Senate Standing Committee on Transportation

The Senate Transportation Committee will come to order. Good afternoon and welcome. We have a total of 11 measures on today's agenda. First, a few housekeeping items as usual. We're going to allow for two primary witnesses each for the support and and and opposition.

Each witness will have two minutes and any additional witnesses will ask to limit yourselves to name affiliation and your position on the bill. Of the 11 measures today, we have eight measures proposed for consent. And I'll go ahead and read those off and as we take a vote on those, we'll have the assistant identify them again. But in case you're you're here for one of these item one, file item one a B431 Wilson. Item 2AB1614 Dixon.

Item 3 AB1625 Nguyen. Item 6 ACR126. Item seven and eight, ACR 137, ACR 142 Ransom. Item nine, ACR 169, DeMaio. Item 10, SCR 155, Jones.

When we have sufficient members, we will identify a quorum but it doesn't look like we're there yet. So we will proceed and begin hearing the remaining bills as a committee of the whole and our first author would be assembly member Alex Lee. I see it here. Please come forward to the podium whenever you're ready. You may begin presenting. This is AB 1944.

Alright. Thank you, mister chair and senators. I'm here to present AB 1944. In 2015, the legislature passed AB 1250, which set a maximum curb weight of 25,000 pounds per axle for zero emission buses. This limit was designed to decrease by a thousand pounds every two years, with a final maximum weight of 22,000 pounds in 2022.

This approach came from negotiations with cities and counties who raised concerns about the potential impact of heavier buses on public transportation infrastructure. The declining schedule was believed to provide sufficient time for advancement in battery technology to reduce weight while maintaining high performance standards. However, improvements in in battery weight have not kept pace with earlier expectations. Transit agencies have yet to acquire buses that both meet the current weight limits and provide the range needed for longer routes which often require additional batteries.

AB 1944 provides a practical and responsible solution by postponing the implementation of timeline of these axle weight limits while maintaining the final weight cap established 2015.

This adjustment ensures that transit agencies continue to provide reliable and quality public transportation while we're working towards our zero emission goals. With me today in support, I have Brendan Rapicchio, the legislative advocate for the California Transit Association.

Alright. You may proceed. You have a couple minutes.

Thank you. Good afternoon, mister chair, senators. Brennan Orpicky with the California Transit Association or the sponsors of AB 1944. This bill would support compliance for us with the innovative clean transit regulation by providing transit agencies and bus manufacturers additional time to meet the axle weight limits for zero emission buses in current law.

As you likely know, in 2018, CARB adopted the ICT regulation which requires that transit agencies purchase a fixed percentage of ZEVs with each procurement with the ultimate requirement that transit agencies have a one hundred percent zero emission bus fleet by 2040.

As ZEV deployments continue to increase, transit agencies will soon need to procure ZEVs with extended ranges to complete longer routes. As you can guess, extended ranges require additional batteries, which means additional weight. This bill aims to address the conflict between states ICT regulation for zero emission fleets and the current axle weight limits that apply to ZEVs by postponing the dates by which certain axle weight limits apply, but without changing the maximum the maximum axle weight limit in current law today.

So in doing so, this bill acknowledges that the descending schedule of axle weights in current law that the author mentioned assumed a more aggressive pace of technology advancement than what has been realized. Richard, I vote.

Happy to answer any questions. Thank you.

Alright. Thank you. You can sit here in case there's questions later. We come back to the committee. Those who wish to speak and support, you may do so now.

Thank you, mister chair. Matt Robinson on behalf of the San Mateo County Transit District as well as the Monterey Salinas Transit District, both in support.

Good afternoon. Steve Volick on behalf of the Alameda Contra Costa transit district and the Napa Valley Transportation Authority in support.

Thank you. Is there anyone here who speak in opposition?

Fox here.

If you if you are a lead opposition witness, you may come forward. Sit right here anywhere. You have a couple minutes. Please identify yourself. Thank you.

Thank you, mister chair and members. Damon Conklin with the League of California Cities. We sympathize with the Trans Association. We too are mandated to comply with the ACF and have similar issues with complying with the regulation as technology is a bit nascent for zero emissions. But, with this particular bill, pavement deterioration is driven primarily, by axle weight not traffic volume.

