Food assistance: disasters: utilities.

Assembly Member Celeste Rodriguez, with coauthor Senator Stern, advances a policy that creates a formal information-sharing framework between California’s regulated electric utilities and the State Department of Social Services to facilitate federal nutrition assistance during disasters and emergencies.

The proposal establishes a new framework within the Public Utilities Code that authorizes the California Public Utilities Commission and the governing boards of local publicly owned electric utilities to enter memoranda of understanding or other agreements directing timely data sharing with the social services agency. Data would be aggregated to the ZIP Code level, limited to outages of four hours or longer, and devoid of personally identifiable information. Required data elements include outage dates, duration, affected counties and ZIP Codes, and, for each ZIP Code, the total number of residential customers and the number who lost service. Utilities would be expected to provide this data within seven calendar days of a CDSS request, and each utility would designate a dedicated point of contact for data requests. The CPUC would furnish technical assistance to CDSS to support this data-sharing and related reporting.

Concurrently, a companion provision adds a new provision to the Welfare and Institutions Code directing CDSS to maximize the amount of assistance requested and received through federal nutrition programs—such as DSNAP, SNAP, and Summer EBT—using the data-sharing framework to enable automated mass replacement of benefits. CDSS would maintain ongoing coordination with each electrical utility and would submit a legislative report by the end of 2026 outlining potential further steps and any additional oversight needed to fulfill the section’s objectives. The reporting obligation is structured to sunset on January 1, 2030, with references to procedural compliance and sunset timelines included.

Implementation provisions specify that the data-sharing framework relies on MOUs, dedicated contacts, and privacy safeguards, with data use restricted to the purposes identified in the act and in alignment with applicable privacy laws. Acknowledging enforcement mechanisms, the bill notes that violations of CPUC actions implementing these requirements would implicate existing criminal provisions, and it contemplates a local program cost framework that does not authorize state appropriations or require reimbursements for mandated local costs. The structure positions CDSS, the CPUC, IOUs, LPUs, and local governments to coordinate on disaster-era nutrition assistance, while ensuring data privacy and administrative accountability within the current regulatory landscape.