republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20212022/ab-398.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Department of Motor Vehicles: records."
description: "Existing law authorizes the Department of Motor Vehicles to permit inspection of, or sell, or both, information from its records concerning the registration of a vehicle or information from the files of drivers' licenses at a charge sufficient to pay at least the actual cost to the department for providing the inspection or sale of that information, except as specified."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20212022"
identifier: "AB 398"
citation: "California AB 398 (20212022)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Department of Motor Vehicles: records."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Fong"]
version_count: 6
action_count: 22
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2021-02-03"
last_action: "2021-07-16"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/3e3fbd48-db4d-451a-a6dc-1e8e27cdb02a"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB398"
source_hash: "60f330cc66d6d1ba7ba7de644c777dcb553371423933bae1bfeaa60303ad147f"
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 398 (20212022) — Department of Motor Vehicles: records.

Existing law authorizes the Department of Motor Vehicles to permit inspection of, or sell, or both, information from its records concerning the registration of a vehicle or information from the files of drivers' licenses at a charge sufficient to pay at least the actual cost to the department for providing the inspection or sale of that information, except as specified.

## Version chain

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

1. **02/03/21 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB398&version=20210AB39899INT)
2. **03/10/21 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB398&version=20210AB39898AMD)
3. **05/26/21 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB398&version=20210AB39897AMD)
4. **07/16/21 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB398&version=20210AB39895CHP)
5. **AB398** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB398)
6. **06/29/21 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB398&version=20210AB39896ENR)

## Votes

- Consent Calendar AB398 — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] with the recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **4–0** (pass) · upper
- AB 398 Fong Consent Calendar Second Day — **77–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 398 Fong Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **79–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] with recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **15–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass. To Consent Calendar. — **16–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Fong — primary (person)
- Chau — author (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2021-02-03** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2021-02-04** From printer. May be heard in committee March 6.
- **2021-02-12** Referred to Com. on TRANS. `referral-committee`
- **2021-03-10** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on TRANS. Read second time and amended. `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-03-11** Re-referred to Com. on TRANS. `referral-committee`
- **2021-03-23** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 15. Noes 0.) (March 22). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee`
- **2021-04-14** In committee: Hearing postponed by committee.
- **2021-04-28** From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 16. Noes 0.) (April 28). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-04-29** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-05-06** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 77. Noes 0. Page 1335.) `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2021-05-06** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2021-05-19** Referred to Com. on PUB. S. `referral-committee`
- **2021-05-26** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on PUB. S. `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2, referral-committee`
- **2021-06-08** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 4. Noes 0.) (June 8). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee`
- **2021-06-21** From committee: Be ordered to second reading file pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8 and ordered to Consent Calendar. `committee-passage, reading-2`
- **2021-06-22** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-06-24** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 39. Noes 0. Page 1633.). `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2021-06-24** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending. May be considered on or after June 26 pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.
- **2021-06-28** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 79. Noes 0. Page 2132.). `amendment-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-07-05** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 4:30 p.m.
- **2021-07-16** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2021-07-16** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 90, 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/3e3fbd48-db4d-451a-a6dc-1e8e27cdb02a`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).