And the relationship is exponential. An analysis by this committee by, on AB 2061 of 2018, recognize that increasing axle load from 20,000 pounds to 22,000 pounds can increase payment damage by 50%. For cities that translates directly into fruit more frequent pavement rehabilitation, reconstruction, higher life cycle costs, and accelerated digit deterioration. These concerns are reinforced by a recent study released by the CTC that pavement damage increases exponentially from 20,000 to 25,000 with a 244% damage. These findings are not merely theoretical.

They reflect the daily experience of pavement engineers and public work directors responsible for maintaining our local streets and roads. AB 1944 would exasperate an already significant infrastructure funding challenge. Again, the CTC noted local agencies are facing a $74,000,000,000 deferred maintenance backlog. At a time when transportation revenues are under increasing pressures and cities are struggling to maintain existing infrastructure, authorizing heavier transit vehicles will only accelerate pavement deterioration and increase long term maintenance obligations.

In closing, AB 41944 is not occurring in a vacuum.

Local governments are being asked to absorb infrastructural costs generated by a state regulatory program without receiving dedicated funds to offset those impacts. And for those reasons we oppose.

Alright. Thank you for your testimony. Is there anyone else in the community room who wishes to speak in opposition? If so, please come forward at this time. I've seen none.

We will come back to the committee for any comments, questions, or concerns. Senator Saarato followed by Senator Archuleta.

Thank you very much. And, you know, this, kind of falls in the category of, what's a growing category of we put regulations in place without understanding fully what the implications of the regulations are. Have there been any studies done on the, you know, it's not just the pavement damage. When you're increasing the weight on a vehicle, you're increasing the wear on the tire and the wear on the tire actually goes onto the pavement.

When you're damaging pavement, that means the wear on all tires going onto the pavement.

And then when it rains, that goes into our water system, our store and drain system. And now we have pollution there. And, so, has the water resources agency weighed in on this issue? Because, while we're trying to save some some while we're trying to make conservation or help the environment in one area, we're harming it even more in another area. And, so, have they had any discussions with water resources board about, the consequences of increasing that and having the studies done for it?

Not to our knowledge, Senator, no.

Alright. So that's, you know, that's my concern is as as we increase the weight, we're we're just we're we're hurting things down the road. These buses cost three times as much or twice as much as a normal bus. And, and I don't know that we're getting the environmental mileage that we thought we were going to get.

At some point, we have to kinda reevaluate our strategy and and start throttling back a little bit on mandates, that are requiring agencies or requiring, you know, like the authorities, the busing authorities and things like that to to to mandate them into compliance with stuff that as they comply with it, they're creating even more damage elsewhere.

And, so I won't be supporting this bill. I don't think we should do that. I think we have to address the bigger problem, which is we have too many mandates, that are creating more problems than we, than than the good that that we thought they were going to do. And and therefore, I won't be supporting the bill.

Senator Shlade.

Yes. Thank you for presenting this. Obviously, we all know that we've got to do everything we can from zero emissions, hydrogen fuel cell battery buses and just everything that we're doing in reference to our climate and everything else. And so we're encouraging everybody to ride the buses and participate. And so I I think this is something that's necessary to keep our buses moving.

But my question is, at 25,000 lbs for the year '27 and taking it down to 22,000 by '32, are the bus blinds gonna be able to drop $3,000, $50,000, 3,000, over that, time period by 2032?

I'll see if my witness wants to answer that one.

Yeah. Thank you, Senator. Yeah. That's a great question. Something we've pursued with with the leading bus manufacturers.

I mean, I don't think we can say with 100% certainty they feel confident that that they would be able to make this pushed out timeline. Yes.

Yes. I'd I'd bring it up and and you're right. One thing, you get something else and trying to get people in the Olympics. We're hoping we have hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of buses on the road all over the County Of Los Angeles. So we're gonna find that people who do ride the buses may turn out that, hey, this is not a bad idea, especially go to the venues in Los Angeles County and Los Angeles.

