California Assembly Bill ABX14

California 2025-2026 Regular Session

• Introduced: 1/20/25
• Engrossed: 1/23/25
• Enrolled: 1/23/25
• Chaptered: 1/24/25
• Passed: 1/24/25

Caption

An act to amend the Budget Act of 2024 (Chs. 22, 35, and 994, Stats. 2024), by amending Sections 39.00 and 99.50 of, and by adding Section 90.00 to, that act, relating to the state budget, and making an appropriation therefor, to take effect immediately, budget bill.

Summary

ABX14 (Chapter 1, Statutes of 2025) amends the Budget Act of 2024 to provide additional emergency wildfire response and recovery funding. The bill adds Section 90.00 to the Budget Act, authorizing the Director of Finance to augment appropriations from any available funding source, including the General Fund, up to a total of $1.5 billion for purposes tied to the Disaster Response-Emergency Operations Account. The funding is directed to state departments and entities responding to the January 2025 wildfire states of emergency. The bill specifies a broad range of eligible uses, including emergency protective measures, evacuations, sheltering, household hazardous waste removal, post-fire hazard assessment and remediation, traffic control, and air quality, water, and environmental testing. It also covers other actions needed to protect health and safety and speed recovery. The appropriations remain available until the relevant emergency declarations end, or until another date set by the Director of Finance, and the bill takes effect immediately as a budget bill.

Impact

ABX14 changes state budget law by creating a new emergency augmentation authority within the Budget Act of 2024 and by updating the act’s control-section index to reflect the new wildfire response section. It gives the Department of Finance flexibility to redirect or augment appropriations from available sources for wildfire response and recovery, while requiring notice to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee and allowing immediate implementation of the first $1 billion. The bill does not alter the Governor’s existing emergency powers, but it expands the state’s fiscal tools for disaster response and recovery operations.

Sentiment

The bill appears to have been treated as an urgent, broadly supported emergency budget measure. It passed the Assembly with strong support in the final vote and was chaptered the same day it moved through the Legislature, indicating a high level of consensus around the need for rapid wildfire response funding. The absence of committee transcript material limits a more detailed read on debate, but the voting record suggests the measure was viewed as necessary and time-sensitive.

Contention

The main point of potential contention is not the need for wildfire relief itself, but the scope and speed of the spending authority. The bill allows the Director of Finance to augment appropriations from any available source, including the General Fund, and permits immediate implementation of the first $1 billion after notice to legislative budget leadership. That kind of executive budget flexibility can raise oversight concerns, though the bill includes a three-day notice rule for later augmentations and expressly states it does not expand or limit the Governor’s emergency powers. The 59-19 Assembly third-reading vote on an amendment suggests there was at least some disagreement over the final form of the measure.