Gov. Gavin Newsom and California legislators passed a major reform of the California Environmental Quality Act on Monday. The new laws remove a key point of leverage for project opponents that has been embedded for more than a half-century in California's development regime.

Late Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed two major bills to change one of the state’s oldest and most powerful environmental laws. The measures are designed to make it easier to build more housing in a state that has some of worst shortages and highest prices in America.

California lawmakers passed a massive state budget vote Monday evening with just hours to spare before the July 1 deadline and the start of the new fiscal year.