2026 CO-SPONSORED AND SUPPORT BILLS
| BILL | ISSUE AREA | SUBJECT | OVERVIEW | POSITION | ||||||
| AB 805 (Fong) | Workforce | Postsecondary education: college and career programs. | Intent bill related to college and career programs. | Cosponsor | ||||||
| SB 1054 (Cabaldon) | Workforce | Unemployment insurance: reporting requirements (2025-2026). | Would direct the Employment Development Department to collect hours worked and occupation information from employers through wage filings in order to make further automatic benefit eligibility determinations under new federal SNAP and Medicaid rules. | Cosponsor | ||||||
| SB 1132 (Smallwood- Cuevas) | Immigration / Workforce | Workforce development: workplace rights training. | Would require the California Workforce Development Board to develop a workplace rights and immigrant know your rights curriculum to be taught to individuals receiving workforce development service through the state’s workforce system. | Cosponsor | ||||||
| AB 65 (Aguiar-Curry) | Paid Family Leave | School and community college employees: paid disability and parental leave. | Would require public school employers, for an academic employee or an employee in the classified service, to provide up to 14 weeks of a leave of absence with specified pay benefits due to pregnancy, miscarriage, childbirth, termination of pregnancy, or recovery from those conditions. | Support | ||||||
| AB 353 (Boerner) | Digital Equity | Communications: broadband internet service providers: affordable home internet. | Intent bill related to requiring broadband internet service providers to offer affordable home internet to California residents. | Support | ||||||
| AB 402 (Patel) | Higher Education | Student financial aid: Cal Grant Program and the California Community College Expanded Entitlement Program. | Would increase the Cal Grant A and B award for private higher education institutions to $9,358 for 2024-25 and either $9,708 or 8,056 in 2025-26, with the higher amount conditioned on the achievement of the target numbers for associate degree for transfer commitments that apply for the prior award year. | Support | ||||||
| AB 2487 (Ahrens) | Higher Education | Artificial intelligence: education and workforce development. | Would establish a statewide framework to support responsible artificial intelligence (AI) in postsecondary education, training, and infrastructure. | Support | ||||||
| AB 2555 (Patel) | Multilingual Learners | English learners: reclassification. | Would reform California’s system for reclassifying English learners to be consistent with the California English Learner Roadmap. | Support | ||||||
| SB 845 (Pérez) | Workforce Development | Pupil instruction: career technical education, career education, and apprenticeships. | Would require the Superintendent to seek advice of career technical classroom teachers and representatives of labor in developing career technical education standards. It would require the Superintendent to recommend policies to the State Board of Education to ensure career technical education courses are provided with up-to-date industry standards. | Support | ||||||
| SB 1051 (Menjivar) | Early Care and Education | Foster care: childcare. | Under the Emergency Child Care Bridge Program, this bill would allow Navigators to submit referrals to county child welfare agencies for their approval of a child care voucher for an eligible foster child. Social workers would retain full authority to determine eligibility for the program. | Support | ||||||
2026 BUDGET REQUESTS
| ISSUE AREA | SUBJECT | OVERVIEW | ||||
| Early Care and Education | Wildfire recovery | Protection of the $11.5 million one-time funding for child care infrastructure geared towards communities impacted by recent fires, as included in the Governor’s January Budget for FY 2026-27. | ||||
| Education and Workforce Development | K-16 Collaborative | Requested a one-time budget allocation of $46 million to support the continuation of the Regional K-16 Education Collaboratives Grant Program (K-16 Collaboratives) over the next two years. | ||||
| Workforce | California Opportunity Youth Apprenticeship Program | Supporting the $65 million over three years for the California Opportunity Youth Apprenticeship (COYA) program in the 2026–2027 California State Budget. | ||||
FEDERAL
FEDERAL POLICY GOALS
Our federal education and workforce development systems have the ability to more effectively meet the diverse needs of all students, their families and their communities. The current systems are siloed, and many key programs, services and leaders are not coordinated in a way that centers students. This creates a system without smooth transitions between services and programs, and often means students are not supported to reach their full potential. Interagency coordination efforts being developed among the Departments of Education, Labor and Commerce will more effectively uplift the success among youth and adults in the workforce. Interagency connections must be strengthened, and employers and workforce development partners must be engaged to ensure a competitive, qualified and well-compensated workforce.
Read Our Federal Policy Goals →
Archive: 2023
2026 FEDERAL APPROPRIATIONS LETTER
UNITE-LA—alongside 24 business organizations representing a cross-section of California’s business community—sent a letter to members of Congress expressing serious concerns about proposed increased federal immigration enforcement funding and its consequences for California’s workforce and economy.