The effort to secure a two-year pause on California’s SB 54 packaging requirements has fallen short, leaving growers, packers and shippers facing an increasingly compressed compliance timeline.
Following our call to action, here’s an update on how the effort to pause SB 54 ultimately played out.
We made significant progress in a very short amount of time:
- Sen. Melissa Hurtado agreed to author legislation pausing SB 54 implementation for two years.
- Sen. Suzette Valladares agreed to make one of her bills on the Assembly Third Reading File available to be gutted and amended as the legislative vehicle.
- Twenty-three Democratic legislators signed the attached letter asking Senate President pro Tempore Monique Limón and Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas to pause implementation.
- Labor organizations, including the Teamsters and UFCW, were also pressing legislative leaders and members to support a pause.
- With 23 Assembly Democrats and 19 Assembly Republicans prepared to support the bill, we had the 41 votes needed to pass it off the Assembly Floor.
Unfortunately, having the votes was not enough. Pro Tem Limón would not approve the gut-and-amend without Sen. Ben Allen’s consent, and Senator Allen would not give his approval. Without the Pro Tem’s support, Speaker Rivas would not sign off on the proposal either. As a result, the effort died before the bill could be brought forward.
While this is disappointing, the pressure from legislators, labor organizations, businesses, farmers, food producers and constituents clearly demonstrated that the concerns with SB 54 are widespread and cannot be ignored.
Speaker Rivas intends to convene a working group this fall to examine the program’s costs, timelines, fees and other implementation concerns. The potential result would be legislation introduced in January 2027 to address these issues. Western Growers will be part of that working group and will continue pressing for meaningful changes that protect the fresh produce industry, the food supply chain and consumers.
For now, SB 54 implementation will continue under the existing timeline. We will keep you informed as the working group begins its work and as we determine our legislative strategy for January.
Thank you to everyone who contacted legislators and legislative leadership. Your calls and emails helped build a bipartisan coalition and brought us extremely close to securing a two-year pause. Although we did not get the result we wanted this session, your advocacy made a real difference and created an opportunity to continue this fight in 2027.