republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20212022/ab-738.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Community mental health services: mental health boards."
description: "Existing law, the Bronzan-McCorquodale Act, governs the organization and financing of community mental health services for persons with mental disorders in every county through locally administered and locally controlled community mental health programs. Existing law requires each community mental health service to have a mental health board consisting of members who are appointed by the governing body, and encourages counties to appoint individuals who have experience with and knowledge of the mental health system. Existing law requires at least 50% of the board membership to be consumers, or the parents, spouses, siblings, or adult children of consumers. Existing law specifies the duties of mental health boards, including acting in an advisory role to the governing body."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20212022"
identifier: "AB 738"
citation: "California AB 738 (20212022)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Community mental health services: mental health boards."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Nguyen"]
version_count: 8
action_count: 25
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2021-02-16"
last_action: "2022-09-17"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/6c9850b5-b25d-4d41-9c6c-9c784dd48c4a"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB738"
source_hash: "e67151d8a64989a2616f70fd601499e783b710f8f7d97aae3055ba67695663b9"
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 738 (20212022) — Community mental health services: mental health boards.

Existing law, the Bronzan-McCorquodale Act, governs the organization and financing of community mental health services for persons with mental disorders in every county through locally administered and locally controlled community mental health programs. Existing law requires each community mental health service to have a mental health board consisting of members who are appointed by the governing body, and encourages counties to appoint individuals who have experience with and knowledge of the mental health system. Existing law requires at least 50% of the board membership to be consumers, or the parents, spouses, siblings, or adult children of consumers. Existing law specifies the duties of mental health boards, including acting in an advisory role to the governing body.

## Version chain

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

1. **02/16/21 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB738&version=20210AB73899INT)
2. **01/03/22 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB738&version=20210AB73897AMD)
3. **01/13/22 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB738&version=20210AB73896AMD)
4. **03/25/21 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB738&version=20210AB73898AMD)
5. **06/02/22 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB738&version=20210AB73895AMD)
6. **09/17/22 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB738&version=20210AB73893CHP)
7. **AB738** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB738)
8. **09/02/22 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB738&version=20210AB73894ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass as amended and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **15–0** (pass) · lower
- 3rd Reading AB738 Nguyen By Archuleta — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended, but first amend, and re-refer to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **9–0** (pass) · upper
- AB 738 Nguyen Consent Calendar Second Day — **61–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 738 Nguyen Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **80–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass. To Consent Calendar. — **15–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Nguyen — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2021-02-16** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2021-02-17** From printer. May be heard in committee March 19.
- **2021-03-25** Referred to Com. on HEALTH. `referral-committee`
- **2021-03-25** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on HEALTH. Read second time and amended. `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-03-26** Re-referred to Com. on HEALTH. `referral-committee`
- **2022-01-03** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on HEALTH. Read second time and amended. `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2`
- **2022-01-04** Re-referred to Com. on HEALTH. `referral-committee`
- **2022-01-12** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 15. Noes 0.) (January 11). `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2022-01-13** Read second time and amended. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2`
- **2022-01-14** Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee`
- **2022-01-20** From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 15. Noes 0.) (January 20). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2022-01-24** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2022-01-27** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 61. Noes 0. Page 3409.) `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2022-01-27** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2022-05-04** Referred to Com. on HEALTH. `referral-committee`
- **2022-06-01** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 9. Noes 0.) (June 1). `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2022-06-02** Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2, referral-committee`
- **2022-08-08** From committee: Be ordered to second reading pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8. `committee-passage, reading-2`
- **2022-08-09** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2022-08-31** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 40. Noes 0. Page 5360.). `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2022-08-31** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending.
- **2022-08-31** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 80. Noes 0.). `amendment-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2022-09-13** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 4 p.m.
- **2022-09-17** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2022-09-17** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 378, Statutes of 2022. `became-law`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/6c9850b5-b25d-4d41-9c6c-9c784dd48c4a`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).