Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a $7.5 billion bond to fund scientific research across California on Wednesday. Signed from the top of the Golden Gate Bridge, the bond will be on the ballot for the March 2028 California primary.
If approved by voters, Senate Bill 895 would support research in medicine, climate and public health. The bill includes a $1 billion specific allocation for University of California and California State University research facilities, while also supporting California research institutes, private companies and private universities.
Authored by state Sen. Scott Wiener, the bill was introduced in response to a wave of federal budget cuts to UC system research under President Donald Trump’s administration in 2025. These cuts included a $584 million funding freeze on UCLA research grants, which UC employees successfully blocked in a lawsuit. The Trump administration canceled nearly $2 billion in grants across all UC system campuses, prompting UC faculty to file a class action lawsuit in response. This lawsuit, ruled on by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in May, has since been appealed to the Supreme Court.
“Currently, academic researchers are experiencing issues with federal funding cancellations, delays, changes in priorities, among other things, creating an environment in which stability of teams and labs is uncertain,” said UC San Diego Vice Chancellor of Research and Innovation Corinne Peek-Asa in an email. “These funds will help stabilize this uncertainty and leverage existing federal investment.”
Introduced in January 2026, SB 895 initially proposed a $23 billion bond measure to land on the November 2026 ballot. However, the amount of money was scaled back twice to $7.5 billion, and the bill failed to pass through the state Assembly in time for the qualifying deadline, delaying its placement to 2028.
The bill is cosponsored by United Auto Workers Local 4811, a labor union representing more than 60,000 higher education workers in the UC system and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. UAW was also involved in lobbying for the bill during its legislative process, including organizing the May 2026 Rally for California Science in Sacramento.
“I think (the rally) showed a giant public support for this, right outside of where all the legislators are going about their day,” said Sadie Siegel, a head steward for the UC Berkeley unit of UAW 4811.
The bill would also establish the California Foundation for Science and Health Research, which would distribute state grants and loans to research projects on the basis of scientific merit.
“People don’t always know how many of their medicines started as somebody’s thesis research project, or that there is research going on to actually prevent wildfires,” Siegel said. “It doesn’t happen in a vacuum. … Public science is what does those things.”
The bond alone could not fully offset federal budget reductions, but Siegel says it’s “a way forward” for scientists and academics to have a role in deciding: “What does that funding even look like from (the) start?”
SB 895 now awaits approval or rejection by California voters in March 7, 2028, primary election.
“With this investment, California is imagining a better future for millions of families,” Wiener said to the governor’s office. “We cannot allow the federal government to throw away that hope for a better future.”