A UC-sponsored California bill that would place a $12 billion research bond on the ballot will not appear in the November election, unless lawmakers reach an agreement.

Senate Bill 895, which Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener proposed in January, would have created the California Foundation for Science and Health Research. The foundation would have distributed the $12 billion – accumulated through the sale of state bonds – to scientific research projects across the state. 

The bill made it through several legislative hurdles – passing a senate committee and then the chamber in May – but failed to make it to the State Assembly floor by the June 25 deadline for measures to qualify for the ballot.

[Related: California Senate passes UC-sponsored bill proposing $12B research bond]

The bill had to pass in the Assembly and be signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom by June 25 to qualify through the standard legislative timeline. However, it could still qualify if the state grants an extension.

SB 895 – also sponsored by United Auto Workers Local 4811, which represents more than 60,000 UC academic employees – was proposed amid the Trump administration’s rollbacks on federal research funding. UAW Local 4811 did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Trump administration froze $584 million in UCLA’s research funding in July 2025, alleging that the university allowed antisemitism, affirmative action and “men to participate in women’s sports.”

A federal judge restored the vast majority of the grants in August and September, and the same judge barred the federal government from withholding or threatening to withhold funds from the UC in a separate ruling in November.

[Related: Judge bars Trump administration from threatening, freezing UC’s federal funding] 

UC President James Milliken said in a Thursday statement that he will continue to advocate for research support from the state. 

“Placing a bond on the ballot is always an ambitious undertaking — particularly so in California’s current fiscal environment,” he said in the statement. “State budget challenges, competing priorities, and a limited ability by the state to borrow money shaped the outcome of the bill.”

Fourteen ballot measures – two of which are bonds – qualified for the November ballot. One of the bonds would allow the state to sell $8.4 billion in bonds for immunology research, including studies of conditions like cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.

“I’m grateful to Senator Wiener for his leadership and to our faculty and researchers for their strong advocacy,” Milliken said in the statement. “No one anywhere does scientific discovery better than the University of California.”