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Gov. Code, § 12913 · Article 1. General

Gov. Code, § 12913

Verbatim from the official edition

Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)

(a) As part of its duties, the bureau shall verify an individual’s status as a descendant. Proof of an individual’s descendant status shall be a qualifying criterion for benefits authorized by the state for descendants. The bureau shall create a Genealogy Division.

(b) Following the establishment of a process for conducting or verifying genealogical research for the purpose of confirming an individual’s status as a descendant of an enslaved person as provided by Chapter 4.8 (commencing with Section 8308) of Division 1, as added by Senate Bill 437 of the 2025–26 Regular Session, the Genealogy Division shall do all of the following:

(1) Establish a process for individuals to request certification as a descendant of American slaves informed by the process created pursuant to Chapter 4.8 (commencing with Section 8308) of Division 1, as added by Senate Bill 437 of the 2025–26 Regular Session.

(2) Review and determine requests for certification as a descendant.

(3) Establish a process for individuals to appeal a determination made pursuant to paragraph (2).

(c) Subdivision (b) shall become operative only if Senate Bill 437 of the 2025–26 Regular Session is enacted and takes effect on or before January 1, 2026.

Notes and commentary — not statutory text

History

Added by Stats. 2025, Ch. 586, Sec. 1. (SB 518) Effective January 1, 2026.

Source of truth

Edition
As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
Official file
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=GOV&sectionNum=12913.
Text hash
sha256 2ad6206e45c03871150ed2d17632867ea36f84570f63bfa16468c523b3b6c864
Composed by
compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section

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