republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20112012/ab-361.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Benefit corporations."
description: "Existing law, the General Corporation Law, authorizes and regulates the formation and governance of general corporations. The Nonprofit Corporation Law authorizes the formation and governance of nonprofit public benefit corporations, nonprofit mutual benefit corporations, and nonprofit religious corporations, and specifies the respective purposes for which those corporations may lawfully be formed. Existing law specifies the duties of corporate directors and the rights of shareholders. Existing law does not provide for the formation and governance of benefit corporations."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20112012"
identifier: "AB 361"
citation: "California AB 361 (20112012)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Benefit corporations."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Huffman"]
version_count: 9
action_count: 29
vote_count: 7
first_action: "2011-02-14"
last_action: "2011-10-09"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/e4c606dd-e70b-4678-9ee8-4dd7512619e7"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB361"
source_hash: "640ba10c079a1038f89e9857198859d4808cfb21628d895bfffb0668af3f06a9"
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 361 (20112012) — Benefit corporations.

Existing law, the General Corporation Law, authorizes and regulates the formation and governance of general corporations. The Nonprofit Corporation Law authorizes the formation and governance of nonprofit public benefit corporations, nonprofit mutual benefit corporations, and nonprofit religious corporations, and specifies the respective purposes for which those corporations may lawfully be formed. Existing law specifies the duties of corporate directors and the rights of shareholders. Existing law does not provide for the formation and governance of benefit corporations.

## Version chain

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

1. **02/14/11 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB361&version=20110AB36199INT)
2. **03/14/11 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB361&version=20110AB36198AMD)
3. **04/27/11 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB361&version=20110AB36197AMD)
4. **05/11/11 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB361&version=20110AB36196AMD)
5. **05/19/11 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB361&version=20110AB36195AMD)
6. **07/12/11 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB361&version=20110AB36194AMD)
7. **10/09/11 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB361&version=20110AB36192CHP)
8. **AB361** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB361)
9. **08/30/11 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB361&version=20110AB36193ENR)

## Votes

- AB 361 HUFFMAN Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **57–17** (pass) · lower
- Do pass as amended, and re-refer to the Committee on Appropriations. — **4–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended and be re-referred to the Committee on Appropriations. — **7–2** (pass) · lower
- AB 361 HUFFMAN Assembly Third Reading — **58–17** (pass) · lower
- Do pass as amended. — **12–5** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, but re-refer to the Committee on Judiciary. — **5–1** (pass) · upper
- 3rd Reading AB361 Huffman By Leno — **23–7** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Huffman — primary (person)
- Blumenfield — principal coauthor (person)
- Dickinson — coauthor (person)
- Hancock — coauthor (person)
- Leno — coauthor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2011-02-14** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2011-02-15** From printer. May be heard in committee March 17.
- **2011-03-14** Referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2011-03-14** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on JUD. Read second time and amended. `reading-2, amendment-introduction, reading-1, amendment-passage`
- **2011-03-15** Re-referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2011-04-26** In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
- **2011-04-27** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on JUD. Read second time and amended. `reading-2, amendment-introduction, reading-1, amendment-passage`
- **2011-04-28** Re-referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2011-05-10** From committee: Do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 7. Noes 2.) (May 3). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2011-05-11** Read second time and amended. `reading-2, reading-1, amendment-passage`
- **2011-05-12** Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee`
- **2011-05-18** From committee: Do pass as amended. (Ayes 12. Noes 5.) (May 18). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2011-05-19** Read second time and amended. Ordered to second reading. `reading-2, reading-1, amendment-passage`
- **2011-05-23** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2011-05-26** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 58. Noes 17. Page 1560.) `reading-3, reading-1, passage`
- **2011-05-26** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2011-06-02** Referred to Coms. on B. & F.I. and JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2011-06-15** In committee: Hearing postponed by committee.
- **2011-06-30** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on JUD. (Ayes 5. Noes 1.) (June 29). Re-referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee, committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2011-07-11** From committee: Do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 4. Noes 0.) (July 5). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2011-07-12** Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `reading-2, reading-1, amendment-passage, referral-committee`
- **2011-08-15** From committee: Be placed on second reading file pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8. `committee-passage`
- **2011-08-16** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2011-08-22** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 23. Noes 7. Page 2008.). `reading-3, reading-1, passage`
- **2011-08-22** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending. May be considered on or after August 24 pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.
- **2011-08-29** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 57. Noes 17. Page 2647.). `committee-passage-favorable, amendment-passage`
- **2011-09-01** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 3:30 p.m.
- **2011-10-09** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2011-10-09** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 728, Statutes of 2011.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/e4c606dd-e70b-4678-9ee8-4dd7512619e7`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).