republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20232024/ab-2503.md

type, title, description, jurisdiction, legislature, session, identifier, citation, classification, subjects, status, primary_sponsors, version_count, action_count, vote_count, first_action, last_action, source, source_identifier, source_url, source_hash, vintage, source_snapshot, retrieved_at, confidence, tags

type	title	description	jurisdiction	legislature	session	identifier	citation	classification	subjects	status	primary_sponsors	version_count	action_count	vote_count	first_action	last_action	source	source_identifier	source_url	source_hash	vintage	source_snapshot	retrieved_at	confidence	tags
Bill	California Environmental Quality Act: exemption: passenger rail projects.	The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment.	us/states/ca	California Legislature	20232024	AB 2503	California AB 2503 (20232024)	bill	California Environmental Quality Act exemption passenger rail projects	enacted	Lee	9	26	7	2024-02-13	2024-09-27	openstates	ocd-bill/a8e96cb6-05b9-402a-aacd-2f962cb8fe98	http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB2503	32f4279bccd78379f78a8acad87211dc6171a2c04f89ed51be31ce0f80fc4713	2026-07-01	https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump	2026-07-06	reported	legislation bill us-ca

California AB 2503 (20232024) — California Environmental Quality Act: exemption: passenger rail projects.

The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment.

Version chain

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

1. 02/13/24 - Introduced (filed) — source
2. 04/01/24 - Amended Assembly (committee substitute) — source
3. 04/11/24 - Amended Assembly (committee substitute) — source
4. 05/16/24 - Amended Senate (committee substitute) — source
5. 06/10/24 - Amended Senate (committee substitute) — source
6. 06/27/24 - Amended Senate (committee substitute) — source
7. 09/27/24 - Chaptered (committee substitute) — source
8. AB2503 (committee substitute) — source
9. 08/26/24 - Enrolled (enrolled) — source

Votes

• Do pass as amended, but first amend, and re-refer to the Committee on [Transportation] — 5–0 (pass) · upper
• Do pass as amended, but first amend, and re-refer to the Committee on [Appropriations] — 10–3 (pass) · upper
• AB 2503 Lee Consent Calendar Second Day — 73–0 (pass) · lower
• 3rd Reading AB2503 Lee By Wiener — 31–5 (pass) · upper
• Do pass as amended and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — 11–0 (pass) · lower
• AB 2503 Lee Concurrence in Senate Amendments — 60–0 (pass) · lower
• Do pass. To Consent Calendar. — 14–0 (pass) · lower

Sponsors

• Lee — primary (person)

Timeline

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

• 2024-02-13 Read first time. To print. reading-1
• 2024-02-14 From printer. May be heard in committee March 15.
• 2024-03-04 Referred to Com. on NAT. RES. referral-committee
• 2024-04-01 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-1, reading-2
• 2024-04-02 Re-referred to Com. on NAT. RES. referral-committee
• 2024-04-10 From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 11. Noes 0.) (April 8). amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, committee-passage, referral-committee
• 2024-04-11 Read second time and amended. amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2
• 2024-04-15 Re-referred to Com. on APPR. referral-committee
• 2024-04-24 From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 14. Noes 0.) (April 24). committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable
• 2024-04-25 Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. reading-1, reading-2
• 2024-05-02 Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 73. Noes 0. Page 5089.) passage, reading-1, reading-3
• 2024-05-02 In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. reading-1
• 2024-05-15 Referred to Coms. on E.Q. and TRANS. referral-committee
• 2024-05-16 From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on E.Q. amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2, referral-committee
• 2024-06-06 From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on TRANS. (Ayes 5. Noes 0.) (June 5). amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, committee-passage, referral-committee
• 2024-06-10 Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on TRANS. amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2, referral-committee
• 2024-06-26 From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 10. Noes 3.) (June 25). amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, committee-passage, referral-committee
• 2024-06-27 Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR. amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2, referral-committee
• 2024-08-05 From committee: Be ordered to second reading pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8. committee-passage, reading-2
• 2024-08-06 Read second time. Ordered to third reading. reading-1, reading-2
• 2024-08-20 Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 31. Noes 5. Page 5233.). passage, reading-1, reading-3
• 2024-08-20 In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending. May be considered on or after August 22 pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.
• 2024-08-22 Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 60. Noes 0. Page 6432.). amendment-passage, committee-passage-favorable
• 2024-08-28 Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 4 p.m.
• 2024-09-27 Approved by the Governor. executive-signature
• 2024-09-27 Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 718, Statutes of 2024. became-law

Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot 2026-07-01; origin ocd-bill/a8e96cb6-05b9-402a-aacd-2f962cb8fe98. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).