concurrence in Assembly amendments pending.
- **2017-09-14** Assembly amendments concurred in. (Ayes 40. Noes 0. Page 2924.) Ordered to engrossing and enrolling. `committee-passage-favorable, amendment-passage`
- **2017-09-20** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 4 p.m.
- **2017-10-04** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2017-10-04** Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 482, Statutes of 2017.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/dc20905a-2fd2-41b1-8734-5ab3792af126`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).