So I think we have to look ahead and we encourage the industry to to keep producing the buses and and this is a a message that you've got to make them lighter some way somehow and and because we can only hold them off so long. So I'm gonna support the bill and I'll move it at the appropriate time.

Thank you. Mister chair, if I could just respond to the question as well. So the the schedule on weight decrease is the same weight decrease schedule that we originally had from 2015 to 2022. So now we're extending it to a different time frame. But as you know, as you've led on ZEV things, especially with hydrogen, the market and industry, especially on ZEV with either EVs or hydrogen, was very different in the 2015, '22 market than it is today.

So I am hopeful and hopefully, optimistic that the market will catch up to it since, you know, it's come a long way since 2015. And now, hopefully, they can have high performance and lightweight at the same time going forward.

Anyone else? Thank you. Yeah. I'm going to be an aye vote on the bill. I appreciate the opposition's comments and uplifting or elevating the issue of pavement maintenance across the board really.

I I I don't think that this particular bill and this particular universe of vehicles is, you know, fatal one way or the other in terms of what happens with our pavement maintenance. But it's in bad shape. It's in bad shape right around us here and that's gonna have to be addressed and taken into account. I don't think, again, one way or the other, this bill, you know, swings that that pendulum too far one way or the other. So that's where I'm at on it.

Member Lee, if you'd like to close, you're welcome to do so.

Thank you, Chair Cortezi, and thank you to the senators who spoke. And just to Senator Gallardo's point, you know, this is, I think, actually an example of where the regulations did not work out the way we intended to in real life. And so this is one of those things where we're going back and revisiting and trying to make sure that technology has time to catch up, while still also maintaining a status quo that people can still ride cleaner, less emission vehicles and buses on the road.

Yes, there are some wear and tear aspect to it, but there's also balancing the our our responsibility of also reducing overall traffic and overall traffic patterns as well. So I think this is a continuation of where we're going.

We're going back and fixing some things where it didn't quite work out. And with that, I respectfully ask for your eye vote.

Alright. We're gonna establish a quorum and then we'll take the roll call vote on the bill. Assistant?

Senator Cortesi?

Here.

Cortesi here. Strickland? Here. Strickland here. Archuleta?

Here. Archuleta here. Arreguin? Here. Arreguin here.

Blake Spear, Dahli?

Senator Archuleta had offered a motion on AB 1944. Again, this is file item four. We'll go and take the roll call vote on that.

The motion is do passed. Senators Cortesi?

Cortesi, aye. Strickland? No. Strickland, no. Archuleta?

Aye.

Archuleta, Aye. Adegin? Aye. Adegin, Aye. Blake Spear, Dally?

Aye.

No.

Dally, no. Gonzales, Grayson? Aye. Grayson, Aye. Menjivar, Aye.

Richardson, Sayardo? No. Sayardo, no. Valadares, Wiener?

Okay. We're at five to three. We'll leave the roll open on that bill for absent members.

Mister chair, can I move the consent calendar?

Yes. Vice chair, we have a motion from the vice chair to move the consent calendar.

[Roll Call]

Alright. Consent is 9-0 on call. And I'm just looking to see if we have an oh, yes. We do. We have an author present and assembly member Rodriguez, correct?

Please come forward to the podium. We'll have you present from here and you can begin whenever you're ready. This is on file item five, AB 2453. Apologize on my contacts on today so I was straining to see who was out there. You have good staff.

Thank you, mister chair and senators for allowing me to present this bill today. AB 2453 is a practical public public safety measure that provides clear statutory authority for first responders and peace officers to use off highway vehicles while performing official duties. California firefighters, search and rescue teams, and law enforcement personnel are often called to respond in remote recreational areas, trail systems, deserts, beaches, and rugged terrain where traditional vehicles cannot safely operate.

Current law provides limited authority for peace officers, but leaves uncertainty for many first responders who rely on these vehicles during emergencies. AB 2453 closes that gap and ensures all public safety personnel have the tools they need to respond quickly and effectively.

