Legal Alert - SB-30 and its Implications for Doing Public Work Construction for the State of California - Another Risk to Manage

by Michael J. Baker and Jamie N. Furst 

Summary of SB-30

Senate Bill 30 California-Mexico Border: Federally Funded Infrastructure (“SB-30”) was introduced on December 5, 2016 by Democrat Senator Ricardo Lara, who is its primary sponsor. SB-30 is an act to add a chapter to California’s Government Code and to amend a section of California’s Public Contract Code relating to infrastructure. SB-30 seeks to prevent the State of California from executing or renewing a contract with a company or individual that accepts a federal contract to either provide goods or services related to a wall project along California’s southern border. This act is a direct response from a number of California’s senators to President Trump’s plan to fund and build a wall along roughly half of the 2,000 miles of the United States and Mexico border in the states of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. Such a wall was authorized back in 2006 by the Secure Fence Act of 2006, and some fencing was constructed pursuant to the Act. Opponents of such a wall or “barriers,” for example Senator Ricardo Lara, have opposed the wall on grounds that it will slow the movement of goods from California to Mexico, which is California’s largest export market, take away valuable jobs and threaten endangered species located in the area where the wall is proposed to be built. 

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