republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20212022/sb-7.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Environmental quality: Jobs and Economic Improvement Through Environmental Leadership Act of 2021."
description: "(1) The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report (EIR) on a project that the lead agency proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20212022"
identifier: "SB 7"
citation: "California SB 7 (20212022)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Environmental quality: Jobs and Economic Improvement Through Environmental Leadership Act of 2021."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Atkins"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 20
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2020-12-07"
last_action: "2021-05-20"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/ca7dbf59-d593-4d33-b2fa-b636b77ca75f"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB7"
source_hash: "86c219808605d63e86c84302ef5125c456b29447dd62d203b68161c58e25a06e"
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 SB 7 (20212022) — Environmental quality: Jobs and Economic Improvement Through Environmental Leadership Act of 2021.

(1) The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report (EIR) on a project that the lead agency proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment.

## Version chain

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

1. **12/07/20 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB7&version=20210SB799INT)
2. **02/18/21 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB7&version=20210SB798AMD)
3. **05/20/21 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB7&version=20210SB796CHP)
4. **SB7** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB7)
5. **05/12/21 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB7&version=20210SB797ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass. — **16–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **9–1** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **5–0** (pass) · upper
- 3rd Reading SB7 Atkins et al. Urgency Clause — **34–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass — **6–0** (pass) · upper
- SB 7 Atkins Third Reading Urgency By RIVAS, R. — **71–2** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Atkins — primary (person)
- Cortese — coauthor (person)
- Gonzalez — coauthor (person)
- Robert Rivas — coauthor (person)
- Rubio — coauthor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2020-12-07** Introduced. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. To print. `introduction, reading-1`
- **2020-12-08** From printer. May be acted upon on or after January 7.
- **2021-01-28** Referred to Com. on EQ. `referral-committee`
- **2021-02-17** Set for hearing February 22.
- **2021-02-18** From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on E.Q. `amendment-passage, committee-passage, reading-1, reading-2, referral-committee`
- **2021-02-23** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 5. Noes 0. Page 306.) (February 22). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee`
- **2021-02-23** Set for hearing February 25.
- **2021-02-25** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 6. Noes 0. Page 333.) (February 25). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-02-25** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-03-01** Read third time. Urgency clause adopted. Passed. (Ayes 34. Noes 0. Page 343.) Ordered to the Assembly. `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2021-03-01** In Assembly. Read first time. Held at Desk. `reading-1`
- **2021-04-08** Referred to Com. on NAT. RES. `referral-committee`
- **2021-04-29** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 9. Noes 1.) (April 28). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee`
- **2021-05-05** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 16. Noes 0.) (May 5). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-05-06** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-05-10** Read third time. Urgency clause adopted. Passed. (Ayes 71. Noes 2. Page 1365.) Ordered to the Senate. `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2021-05-11** In Senate. Ordered to engrossing and enrolling.
- **2021-05-13** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 11:30 a.m.
- **2021-05-20** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2021-05-20** Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 19, 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/ca7dbf59-d593-4d33-b2fa-b636b77ca75f`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).