This bill allows peace officers and first responders to travel limited distances up

to five miles on public roads and to access patrol locations and off highway recreation areas where these vehicles are needed. Importantly, AB 2453 does not create unrestricted use. It requires local jurisdiction to adopt policies governing operation, establish safety and training standards, identify authorized locations and activities, and make these policies available for public view. Review. The bill strikes the right balance between operational flexibility and public accountability by allowing local governments to tailor policies to their unique geographic and public safety needs.

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By reducing operational uncertainty and improving access to remote areas, AB 2453 will help improve emergency response times, enhance public safety patrols, and better serve California who recreate an off, highway area across the state. With me today, I have fire chief Kevin Linz of the Carlsbad Fire Department representing the sponsors of the bill.

Yeah. Thank you for being here chief. You may begin. You'll have a couple of minutes.

Good afternoon, mister chair and members of the committee. My name is Kevin Lins, division chief for the city of Carlsbad Fire Department. I'd like to begin by thanking assembly members Rodriguez and Davies for for advocating on behalf of the city and carrying AB 2453. I'd also like to take a moment to thank the committee for their time. The city which use which includes the fire department, police department, and ocean lifeguards use UTVs for patrol of our beaches, lagoons, and open spaces.

For responding to incidents on our many hiking and mountain biking trails and during special events where use of standard vehicles is prohibitive due to their size and crowds. Due to changes in the California Highway Patrol procedures, Carlsbad's first responders are no longer allowed to drive UTVs on public roads to access beaches and other open space areas for patrol or incident response. As a result, this is limited operational capabilities and will increase response times to emergencies.

Using UTVs under the current legal framework is prohibitive and time consuming and operational use must be modified to remain in compliance. For example, having a trailer of the UTVs to the beach or trail head, storing the trailer at an access point that, avoids public streets.

Historically, the city of Carlsbad converted UTVs to be street legal through modifications such as adding side view mirrors, turn signals, DOT rated tires, followed up by a CHP inspection who would then issue Us license plates for them. AB 2453 would enable firefighters, lifeguards, and police to reach off road areas such as beaches and open space more quickly without operationally burdensome and some and time consuming workarounds like using a trailer.

When utilized for special events, UTVs are operated in enclosed and defined areas that are not open to pedestrian vehicle traffic such as street fairs and marathons. This bill will allow first responders to protect the community in an efficient and effective manner. Thank you and I urge your aye vote on AB 2453.

Alright. Thank you for your testimony. Others here who wish to speak in support of the bill, please come forward.

Nicole Whortleman on behalf of the city of Ontario in support.

Thank you. Anyone else in support? I'm seeing none. We'll ask if there's any opposition. Do we have an opposition witness in the room?

If we have anyone who wishes to speak in opposition at all. I'd say no one come forward in the committee room. We'll come back to come back to the the dias and vice chair Strickland has offered a motion on the bill. Any further comment or questions? I see none.

I will give you an opportunity to close assembly member.

Thank you. And I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Alright. We will now come back to the assistant for roll call vote.

The motion is do passed with committee on natural resources and water. Senators Cortese?

Aye.

Cortezi, Aye. Strickland? Aye. Strickland, Aye. Archuleta?

Aye. Archuleta? Aye. Aye. Aye.

Blake Spear. Dally?

Dally, Aye. Gonzales? Aye. Gonzales, Aye. Grayson?

Aye.

Aye.

Grayson, Aye. Menjivar?

Menjivar, Aye. Richardson? Sciarto?

Aye.

Sciarto, aye. Valadares? Weiner?

Aye.

Alright. The vote is at nine zero and we will leave that on call. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Remaining item is SJR 16 which is Senator Caballero. I do not see her in the room yet. We will we will pause for a minute or two and if we need to, we'll recess but let's see if we give her a chance to get here. Senator, please come forward. We have Senator Caballero on SJR 16.

This is file item 11 and I'm not getting any signal that the audio is a problem so we're gonna go ahead and have you continue or have you present whenever you're ready. Thank you.

Thank you very much, mister chair and members, for the opportunity to present SJR 16 today. This resolution amplifies the voices of California's commercial truck drivers, the lifeblood of our state's supply chain and economy. On 08/12/2025, Florida highway patrol responded to a tragic fatal crash caused by a commercial truck driver after he executed an improper u-turn. The driver fled to California where the authorities later arrested him.

