VIDEO: Speaker Rivas’ End-of-Session Speech Champions Historic Progress on Affordability, Housing, Better Quality of Life for Californians

Tuesday, September 1, 2026

SACRAMENTO - California Speaker of the Assembly Robert Rivas delivered the following speech on Tuesday, September 1, 2026 - the final day of the 2025-26 legislative session:

The great Dolly Parton once said: "Find out who you are and do it on purpose."

For the past two years this Assembly has known exactly who we are.

We are a body that takes on the hard fights.

We are a body that believes government can still make people's lives better.

And we are a body that refuses to settle for half-measures when Californians expect action.

As we wrap up this two-year session here today it's clear for two straight years this Assembly has governed with unity, with urgency and with purpose.

Two years of taking on hard problems.

Two years of refusing to settle for the easy answer.

Two years of producing results that have made a real difference in people's lives.

And through all of it, we have kept the same North Star: Affordability.

Nowhere have we pushed harder-or accomplished more-than housing.

Last year, we enacted the largest expansion of housing opportunity in decades.

This year our work continued.

We rebuilt how California finances affordable housing from the ground up - cutting an estimated $60,000 to $70,000 from the cost of every unit we build.

We invested $900 million in emergency housing funding to fight street homelessness.

We created a Disaster Rebuilding Fund for families still trying to put their lives back together after devastating fires.

We capped security deposits at one month's rent - because working people should not need a small fortune just to get the keys to an apartment.

We fast-tracked townhomes and accelerated construction near transit.

And in June working with the Governor and Senate we put an $11.25 billion housing and homeownership bond before California voters.

If approved, it will be one of the largest investments in affordable housing in California history.

That is what it looks like to treat the housing crisis like a crisis.

And we did all of this in a year during which we saw unprecedented attacks from Washington.

When the Trump Administration targeted our hospitals, our doctors and the patients who depend on them, we fought back.

From Oakland to Los Angeles members of this body stood up to protect health care - We rejected cuts to Medi-Cal programs and services.

And when Washington took health care subsidies away, California stepped in.

Because affordability is not only about lowering costs it is also about stopping Washington from raising them.

When ICE agents brought fear and chaos into American communities, starting in Los Angeles and spreading across the country.

We did more than condemn it - We acted.

We passed more than two dozen bills to hold ICE accountable and protect our schools, hospitals, voting centers and daycares.

When a Republican shutdown in Washington cut off CalFresh food assistance for millions of California families and seniors.

We stepped in to backfill what Washington abandoned.

When Trump and congressional Republicans tried to strip women of access to reproductive health care.

We stepped in again - investing tens of millions of dollars to keep clinics open and care available.

We have never seen a White House so willing to take California's tax dollars while simultaneously attacking California's people.

And still our work did not stop there.

We guaranteed workers paid sick days.

We protected Californians from unfair banking fees.

We passed restrictions on teen use of social media.

And I am especially proud of something that will never generate the biggest headline.

We became the first Legislature in the country to build an Outcomes Review program to hold our own laws accountable.

Fourteen members spent this year examining their own legislation - on housing, energy, health care, wildfire recovery and foster care - to answer one basic question: Are laws that we passed actually working?

Because our responsibility does not end when the Governor signs a bill, passing a law is not the finish line.

Changing people's lives is.

And when this Legislature passes a law we are going to make sure it is implemented as intended - not watered down, not weakened or rewritten after it leaves this chamber.

That is not glamorous work - but it is responsible government.

And it is how we earn the public's trust.

Before we close, I want to recognize all members of this Assembly.

Californians see us casting votes. They see the debates. They see the arguments.

What they do not always see is what every member carries into this chamber.

The children waiting at home. The spouses and partners carrying more than their share.

The parents we worry about, the birthdays we miss, the dinners we don't make.

And the constituents back home, who call us when they have nowhere else to turn.

We asked for the privilege of serving. We do not ask for sympathy.

But public service asks something of every person in this room - and it asks something of the families who make our service possible.

Whatever our disagreements I have witnessed your commitment up close.

And I am deeply proud to serve alongside every one of you.