republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20212022/ab-359.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Physicians and surgeons: licensure: examination."
description: "Existing law, the Medical Practice Act, requires the Medical Board of California to issue a physician's and surgeon's certificate to a qualified applicant. Under the act, an applicant for a physician's and surgeon's certificate is required to include specified information in the application and to obtain a passing score on an entire examination or on each part of an examination. Existing law requires an applicant to obtain a passing score on all parts of Step 3 of the United States Medical Licensing Examination within not more than 4 attempts in order to be eligible for a certificate. Existing law provides an exception to the 4-attempt requirement for an applicant who holds an unlimited and unrestricted license as a physician and surgeon in another state, and has held that license continuously for a minimum of 4 years prior to the date of application, meets certain postgraduate training requirements and is certified by a specialty board, and is not subject to specified licensure denials or disciplinary action."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20212022"
identifier: "AB 359"
citation: "California AB 359 (20212022)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Physicians and surgeons: licensure: examination."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Cooper"]
version_count: 8
action_count: 25
vote_count: 8
first_action: "2021-02-01"
last_action: "2021-10-07"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/f8b83248-6179-4a36-a09a-054d0831e8bd"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB359"
source_hash: "5b455f96598e33caac320769cf364a8f48a506ec03cfc448217bf6ffa4dfad9d"
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 359 (20212022) — Physicians and surgeons: licensure: examination.

Existing law, the Medical Practice Act, requires the Medical Board of California to issue a physician's and surgeon's certificate to a qualified applicant. Under the act, an applicant for a physician's and surgeon's certificate is required to include specified information in the application and to obtain a passing score on an entire examination or on each part of an examination. Existing law requires an applicant to obtain a passing score on all parts of Step 3 of the United States Medical Licensing Examination within not more than 4 attempts in order to be eligible for a certificate. Existing law provides an exception to the 4-attempt requirement for an applicant who holds an unlimited and unrestricted license as a physician and surgeon in another state, and has held that license continuously for a minimum of 4 years prior to the date of application, meets certain postgraduate training requirements and is certified by a specialty board, and is not subject to specified licensure denials or disciplinary action.

## Version chain

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

1. **02/01/21 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB359&version=20210AB35999INT)
2. **03/22/21 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB359&version=20210AB35998AMD)
3. **06/15/21 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB359&version=20210AB35997AMD)
4. **07/15/21 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB359&version=20210AB35996AMD)
5. **08/26/21 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB359&version=20210AB35995AMD)
6. **10/07/21 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB359&version=20210AB35993CHP)
7. **AB359** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB359)
8. **09/13/21 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB359&version=20210AB35994ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass. To Consent Calendar. — **16–0** (pass) · lower
- Placed on suspense file — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- AB 359 Cooper Consent Calendar Second Day — **77–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 359 Cooper Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **79–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] with recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **18–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass as amended, but first amend, and re-refer to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **14–0** (pass) · upper
- Special Consent AB359 Cooper et al. By Pan Urgency Clause — **38–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended — **7–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Cooper — primary (person)
- Smith — principal coauthor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2021-02-01** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2021-02-02** From printer. May be heard in committee March 4.
- **2021-02-12** Referred to Com. on B. & P. `referral-committee`
- **2021-03-22** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on B. & P. Read second time and amended. `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-03-23** Re-referred to Com. on B. & P. `referral-committee`
- **2021-04-07** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 18. Noes 0.) (April 6). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee`
- **2021-04-14** From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 16. Noes 0.) (April 14). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-04-15** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-04-22** Read third time. Urgency clause adopted. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 77. Noes 0. Page 1152.). `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2021-04-26** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2021-05-12** Referred to Com. on B., P. & E.D. `referral-committee`
- **2021-06-15** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on B., P. & E.D. `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2, referral-committee`
- **2021-07-14** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 14. Noes 0.) (July 12). `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2021-07-15** Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2, referral-committee`
- **2021-08-23** In committee: Referred to APPR suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2021-08-26** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (August 26). `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, committee-passage`
- **2021-08-26** Read second time and amended. Ordered returned to second reading. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-08-30** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-09-03** Ordered to special consent calendar.
- **2021-09-08** Read third time. Urgency clause adopted. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 38. Noes 0. Page 2488.). `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2021-09-08** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending.
- **2021-09-09** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 79. Noes 0. Page 3048.). `amendment-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-09-17** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 3 p.m.
- **2021-10-07** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2021-10-07** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 612, Statutes of 2021. `became-law`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/f8b83248-6179-4a36-a09a-054d0831e8bd`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).