The following month, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration issued a preliminary determination of noncompliance against the California DMV, arguing that the driver involved in the crash may have failed to meet the English language proficiency standard required for commercial driver examination.

In November, the federal administration finalized its review with the conditional determination of noncompliance, arguing that, that California had not complied with federal safety standards. In response, DMV took corrective action and rescinded 17,000 alleged noncompliant non non domiciled commercial learners permits and commercial driver's license licenses. The federal regulators continued to apply pressure throughout the period and withheld roughly a $160,000,000 in federal highway funds. The federal administration has the authority to fully decertify a state state's driver's license program if it finds substantial noncompliance.

A full decertification has barred California from using from issuing, renewing, or upgrading any commercial credentials, not just those classified as non domiciled, which has brought our state's ability to do to license in that category to a halt.

DMV California DMV pushed back filing litigation against the federal administration arguing that states retain meaningful autonomy under federal regulations to determine how they assess compliance and adequacy within their own licensing prep programs. And in March, the federal court directed DMV to cancel approximately 16,000 California driver's license, stripping thousands of experienced drivers of their livelihoods overnight. The Federal Government took an undeniably tragic accident and utilized it as a weapon against hardworking immigrant drivers and businesses. These commercial truck drivers are from many ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

My district has a large large sick and Latino community, many of whom have started their own businesses making major investment in commercial vehicles and who have spent decades building relationships and learning the craft necessary to engage in commercial transactions and who now have been disproportionately affected by this rule making.

These drivers, many with decades of experience behind the wheel, now face unemployment with no path to restore path to restore their driving privileges. They are the men and women who log countless hours on the road and spend weeks away from their families to deliver the essential goods we all depend on, medical supplies, fuel, and the food that stock our shelves. As California fights to lower the cost of living, sidelining the very drivers who move our goods will only drive prices higher and strain families further.

Not only that, but, there has been no showing that these drivers are not capable of continuing to drive, as appropriate on on on our highways nor that they, don't speak the language with enough proficiency. SJR 16 urges the United States Congress to act swiftly, reinstate these drivers' credentials, and those and for those who meet California's DMV standards and safeguard the strength and resilience of our supply chain to, to, allow California to continue, with driver's licenses.

Thank you and I respectfully ask for your aye vote.

Thank you, Senator. Any witnesses today? No. Okay. Anyone

No. Okay. Anyone

in the committee room who was speaking in support? Please come forward.

Good afternoon. Chair members, Connor Gussman on behalf of Teamsters California in support.

Thank you. Anyone else's support? I've seen none. We're going to ask if there's anyone who's here to speak in opposition. I've seen no one come forward in the committee room.

Is there anyone who wishes to express opposition at this time? Alright. Final call on opposition. We will, come back to the dias, for any comments or questions at this time. I'm seeing none.

You'll have an opportunity to close.

Respectfully ask for your aye vote. Thank you, sir.

Thank you. We do motions from Senator Archuleta and we'll ask the assistant to call the roll.

The motion is to be adopted. Senators Cortezi?

Cortezi, aye. Strickland?

Aye.

No.

Strickland, no. Archuleta? Aye. Archuleta, aye. Adegin?

Aye. Adegin, aye. Blake Spear? Aye. Blake Spear, aye, Dally?

No. Dally, no. Gonzales? Aye. Gonzales, Aye, Grayson?

Aye.

Grayson, Aye, Menjivar? Aye. Menjivar, Aye, Richardson? Aye. Richardson, Aye, Ciarto?

No. Ciarto, no. Valadares, Wiener?

Alright. That leaves us at eight three. We'll leave that open for the moment, and we'll, thank you very much.

Thank you.

And we'll ask, the assistant to call the open items at this time.

[Roll Call]

The consent calendar consists of file item one, two, 3, six, 7, eight, 9, 10. The current vote is nine zero. Senators Blakespere? Aye. Blakespere, aye.

Richardson? Aye. Richardson, aye. Valadares? Wiener.

