By: @Marcus Detwiler
Despite having failed passage last year in the Senate Judiciary Committee, a significant mandate bill opposed by CSDA is once again active and moving forward.
Assembly Bill 1337 (Ward) would revise the Information Practices Act of 1977 (IPA), a comprehensive privacy statute that currently only applies to the State, to newly obligate special districts to observe the IPA.
On April 27, 2026, AB 1337 was withdrawn from the Senate Judiciary Committee, where it had fallen one vote short in 2025, and on May 6 it was re-referred to the Senate Committee on Privacy, Digital Technologies, and Consumer Protection.
The IPA prescribes various requirements impacting the receipt, retention, and sharing of personal information. In effect, the routine handling of common information (e.g., names, telephone numbers, residential addresses) provided to special districts would become dramatically more resource-intensive, requiring countless ongoing hours of staff time to ensure compliance and exposing districts to additional legal liability. CSDA and a coalition of local government stakeholders opposed the bill last year and continue to do so.
Notably, the operations that would most acutely be impacted by this legislation are those programs that directly benefit the public—these programs rely on personal information sharing among and within various governmental entities, embodying a “no wrong door” approach to making services accessible. CSDA has cited examples like low-income water rate assistance programs (WRAP) and low-income home energy assistance programs (LIHEAP) as examples of district initiatives that utilize personal information sharing that would become sharply inhibited by the passage of AB 1337. Awareness of such initiatives helps demonstrate to policymakers how current privacy practices facilitate increased public access to government programs.
Special districts with additional distinct examples of privacy practices increasing access to government programs are encouraged to provide them to CSDA Legislative Representative Marcus Detwiler at marcusd@csda.net.
July 2, 2026 is the deadline for policy committees to meet and consider legislation, including AB 1337.
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