The California Senate voted Wednesday in favor of a bill that would put a $12 billion bond for scientific research on the November 2026 ballot.
Senate Bill 895 – which state senator Scott Wiener proposed in January and the UC sponsored in March – will now head to the State Assembly for a vote. The bill would establish the California Foundation for Science and Health Research, which would distribute the $12 billion – collected through the sale of state bonds – to research projects.
If the bill passes in the Assembly, it will be sent to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk for approval. If he signs off on the bill, it will be placed on the November ballot.
The bill previously proposed a $23 billion research bond, but it was amended in a May 14 committee hearing to $12 billion.
[Related: Senate Bill 895 seeks to establish $23 billion research fund amid federal cuts]
The bill passed the Senate by 29-9 vote. It needed a two-thirds vote to pass the Senate.
Wiener proposed the bill in the wake of the Trump administration’s cuts to research funding at the UC and universities across the country.
The federal government froze $584 million in UCLA’s research grants from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and United States Department of Energy in July, alleging that the university allowed antisemitism, affirmative action and “men to participate in women’s sports.”
A federal judge restored most of the funding through temporary injunctions in August and September and ruled in a different case in November that the Trump administration could not freeze – or threaten to freeze – the UC’s federal research funding.
[Related: Federal government suspends research funding to UCLA]
“In the face of MAGA’s senseless destruction of our federal science agencies and cuts to scientific research, California must stand up and defend the research that powers our state,” Wiener said in an emailed statement. “Science is how we heal the sick, feed the hungry, and build the future – and nowhere does it better than California.”
Wiener said he is proud to receive support for the bill from the state Senate, adding that he hopes to build on that momentum in the state Assembly.
UC President James Milliken said in a Sept. 3 letter to Wiener that the federal funding cuts threatened the entire UC system, adding that it receives nearly $6 billion in research funding from the federal government annually.
“If passed by voters, the California Science and Health Research Bond Act would help fund modernization of research facilities, expansion of laboratory and clinical capacity, and improvements to public health infrastructure,” Milliken said in a May 4 statement.
