2025 Legislative Session Wrap-Up: Key Food, Water, and Environmental Bills Impacting Processors

It was a busy year for the CLFP advocacy team working on many fronts including ultraprocessed foods, labor issues, PFAS in packaging, and water issues. For those of you closely tracking the progress of these bills, you know the end of session wasn’t without its last-minute surprises. The first year of this legislative session came to a close last month on September 13. This is notable since it was scheduled to end on September 12. But, due to last-minute negotiations in both houses, members were called back in on Saturday after working into the wee hours the previous night. Major issues taken up on the floor included Cap and Trade negotiations, energy policy, and wildfire funding. Governor Newsom had until Monday, October 13 to sign or veto any of the 917 bills that made it to his desk. He ended up signing 794 bills into law, and vetoed 123 bills mostly citing negative fiscal impacts. Here is a brief summary of the major bills CLFP was tracking at the end of session.

Assemblymember Gabriel (D – Encino) introduced yet another food related bill this year - AB 1264 banning “ultraprocessed foods” (UPFs) in schools. This bill defines the term UPF and sets a deadline of July 1, 2035 for schools to stop serving foods that would fall within this definition. CLFP joined a large coalition of fellow food and agricultural stakeholders to oppose this bill. The author accepted important amendments in July that removed many of CLFP’s major concerns, including removing “minimally processed” foods from the proposed definition of UPF. Minimally processed, according to the current Food and Ag code, includes foods that are frozen, dried, fermented, and other processes that help preserve foods. Although the amendments helped significantly, CLFP still had reservations about the bill and remained opposed. The author took another round of significant amendments to the bill in September making the Department of Public Health (DPH) the regulatory authority over the bill instead of the Office of Environmental Health and Hazard Assessment (OEHHA). Although CLFP supported the move to DPH, we could still not remove our opposition to the bill, and remained opposed. The governor signed the bill into law on October 8.

Another problematic bill for members was SB 601 (Allen, D – Santa Monica). CLFP also opposed this measure along with a large group of water stakeholders. This bill aimed to “Trump proof” California’s water supplies by enacting more regulatory burdens on water users. However, California already has measures in place to protect the state from federal rollbacks. The bill also added a new category of waters called “nexus waters.” The definition would encompass all the waters in the state, unless specifically exempted, creating more confusion for water users. In the final weeks of session, the coalition was able to negotiate significant amendments including cutting the Private Right of Action out of the bill. The Senator ultimately decided to make this bill a 2-year bill, pushing it to next year. We will continue to track the bill and remain engaged in future discussions.

Senator Allen was also the author of SB 682 which would have banned the use of PFAS in a handful of categories including food packaging. The governor vetoed the bill on the 13th citing an increase in costs to consumers.

Lastly, AB 1207 (Irwin, D – Ventura) was a last-minute effort to reauthorize the Cap and Trade Program. CLFP supported a “straight” reauthorization of the program keeping it as-is, and extending the deadline past 2030. Both the Senate and the Assembly had working groups to evaluate the reauthorization and held committee hearings throughout the year to discuss the program at length. The Senate wanted drastic changes to the program, many of which CLFP opposed. The Assembly was ultimately able to come up with a more moderate approach that was heavily negotiated in the last few days of session. AB 1207 was passed off both floors and was signed by the governor. This bill 1) extends the program through 2045; 2) allows free allocations from gas to electric corporations to help reduce costs for consumers; 3) requires allowances equal to offsets used for compliance obligations in the prior year to be removed from the next year's allowance budget and retired; and 4) terminates the existing freeze on industry assistance and cap adjustment factors, requiring CARB to set industry assistance factors in a manner that minimizes leakage risk. The governor supports the reauthorization and signed the bill into law. CARB is holding a workshop October 29 from 9:00am – 1:00pm to discuss the impacts of the bill on the current regulation. CLFP will remain engaged in these discussions.

Although only a few bills made it to the end of session, and ultimately the governor’s desk this year, the issues and policy changes were significant. As we look to next year, the second year of the 2025-26 session, we know many bills and issues will return. We anticipate bills on packaging, water, and air quality to resurface either in new or old legislative vehicles. CLFP will be hosting our final Legislative Affairs Committee on Thursday, October 16. We will be discussing all of the bills CLFP tracked over the last year, and their outcomes. If you would like a more in-depth analysis, please join us! Email Katie at katie@clfp.com for details.