republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20192020/ab-956.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Telecommunications: automatic dialing-announcing devices: emergency alert notifications."
description: "Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including telephone corporations. Existing law authorizes the commission to control and regulate the use of automatic dialing-announcing devices. Existing law prohibits a person from operating an automatic dialing-announcing device except as specified. Existing law expressly provides that the use of automatic dialing-announcing devices by law enforcement agencies, fire protection agencies, public health agencies, public environmental health agencies, city or county emergency services planning agencies, or any private for-profit agency operating under contract with, and at the direction of, one or more of these agencies, for specified purposes relating to public safety and emergencies is not prohibited."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20192020"
identifier: "AB 956"
citation: "California AB 956 (20192020)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Telecommunications: automatic dialing-announcing devices: emergency alert notifications."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Diep"]
version_count: 7
action_count: 24
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2019-02-21"
last_action: "2019-09-05"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/a701aa37-48c9-4d62-8ebd-a18fdbac1234"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB956"
source_hash: "e834bc5e5504647565064c4ce7f7d2d2e5b9f6c4ec9f2d6f00ee05c31c1eddb4"
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 956 (20192020) — Telecommunications: automatic dialing-announcing devices: emergency alert notifications.

Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including telephone corporations. Existing law authorizes the commission to control and regulate the use of automatic dialing-announcing devices. Existing law prohibits a person from operating an automatic dialing-announcing device except as specified. Existing law expressly provides that the use of automatic dialing-announcing devices by law enforcement agencies, fire protection agencies, public health agencies, public environmental health agencies, city or county emergency services planning agencies, or any private for-profit agency operating under contract with, and at the direction of, one or more of these agencies, for specified purposes relating to public safety and emergencies is not prohibited.

## Version chain

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

1. **02/21/19 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB956&version=20190AB95699INT)
2. **04/25/19 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB956&version=20190AB95698AMD)
3. **05/07/19 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB956&version=20190AB95697AMD)
4. **08/12/19 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB956&version=20190AB95696AMD)
5. **09/05/19 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB956&version=20190AB95694CHP)
6. **AB956** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB956)
7. **08/23/19 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB956&version=20190AB95695ENR)

## Votes

- AB 956 Diep Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **75–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 956 Diep Consent Calendar Second Day — **74–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass — **11–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended. To Consent Calendar. — **11–0** (pass) · lower
- 3rd Reading AB956 Diep et al. By Umberg — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended, and be re-referred to the Committee on [Privacy and Consumer Protection] with recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **8–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Diep — primary (person)
- Cooper — coauthor (person)
- Cristina Garcia — coauthor (person)
- Daly — coauthor (person)
- Lackey — coauthor (person)
- Quirk-Silva — coauthor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2019-02-21** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2019-02-22** From printer. May be heard in committee March 24.
- **2019-03-04** Referred to Coms. on C. & C. and P. & C.P. `referral-committee`
- **2019-04-24** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on P. & C.P. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 8. Noes 0.) (April 24). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, amendment-introduction`
- **2019-04-25** Read second time and amended. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2`
- **2019-04-29** Re-referred to Com. on P. & C.P. `referral-committee`
- **2019-05-06** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 11. Noes 0.) (April 30). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, amendment-introduction`
- **2019-05-07** Read second time and amended. Ordered returned to second reading. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2`
- **2019-05-08** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2019-05-13** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 74. Noes 0. Page 1637.) `passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2019-05-14** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2019-05-22** Referred to Com. on E., U. & C. `referral-committee`
- **2019-06-04** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 11. Noes 0.) (June 4). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2019-06-05** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2019-06-17** Ordered to special consent calendar.
- **2019-06-20** Ordered to third reading.
- **2019-08-12** Read third time and amended. Ordered to second reading. `amendment-passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2019-08-13** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2019-08-19** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 40. Noes 0. Page 2205.). `passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2019-08-19** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending. May be considered on or after August 21 pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.
- **2019-08-22** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 75. Noes 0. Page 2797.). `amendment-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2019-08-27** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 3:30 p.m.
- **2019-09-05** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2019-09-05** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 232, Statutes of 2019.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/a701aa37-48c9-4d62-8ebd-a18fdbac1234`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).