Bill Text: CA AB599 | 2025-2026 | Regular Session | Amended

California Assembly Bill 599

Bill Title: Short-Line Railroad Improvement Program.

Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1)

Status: (Engrossed) 2026-07-01 - From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 12. Noes 0.) (June 30). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. [AB599 Detail]

Download: California-2025-AB599-Amended.html

Amended IN Senate June 11, 2026

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill

No. 599

Introduced by Assembly Member Connolly

February 13, 2025

An act to ~~add Section 25152.1 to the Health and Safety Code, relating to hazardous waste.~~ amend Section 8879.52 of the Government Code, relating to transportation, and making an appropriation therefor.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 599, as amended, Connolly. ~~Hazardous waste: classification and alternative management standards: notice of change.~~ Short-Line Railroad Improvement Program.

Existing law requires the California Transportation Commission to establish a competitive funding program, commonly known as the Short-Line Railroad Improvement Program, to provide funds to the Department of Transportation or regional transportation planning agencies, or both, for short-line railroad projects such as railroad reconstruction, maintenance, upgrade, or replacement. Existing law appropriates up to $7,200,000 from the Trade Corridors Improvement Fund to the program and makes those moneys available for encumbrance or expenditure until June 30, 2028.
This bill would extend the availability of those moneys for expenditure by one year. By extending the expenditure date of those moneys, the bill would make an appropriation.
In order to receive funding from the Short-Line Railroad Improvement Program, existing law requires at least 30% of the total project cost to be provided from nongovernmental sources.
This bill would authorize, for a project under the program for a publicly owned railroad, those funds to be provided from private funds, local funds, or state or federal funds not allocated by the commission on a project-specific basis.
Existing law requires the Department of Toxic Substances Control, before adopting building standards or adopting or revising other standards and regulations for the handling, processing, storing, use, recycling, and disposal of hazardous and extremely hazardous wastes, to hold at least one public hearing in Sacramento, or in a city within the area of the state to be affected by the proposed regulations, as provided.
This bill would, if the department proposes to reclassify wastes or adopt alternative management standards for regulated waste, require the department to take all necessary and authorized steps required by law to facilitate full public notification and review of state, regional, and local facility entitlements, to enable local community input regarding the proposed changes to the classification of wastes or the alternative management standards.

Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NOYES Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NO

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

Section 8879.52 of the Government Code is amended to read:

8879.52.

(a) The commission shall evaluate, consistent with the commission’s Trade Corridors Improvement Fund (TCIF) Guidelines, adopted November 27, 2007, as part of the 2010 TCIF review, the total potential costs and total potential economic and noneconomic benefits of the program to California’s economy, environment, and public health. The commission shall consult with the State Air Resources Board in order to use the appropriate models, techniques, and methods to develop the evaluation required by this subdivision.

(b) With respect to the two billion dollars ($2,000,000,000) appropriated from the TCIF, as described in paragraph (1) of subdivision (c) of Section 8879.23, and the five hundred million dollars ($500,000,000) to be made available from the State Highway Account, the following programming schedule shall apply:

(1) The Los Angeles/Inland Empire Corridor shall receive a minimum of one billion five hundred million dollars ($1,500,000,000).

(2) The San Diego/International Border Corridor shall receive a minimum of two hundred fifty million dollars ($250,000,000).

(3) The San Francisco Bay/Central Valley Corridor shall receive a minimum of six hundred forty million dollars ($640,000,000).

(4) Other corridors, as determined by the commission, shall receive a minimum of sixty million dollars ($60,000,000).

(c) The corridors referenced in subdivision (b) shall receive the minimum amount of funding programmed for that corridor notwithstanding the deprogramming of any project or projects in that corridor by the commission. If a project is, or projects are, deprogrammed, the commission shall collaborate with the local transportation agencies in that corridor to select another project or projects for programming of those funds within the minimum amount provided to each corridor pursuant to subdivision (b).

(d) If the Colton Crossing project programmed in the commission’s TCIF Program as of April 10, 2008, does not meet the requirements or delivery schedule contained in its project baseline agreement when reviewed by the commission no later than March 2010, the project shall be ineligible to receive an allocation from the TCIF. The ninety-seven million dollars ($97,000,000) associated with the project shall then be available for programming in the Los Angeles/Inland Empire Corridor. In that event, the commission shall collaborate with the local transportation agencies in that corridor to select another project or projects for programming of those funds, and, in making that selection, shall take into consideration the Los Angeles/Inland Empire Corridor Tier One or Tier Two Project Lists and any other project identified by the local agencies. Projects currently receiving TCIF funding shall not be considered for selection.