Not here. 110 on call.

We'll leave that on call for a moment. It's at eleven zero at this time. Next item.

File item four, AB 1944 by Assemblymember Lee. The motion is do passed. The current voice five three with the chair voting I and the vice chair voting no. Senators Blixbyer? Aye.

Blixbyer, aye. Gonzales? Aye. Gonzales, aye. Richardson?

Aye. Richardson, aye. Valadares? Weiner?

Great. Vote is currently eight three. We'll leave that open.

File item five, AB 2453 by as a member Michelle Rodriguez. The motion is do passed to the committee on natural resources and water. The current vote is nine zero. Senators Blake Spear? Aye.

Blake Spear, aye. Richardson? Aye. Richardson, aye. Simbelideras?

Weiner?

Eleven zero is open. We'll try to determine if any absent members will be showing up. I think Senator winners outstanding on the roll call.

We will just we will just pause for a moment, not an official recess. I'm hope hoping to hear from senators, Valadares and Weiner. We're gonna go ahead and, keep ourselves busy here and, call, the open items again and go Senator Wieners rep.

For the consent calendar for our file item one, two, three, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten, the current vote is eleven zero. Senators Valadares, Weiner? Aye. Weiner, aye. Twelve zero. I'll leave it open. File item four AB 1944 by Assembly member Lee. The motion is do passed. The current vote is eight to three. Senators Valadares, Wiener? Aye. Wiener, aye. Nine three, we'll leave it open. File item five AB 2453 by some member Michelle Rodriguez. The motion is do pass to the committee on natural resources and water. The current vote is eleven zero. Senators Valadares, Wiener? Aye. Wiener, aye. Twelve zero, leave it open. File Go ahead. Item 11 s g r 16 by Senator Caballero. The motion is to be adopted. The current vote is eight three with the chair voting aye and the vice chair voting no. Senator Valadares, Wiener? Aye. Wiener, aye. Alright. Nine three, we'll leave it open and then consent. Does he We did get consent. .

Weiner, aye.

Aye.

Twelve zero. I'll leave it open.

File item four AB 1944 by Assembly member Lee. The motion is do passed. The current vote is eight to three. Senators Valadares, Wiener? Aye.

Wiener, aye.

Nine three, we'll leave it open.

File item five AB 2453 by some member Michelle Rodriguez. The motion is do pass to the committee on natural resources and water. The current vote is eleven zero. Senators Valadares, Wiener? Aye.

Wiener, aye.

Twelve zero, leave it open.

File

Go ahead.

Item 11 s g r 16 by Senator Caballero. The motion is to be adopted. The current vote is eight three with the chair voting aye and the vice chair voting no. Senator Valadares, Wiener?

Aye. Wiener, aye.

Alright. Nine three, we'll leave it open and then consent. Does he We did get consent. Alright. That concludes Senator Wiener's

Alright. That concludes Senator Wiener's Voting activity for this committee today at least. You are all done. Thank you.

Thank you, mister chair.

Yeah. Thank you. Alright. We will just pause informally again as we're expecting to see Senator Valdares arrive. Alright.

We are going to reconvene and open up the role one more time.

[Roll Call]

Alright. Consent is out 13 to zero.

File item four AB 1944 by Assembly member Lee. The motion is do passed. The current vote is nine to three. Senators Valadares.

Aye.

Valadares. Aye.

Bill's out 10 to three.

File item five, AB 2453 by a sub member Michelle Rodriguez. The motion is do passed. The committee on natural resources and water, the current vote is 12 to zero. Senators Valadares?

Valadares, aye.

Aye.

Bills out thirteen zero.

File item 11 SJR 16 by Senator Caballero. The motion is to be adopted. The current vote is nine to three with the chair voting I and the vice chair voting no. Senator Valadares? Not voting.

9-3 Bill's out. Thank you. Now, that concludes the voting for today. Thank you to, everyone who participated and thank you to the committee staff, for getting us ready for this hearing today. And look forward to seeing everybody again soon. Senate Transportation Committee is now adjourned for today.

And look forward to seeing everybody again soon. Senate Transportation Committee is now adjourned for today.