WhatMatters
Your guide to California policy and politics
By Mikhail Zinshteyn
August 25, 2025
Presented by California Chamber of Commerce, Climate-Smart Agricultural Partnership, California Housing Consortium and Dairy Cares
Good morning, California.
Will California bills regulating AI survive secretive legislative process?
The state Capitol in Sacramento on April 29, 2024. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters
I’m CalMatters reporter Mikhail Zinshteyn, and I’m subbing for Lynn La today.
Bills to regulate artificial intelligence tools in the workplace must clear a legislative hurdle that frequently fells expensive or politically dicey legislation. As Khari Johnson reports for CalMatters, more than a half-dozen AI-themed bills are on the suspense file in the Legislature. For them to ultimately head to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk, they must first withstand the scrutiny of the all-powerful committees on appropriations in the Assembly and Senate through an opaque process.
A key measure, Senate Bill 7, would require employers to give workers a heads up of 30 days before they use AI-backed tools to decide on matters such as compensation, hiring, firing and promotions. Workers would have the right to appeal those AI-powered decisions. Employers would not be permitted to use AI to make employee predictions based on their immigration status, psychological fate and other factors. An appropriations committee analysis said that the state would spend around $600,000 annually making sure private businesses comply. Another, Assembly Bill 1018, would give people 30 days to appeal the decisions of automated systems about employment, education, housing, health care, financial services, and parts of the criminal justice system. Costs to state agencies to comply with the bill would reach hundreds of millions of dollars, an appropriations committee analysis said. The bill’s author said she found that finding surprising. Nearly 80 groups and businesses, including hospitals, oppose AB 1018.
Veena Dubal, a researcher and critic of AI said California lawmakers should still pass these bills: “As much as Gov. Newsom wants to juxtapose himself against Donald Trump and California wants to be a sort of savior to the rest of the nation in this moment of extreme right authoritarian actions,” she said, “it’s really important that the state not continue to concede to big tech companies who are very much in bed with the president.”
Read Khari’s story here.
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Other Stories You Should Know
DEI bans versus private donations
Attorney General Rob Bonta addresses the media during a press conference at the California Department of Justice in Sacramento on Feb. 4, 2025. Photo by Fred Greaves, CalMatters
Private scholarships meant for Black students or other marginalized groups generally must adhere to their goal of helping people from those backgrounds, even in the face of the Trump administration’s efforts to target programs with a racial or ethnic focus.
That’s according to a 10-page advisory published Friday by California Attorney General Rob Bonta and nine other attorneys general.
From a statement released with the letter: “The coalition issued the guidance in response to the Trump administration’s continued and deliberate efforts to rollback equity-centered programs and support systems designed to uplift historically marginalized groups.”
The letter contends that the arguments in the 2023 Supreme Court ruling banning race-based affirmative action “do not apply, or are of limited relevance, to privately funded trusts and charitable entities.”
Trustees executing a donor’s scholarship have a legal obligation to honor the intent of the donor. If an existing law challenges a university's ability to carry out that scholarship, the campus could consider transferring the award to an institution that can.
Campuses or scholarship trustees could also slightly change the method of targeting the intended community by basing eligibility on geography, language spoken, students’ ability to overcome adversity given their background and other factors. (The Justice Department wrote in July that such proxies are “unlawful” at campuses.)
The state attorneys general say in their letter that they and the courts have a role in determining whether the intent of the private scholarship can be altered.
A new effort to save NIH grants at UCLA
Participants in the “Kill the Cuts” rally march against the Trump administration’s proposed research funding cuts in Los Angeles on April 8, 2025. Photo by Jules Hotz for CalMatters
On Tuesday lawyers for researchers at the University of California will attempt to persuade a federal judge in California to save National Institutes of Health grants at UCLA from being defunded. The stakes are high: Last week the U.S. Supreme Court opened the door for those grants to again be terminated, overturning lower court rulings. That decision encompasses hundreds of grants worth around $800 million across the country, including in California. Meanwhile, the Trump administration suspended 500 National Institutes of Health grants at UCLA late last month.
But lawyers for the UC researchers have succeeded in restoring some funding. In June, Rita Lin, the judge overseeing Tuesday’s hearing, ordered the National Science Foundation to restore 114 grants to UC professors across the system. Lawyers for the researchers also successfully argued in early August that Lin’s preliminary injunction applies to the 300 National Science Foundation grants the Trump administration suspended at UCLA. Now those lawyers are trying to argue that Lin’s June order should apply to the suspended health science grants and Tuesday’s oral hearing is the first step toward that possible outcome. Lawyers for the Trump administration plan to argue against the move.
Coming soon
Be sure to check in with CalMatters later this week when reporter Ana B. Ibarra reports on what happens when immigration enforcement collides with the health care system.
California Voices
The latest report by officials from California’s high-speed rail project expands the rail’s reach at the expense of Merced but it’s a trade-off worth considering, California Voices editor Yousef Baig writes.
Reader Reaction: A transit-oriented housing bill would lead to expensive apartment towers, writes Michael Barnes, a former East Bay city councilman, in response to a CalMatters commentary.
Other things worth your time:
Some stories may require a subscription to read.
The Supreme Court could give immigration agents broad power to stop and question Latinos // Los Angeles Times
Judge blocks Trump from cutting money to Chicago, LA and other cities over ‘sanctuary’ policies // The Associated Press
Poll: Nearly half of voters support Gavin Newsom’s redistricting counterpunch // The Sacramento Bee
Redistricting war between Texas and California is about to jolt the midterms // Politico
They thought California was a safe haven for their transgender kids. Now clinics are halting care // San Francisco Chronicle
How a ritzy L.A. enclave learned a bitter lesson about the limits of its wealth // The New York Times Magazine
CA high-speed rail passenger service could start in Central Valley before 2033 // The Fresno Bee
Sonoma County plastics recycling venture falls under investigation by regulators amid expansion plans // The Press Democrat
Did 40,000 Bay FC fans packing Oracle Park prove women’s soccer has a future in S.F.? // San Francisco Chronicle
See you next time!
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