republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20232024/sb-406.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "California Environmental Quality Act: exemption: financial assistance: residential housing."
description: "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 on a project that it 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: "20232024"
identifier: "SB 406"
citation: "California SB 406 (20232024)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["California Environmental Quality Act", "exemption", "financial assistance", "residential housing"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Cortese"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 22
vote_count: 7
first_action: "2023-02-09"
last_action: "2023-09-01"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/18ab0da6-5f66-47fe-9d54-195a92f70101"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB406"
source_hash: "093b755f3728fd0e82ba7187d8541e2617151ccc4729af64abf3039f5a409602"
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 406 (20232024) — California Environmental Quality Act: exemption: financial assistance: residential housing.

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 on a project that it 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. **02/09/23 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB406&version=20230SB40699INT)
2. **06/19/23 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB406&version=20230SB40698AMD)
3. **09/01/23 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB406&version=20230SB40696CHP)
4. **SB406** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB406)
5. **08/18/23 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB406&version=20230SB40697ENR)

## Votes

- Consent Calendar — **36–0** (pass) · upper
- Special Consent SB406 Cortese et al. — **38–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended and be re-referred to the Committee on [Housing and Community Development] — **10–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass. To Consent Calendar. — **8–0** (pass) · lower
- SB 406 Cortese Consent Calendar Second Day — **70–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass and be ordered to the Consent Calendar — **10–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Housing] with the recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **7–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Cortese — primary (person)
- Seyarto — coauthor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2023-02-09** Introduced. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. To print. `introduction, reading-1`
- **2023-02-10** From printer. May be acted upon on or after March 12.
- **2023-02-22** Referred to Coms. on E.Q. and HOUSING. `referral-committee`
- **2023-02-27** Set for hearing March 15.
- **2023-03-15** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on HOUSING with recommendation: To consent calendar. (Ayes 7. Noes 0. Page 353.) (March 15). Re-referred to Com. on HOUSING. `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee`
- **2023-03-30** Set for hearing May 2.
- **2023-05-02** From committee: Do pass. Ordered to consent calendar. (Ayes 10. Noes 0. Page 981.) (May 2). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2023-05-03** Read second time. Ordered to consent calendar. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2023-05-08** Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 36. Noes 0. Page 1025.) Ordered to the Assembly. `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2023-05-08** In Assembly. Read first time. Held at Desk. `reading-1`
- **2023-05-18** Referred to Coms. on NAT. RES. and H. & C.D. `referral-committee`
- **2023-06-15** From committee: Do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on H. & C.D. (Ayes 10. Noes 0.) (June 12). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2023-06-19** Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on H. & C.D. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2, referral-committee`
- **2023-06-29** From committee: Do pass. Ordered to consent calendar. (Ayes 8. Noes 0.) (June 28). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2023-06-30** Read second time. Ordered to consent calendar. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2023-07-06** Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 70. Noes 0. Page 2572.) Ordered to the Senate. `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2023-07-06** In Senate. Concurrence in Assembly amendments pending.
- **2023-08-15** Ordered to special consent calendar.
- **2023-08-17** Assembly amendments concurred in. (Ayes 38. Noes 0. Page 2142.) Ordered to engrossing and enrolling. `amendment-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2023-08-22** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 2 p.m.
- **2023-09-01** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2023-09-01** Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 150, Statutes of 2023. `became-law`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/18ab0da6-5f66-47fe-9d54-195a92f70101`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).