republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20192020/ab-256.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Wildlife: California Winter Rice Habitat Incentive Program."
description: "Existing law establishes the California Winter Rice Habitat Incentive Program that authorizes the Director of Fish and Wildlife to enter into contracts for an initial term of 3 years with nonpublic entities that are owners of record or with lessees of productive agricultural rice lands that are winter-flooded and that are determined by the director to be important for the conservation of waterfowl. Existing law provides that, under these contracts, the use of the land is restricted for waterfowl conservation and habitat purposes in a manner that allows for the use of the land for rice farming."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20192020"
identifier: "AB 256"
citation: "California AB 256 (20192020)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Wildlife: California Winter Rice Habitat Incentive Program."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Aguiar-Curry"]
version_count: 6
action_count: 30
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2019-01-23"
last_action: "2019-10-02"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/44dafd02-246b-4cc5-8cc9-dd1f32ce2e4f"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB256"
source_hash: "fdc138c959ada9ec961fae789eea94bceebd0e2b7d6739512bdc29d58889904f"
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 256 (20192020) — Wildlife: California Winter Rice Habitat Incentive Program.

Existing law establishes the California Winter Rice Habitat Incentive Program that authorizes the Director of Fish and Wildlife to enter into contracts for an initial term of 3 years with nonpublic entities that are owners of record or with lessees of productive agricultural rice lands that are winter-flooded and that are determined by the director to be important for the conservation of waterfowl. Existing law provides that, under these contracts, the use of the land is restricted for waterfowl conservation and habitat purposes in a manner that allows for the use of the land for rice farming.

## Version chain

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

1. **01/23/19 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB256&version=20190AB25699INT)
2. **06/28/19 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB256&version=20190AB25698AMD)
3. **09/03/19 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB256&version=20190AB25697AMD)
4. **10/02/19 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB256&version=20190AB25695CHP)
5. **AB256** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB256)
6. **09/18/19 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB256&version=20190AB25696ENR)

## Votes

- 3rd Reading AB256 Aguiar-Curry By Nielsen — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass. To Consent Calendar. — **10–0** (pass) · lower
- With recommendation: That Senate amendments be concurred in. — **13–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 256 Aguiar-Curry Consent Calendar Second Day — **75–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 256 Aguiar-Curry Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **78–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] with the recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **8–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Aguiar-Curry — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2019-01-23** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2019-01-24** From printer. May be heard in committee February 23.
- **2019-02-11** Referred to Com. on AGRI. `referral-committee`
- **2019-03-13** In committee: Hearing postponed by committee.
- **2019-03-28** From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 10. Noes 0.) (March 27). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2019-04-01** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2019-04-04** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 75. Noes 0. Page 1041.) `passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2019-04-04** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2019-04-24** Referred to Com. on GOV. & F. `referral-committee`
- **2019-06-28** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on GOV. & F. `reading-1, reading-2, amendment-passage, referral-committee, amendment-introduction`
- **2019-07-01** Withdrawn from committee.
- **2019-07-01** Re-referred to Com. on RLS. `referral-committee`
- **2019-07-03** Re-referred to Com. on N.R. & W. `referral-committee`
- **2019-07-10** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 8. Noes 0.) (July 9). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2019-08-12** From committee: Be ordered to second reading file pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8 and ordered to Consent Calendar. `committee-passage, reading-2`
- **2019-08-13** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2019-08-15** From Consent Calendar.
- **2019-08-15** Ordered to third reading.
- **2019-09-03** Read third time and amended. Ordered to second reading. `amendment-passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2019-09-04** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2019-09-09** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 40. Noes 0. Page 2700.). `passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2019-09-09** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending. May be considered on or after September 11 pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.
- **2019-09-10** Assembly Rule 77 suspended. (Page 3252.)
- **2019-09-10** Re-referred to Com. on W., P., & W. pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.2. `referral-committee`
- **2019-09-10** Joint Rule 62(a), file notice suspended. (Page 3303.)
- **2019-09-12** From committee: That the Senate amendments be concurred in. (Ayes 13. Noes 0.) (September 12). `committee-passage`
- **2019-09-13** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 78. Noes 0. Page 3533.). `amendment-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2019-09-24** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 3:30 p.m.
- **2019-10-02** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2019-10-02** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 420, Statutes of 2019.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/44dafd02-246b-4cc5-8cc9-dd1f32ce2e4f`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).