(e)(1)The commission shall report to the Assembly Committee on Transportation, the Senate Committee on Transportation and Housing, the Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review, the Assembly Committee on Budget, the Senate Committee on Appropriations, and the Assembly Committee on Appropriations a summary of any memorandum of understanding, along with a copy of the memorandum, or any agreement executed between a railroad company and any state or local transportation agency as it relates to any project funded with moneys allocated from the TCIF within 30 days of the commission’s receipt of those documents.
(2)Commencing January 1, 2012, the commission shall provide semiannual reports to the Assembly Committee on Transportation, the Senate Committee on Transportation and Housing, the Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review, the Assembly Committee on Budget, the Senate Committee on Appropriations, and the Assembly Committee on Appropriations on the status of all railroad projects programmed in the TCIF program.
~~(3)This subdivision shall become inoperative on January 1, 2015, pursuant to Section 10231.5.~~
~~(f)~~

(e) (1) The commission shall establish a competitive funding program to provide funds to the department or regional transportation planning agencies, or both, for short-line railroad projects such as railroad reconstruction, maintenance, upgrade, or replacement. The commission shall establish the program in accordance with all of the following:

(A) (i) The commission shall adopt guidelines for the program in consultation with the Transportation Agency, one representative from a regional transportation planning agency, and one representative from the Class III railroad industry.

(ii) The guidelines shall be used by the commission to select projects for programming and allocation and shall be consistent with the goals and objectives of the 2018 California State Rail Plan with regard to short-line railroad infrastructure investment.

(iii) The guidelines shall include performance metrics and shall require an applicant to demonstrate its ability to achieve those performance metrics in its application. The performance metrics shall include, but are not limited to, requiring an applicant to demonstrate that its project will improve the ability to move freight and will have a useful life of no less than 15 years.

(iv) The guidelines shall specify that allocated funds shall not be used to support the operations of any rail system.

(v) The commission shall adopt the guidelines by July 1, 2020, and shall provide a 90-day public comment period before adopting the guidelines.

(B) The moneys appropriated for the program pursuant to Section 15 of Chapter 32 of the Statutes of 2019 shall be available for expenditure until June 30, 2029.
~~(B)~~

(C) The commission shall determine the amount of project funding subject to the following requirements:

(i) The amount of funding allocated shall not exceed 50 percent of the total project cost.

(ii) (I) In order for a project for a privately owned railroad to receive program funding, at least 30 percent of the total project cost shall be provided from nongovernmental sources.

(II) In order for a project for a publicly owned railroad to receive program funding, at least 30 percent of the total project cost shall be provided from private funds, local funds, or state or federal funds not allocated by the commission on a project-specific basis.

(iii) Funding allocated to an individual project shall not exceed 25 percent of the total funding available in a fiscal year.

(2) For purposes of this subdivision, “railroad reconstruction, maintenance, upgrading, or replacement” means the reconstruction, maintenance, or replacement of railroad right-of-way infrastructure, including, but not limited to, track, roadbed, bridges, industrial leads, and track-related structures on Class III railroads, as defined by the federal Surface Transportation Board as of January 1, 2020. “Railroad reconstruction, maintenance, upgrading, or replacement” shall also include new construction of industrial leads, switches, spurs and sidings, and extensions of existing sidings.

SECTION 1.
~~(a)The Legislature finds and declares both of the following:~~
~~(1)Existing law requires the Department of Toxic Substances Control to regulate the management and handling of hazardous waste.~~
~~(2)The Department of Toxic Substances Control may only reclassify wastes and develop alternative management standards for regulated hazardous waste with authorization from the Legislature.~~
(b)It is the intent of the Legislature that, if the Department of Toxic Substances Control proposes to reclassify wastes or adopt alternative management standards for regulated waste, then the department take all necessary and authorized steps required by law to facilitate full public notification and review of state, regional, and local facility entitlements, to enable local community input regarding the proposed changes to the classification of wastes or the alternative management standards, as described in Section 25152.1 of the Health and Safety Code.
SEC. 2.Section 25152.1 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read:
25152.1.
If the department proposes to reclassify wastes or adopt alternative management standards for regulated waste, then the department shall take all necessary and authorized steps required by law to facilitate full public notification and review of state, regional, and local facility entitlements, to enable local community input regarding the proposed changes to the classification of wastes or the alternative management standards.