Reflecting on the 2025 California Legislative Session

For over twenty years, Prevention Institute has remained steadfast in our advocacy to advance our statewide policy priorities that support community health, safety, and wellbeing.

In a tumultuous year full of uncertainty, we are proud to have partnered with health equity and racial justice advocates across the state to build power and momentum for policies that address our focus areas, including:

• Strengthening community-driven approaches to safety and wellbeing
• Healthy, equitable built environments and land use planning
• Aligning public investments with health equity and racial justice

In 2025, have engaged in key legislative advocacy efforts, articulating the public health imperatives for reparative bills that seek to address racially-motivated uses of eminent domain and the role major climate polluters have played in exacerbating climate change. We also engaged with state government leaders to ensure previously enacted policies abide by their equity objectives through implementation. This includes tracking the planning for Prop 4 climate bond expenditures and guiding the development of the California Racial Equity Framework.

Despite a $12 billion budget deficit and a challenging political climate for health equity and racial justice advocacy, we are excited to see wins for health equity and racial justice priorities of ours, including:

• Establishment of the Bureau for Descendants of American Slavery:  We thank Governor Newsom for signing SB 518 (Weber Pierson) into law, establishing the Bureau for Descendants of American Slavery and creating the government infrastructure necessary to conduct public education and outreach, support descendants in lineage verification, and coordinate the administration of future reparative programs. This was one of the central policy recommendations of the California Reparations Task Force in its 2023 final report. SB 518 is a historical achievement as California honors its commitment to addressing its role in upholding chattel slavery. As an allied public health organization advancing health equity and racial justice, we recognize that reparations is a necessary component of achieving equity and justice across all determinants of health. SB 518 is a significant step in ensuring our state government can facilitate repair and redress harm. We look forward to the opportunity to continue working in partnership and securing the budget investment necessary to stand up the Bureau.
• California Racial Equity Commission approves the Racial Equity Framework for state government. This Framework is a culmination of almost  two years of community engagement by the Commission, through meetings across the state, as well as through the dedicated advocacy of the California Racial Equity Coalition. Throughout its development, we collaborated with the California Racial Equity Coalition to provide ongoing guidance and policy expertise to the Commission, including through a comment letter on the draft Framework. The Framework offers recommendations, tools, and innovative approaches for state government entities  to integrate racial equity into their operations. For example, the Framework includes guidance on how government entities can shift practices around community engagement and budgeting to ensure services and programs work in service of historically-marginalized communities. On December 1, the Commission will present the Racial Equity Framework to Governor Newsom and the Legislature.
• Paid Leave for Chosen Family Passes. After years of dedicated advocacy by the California Work and Family Coalition, Governor Newsom signed SB 590 (Durazo) into law, enacting paid leave for chosen families. This bill will allow workers to take paid family leave for a designated person, including loved ones and extended family members who do not fit into existing definitions of “family” for paid leave.

Looking ahead to 2026, our advocacy will remain rooted in an affirmative policy agenda that proactively advances health equity and racial justice. We are looking forward to:

• Continuing on the Road to Repair. The California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC) is in its 2nd year of a multi-year effort to repair generational harms by advancing policies that promote equity, economic opportunity, and justice for Black Americans. This year the CLBC created the Road to Repair Priority Bill Package, focused on addressing health, wealth, housing, and education disparities for Black Californians. Governor Newsom vetoed three bills from the package that made it to his desk, AB 7 (Bryan), AB 57 (McKinnor), and AB 62 (McKinnor), citing legal risks and the lack of existing infrastructure to successfully implement the bills. We will continue to support the CLBC and work with our advocacy partners to ensure the Legislature continues to enact reparations policies in line with the California Reparations Task Force recommendations.
• Supporting the Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act. This year, we advocated for AB 1243 (Addis) and SB 684 (Menjivar), which would establish a Climate Superfund and require the largest fossil fuel polluters to pay their fair share of the damage caused by greenhouse gas emissions. We look forward to continuing our support of this important environmental justice initiative that will address climate change and ensure frontline communities most impacted by climate disasters are made whole.
• Guiding Climate Bond Implementation. In September, the Governor and Legislature passed an expenditure plan for the Climate Bond, allocating over $3 billion of the $10 billion bond approved by voters in the November 2024 election. The California Natural Resources Agency, the lead agency charged with implementing bond investments, announced there will be opportunities to provide comments on grant guidelines for programs receiving climate bond investments. We look forward to  recommendations on future parks and green space funding programs to ensure communities experiencing the greatest park inequities and environmental burdens are prioritized.

To learn more about our CA Policy work, please reach out to Vince Leus at vince [at] preventioninstitute.org (vince[at]preventioninstitute[dot]org).