Speaker Rivas’ End-of-Session Speech Champions Landmark Reforms to Improve Affordability

'We went big. We produced results. We delivered historic progress - on housing, on energy, on climate, on health care, and on human rights. And that progress is something every one of us can be proud of.'

For immediate release:

• Nick Miller
• Communications Director
• 916-319-2029
• [email protected]

WATCH Speaker Robert Rivas' speech on the Assembly floor on the final day of the 2025 legislative year

SACRAMENTO - California Speaker of the Assembly Robert Rivas delivered the following speech during the final legislative session of the year:

Exactly 286 days ago, we gathered in this chamber and I issued a challenge for all of us:

To chart a new path forward, to renew the California Dream, by focusing on affordability.

Addressing affordability had to be at the heart of our work.

Each and every one of you rose to that challenge.

Together - with unity, with urgency and focus - this Assembly delivered.

The result? 2025 will be remembered as one of the most productive years over the past generation in this Legislature.

The cornerstone of our work? Addressing the No. 1 affordability issue facing California families: housing.

This year, we enacted landmark reforms - the largest expansion of housing opportunity in decades. Why? Because California simply does not have enough homes. It's a stain on our state. That shortage drives up costs, it displaces families and puts the Dream of California out of reach for too many.

And for too long Sacramento settled for half-measures. But this year - because of you - that changed.

We streamlined permitting, cut red tape, created faster pathways for fire victims to rebuild, invested in affordable housing and accelerated construction where it is most needed - infill sites, housing near jobs, schools and public transit.

Our constituents demanded bold action. And we responded.

And while our work is not finished fixing California's housing system, this year marked a turning point in California's housing story.

And today, we also advanced the most significant energy package in years.

We passed measures that will deliver real relief for families on their electricity bills.

We took action to stabilize gas supplies, to prevent price shocks - while keeping health and environmental protections in place.

We extended California's Cap-and-Trade program - the cornerstone of our climate strategy, balancing ambition with affordability.

And we took the first step toward a West-wide energy market - one that will improve and strengthen our grid reliability, drive clean energy and save Californians billions of dollars.

And we did this work in a year of extraordinary challenges.

January's firestorms that devastated Los Angeles were unlike anything California has seen. Over 18,000 homes and structures destroyed, more than 150,000 residents displaced.

The unprecedented disaster reminded us of the urgency of resilience in the face of climate disasters. And the importance of something even deeper: our selfless American tradition of standing together when crisis strikes.

When neighbors lose everything, we do not look away - we open our doors, we share our homes, we give what we can.

From the firefighters and first responders on the frontlines to the everyday Californians who volunteered at shelters, to those who donated food or simply offered a helping hand - this disaster, it revealed the very best of who we are here in California.

And January also brought something else: Donald Trump's second administration.

And he has spent this year targeting our state - our immigrant workforce, our universities, our disaster response.

We have never seen a White House so eager to take our tax dollars while attacking our people.

But California does not back down. This Assembly did not back down.

Instead, we united - and we got things done.

Beyond housing and energy, our work went further still.

We stopped exploitative digital algorithms from raising consumer prices. We cut bureaucracy to fast-track housing for farmworkers. We made child literacy a top priority. We invested in nutrition for children and families. We expanded access to reproductive health and abortion care - ensuring women's decisions are made in California, not in Washington.

We reaffirmed immunization standards that are grounded in science - protecting children, seniors and the most vulnerable. And we expanded legal aid so immigrant families have real protections against ICE raids and a hostile federal immigration agenda.

We did this work and our work will continue. Because when LGBTQ Californians are targeted, when hard-working immigrants are demonized and hunted by secret police, when women's reproductive freedoms are under attack:

We fight back. And we fight with everything we have.

Make no mistake, the story of 2025 is simple:

California did not settle for half-measures. We went big. We produced results.

We delivered historic progress - on housing, on energy, on climate, on health care, and on human rights.

And that progress is something every one of us can be proud of.

###

For more information, follow Speaker Robert Rivas at the following social media channels:

Instagram: @caspeakerrivas

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CASpeakerRivas/