CCFC Legislative Update: 2026 Bill Introductions

In 2026, California state legislators introduced 1,798 bills by the February 20th bill introduction deadline. Below is an update on a selection of priority bills that may impact community college facilities.

AB 1754 (Pacheco) – State General Obligation Bond Requirements

This bill creates new accountability requirements for state general obligation bonds approved by voters after January 1, 2027. It requires future state bonds to include specific goals, purposes, and objectives that the bond expenditure is intended to achieve, and to specify detailed performance indicators and data collection requirements. Additionally, the head of the agency administering the bond would be required to provide a notification on its website with accountability information about bond-funded projects, and to provide a written report to the Administration and Legislature evaluating the efficiency and outcomes of the bond. This bill is sponsored by Elevate California. AB 1754 was passed by Assembly Governmental Organization Committee and is pending in Assembly Appropriations Committee. CCFC adopted a “Watch” position on this bill and plans to provide information to policymakers about the existing accountability practices for community college construction projects and the state capital outlay program.

AB 1809 (Fong) – Job Order Contracting

Currently, K-12 school districts and community colleges have the authority to utilize job order contracting (JOC), and this authority is set to sunset on January 1, 2027. AB 1809 would remove the sunset and make the authority permanent. JOC is an alternative procurement method to deliver smaller projects, allowing for award of contracts to the lowest responsible bidder based on prices for specific construction tasks rather than bids for specific projects. Contractors are prequalified and bid an adjustment factor to the preset unit prices. To use JOC, community colleges must have a Project Labor Agreement that will apply to all public works awarded through JOC, and to all other public works of the district – regardless of delivery method – that exceed a monetary threshold set by the district. AB 1809 is sponsored by Los Angeles Unified School District. CCFC adopted a “Watch” position on this bill, which was passed by the Assembly Education Committee and is pending in the Assembly Higher Education Committee.

SB 1154 (Reyes) – Best Value Procurement

This bill establishes a new delivery method, authorizing community college districts to use best value procurement for construction projects that exceed $1 million. This is an extension of a new authority provided to K-12 school districts in 2025. The authority would sunset on December 31, 2030, in alignment with the sunset for K-12. Under best value, the bidder would be selected on the basis of objective criteria, where the resulting selection represents the best combination of price and qualifications. SB 1154 requires the use of a skilled and trained workforce or Project Labor Agreement. A community college district that uses this procurement option must submit an independent third-party report to the Legislature on the use of the best value procurement method. This bill is sponsored by San Bernardino Community College District. CCFC adopted a “Watch” position on this bill, which is pending in Senate Education Committee.

DIR & Prevailing Wage Monitoring

AB 1838 (Berman) – Contractor Disclosure of Wage-and-Hour Violations

This bill updates the Public Contract Code to require a contractor to disclose a history of wage-and-hour violations when submitting a bid to a local agency. This disclosure would include violations within the past five years related to unpaid wages, overtime, meal or rest break violations, or misclassification of employees or independent contractors. The contractor would be required to provide documents that the violations have been corrected or resolved. Failure to provide the required disclosures and supporting materials may result in disqualification of the bid. This bill is sponsored by the California-Nevada Conference of Operating Engineers and the District Council of Iron Workers. CCFC adopted a “Watch” position on this bill, which was passed by the Assembly Labor and Employment Committee and is pending on the Assembly Floor.

AB 1859 (Ortega) – Joint-Labor Management Committees

This bill requires a public agency owner to allow representatives of a joint-labor management committee (JLMC) to have “reasonable access” to active public works job sites to monitor compliance with prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements. “Reasonable access” means access that is consistent with job site safety and security requirements, including the use of personal protective equipment, that does not disrupt performance of work and includes access to workers during non-work hours. A court shall award a prevailing JLMC a civil penalty of $1,000 for each occasion that reasonable access was denied. This bill is sponsored by the International Union of Operating Engineers, the District Council of Iron Workers, and Building Trades. CCFC taken an “oppose unless amended” position and is working in partnership with a coalition of other public agencies, including cities, counties, and special districts, to address our concerns. CCFC is concerned about safety and worker protections, and we are also concerned about placing responsibility to provide “reasonable access” on the public agency, when contractors are legally given control of an active construction site. AB 1859 was passed by Assembly Labor and Employment Committee and is pending in Assembly Judiciary Committee.

SB 1241 (Smallwood-Cuevas) – Skilled and Trained Requirements

This bill would make various changes to skilled and trained workforce requirements. It expands the type of authorizing mechanism that can trigger compliance with existing skilled and trained workforce laws, going beyond “statute and regulation” to include other mechanisms, such as rules, resolution, ordinance, and public contract. Practically, this could affect a public agency that voluntarily adopts some skilled and trained workforce provisions when a project is not legally required to do so, triggering compliance with the full statutory requirements in Public Contract Code. For the purpose of penalty determinations, SB 1241 expands the definition of a “substantial compliance plan” to include remedying prior skilled and trained workforce violations by exceeding minimum apprenticeship graduate requirements on future projects. The bill also requires the Labor Commissioner to accept and investigate complaints from a Joint Labor-Management Committee alleging that a contractor or subcontractor failed to use the appropriate skilled and trained workforce. The bill is sponsored by the California State Association of Electrical Workers, the California State Pipe Trades Council, and the Western States Council of Sheet Metal Workers. CCFC is working with a coalition of other public agency groups to continue researching and analyzing this bill. SB 1241 was passed by the Senate Labor, Public Employment, and Retirement Committee and is pending in Senate Appropriations Committee.

Student Housing

AB 1732 (Alvarez) – Student Housing CEQA Exemption

This bill extends an existing infill housing CEQA exemption created by AB 130 [2025] to public higher education projects, including student housing. This would be done by updating the language that authorizes the exemption to include a project that is consistent with a “public higher education land use plan.” The existing exemption includes the following labor standards:

• Projects that are 100% affordable housing must pay prevailing wage.
• Projects with buildings over 85 feet must use a skilled and trained workforce.

CCFC adopted a “Watch” position on this bill, which is pending in the Assembly Natural Resources Committee and the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee.

Regional Housing Needs Allocation

The Legislature continues its focus on housing affordability. As such, there were multiple bills introduced to incorporate community college student housing facilities into the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA), a state-mandated process that requires cities and counties to plan for future housing needs across all income levels. Under this system, the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) determines the total regional housing need, and regional planning agencies distribute that need to local jurisdictions.

CCFC is watching the following bills:

• AB 1623 (Davies) – This bill requires local jurisdictions to count the “number of certain types of student housing quarters,” as determined by HCD, that are built within the jurisdiction toward their share of the lower income regional housing needs allocation. The student housing units would count even if the project was approved by the Division of State Architect and was not reviewed by the local planning agency. AB 1623 is pending in Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee and Assembly Local Government Committee.
• AB 2295 (Johnson) – This bill authorizes a local government to enter into a voluntary agreement with another local government to allow new housing development projects with very low- and low-income units to count toward each locality’s share of the regional housing needs allocation. AB 2295 is pending in Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee and Assembly Local Government Committee.
• AB 2400 (Wallis) – This bill would require the city or county to include the number of suite-style student housing quarters in their annual report on housing element to HCD. AB 2400 is pending in Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee and Assembly Local Government Committee.

Rebekah Kalleen
CCFC Executive Director