SACRAMENTO — Aoife Beary paused as the anguish became too much. She tried to stifle the sobs as she pleaded with California lawmakers on Wednesday to support a bill she hopes would prevent the kind of tragedy she endured.

Beary was one of the 13 students who plunged five stories when a balcony at a Berkeley apartment collapsed last year. Most of the young people, like Beary, were visiting from Ireland. Six of them died in the fall on a night they were celebrating Beary’s 21st birthday.

“I miss my friends so much,” said Beary, who suffered a traumatic brain injury, broken arms, a broken pelvis, a broken jaw, a collapsed lung, broken ribs and other injuries in the June 2015 fall. “I had known them since we started school together at 4 years of age. We had grown up together. And now my birthday will always be their anniversary.”

California lawmakers are considering a bill that would require the Contractors State License Board to study whether it should require contractors to report to the board any settlements or judgments related to faulty work. SB465 would also require the Building Standards Commission to study whether existing building standards for apartment balconies need to be updated. Both studies would be reported to the state Legislature by Jan. 1, 2018.

In addition to the studies, SB465 would require contractors to disclose within 90 days to their regulator — the Contractors State License Board — if they were convicted of a felony or a crime related to their work as a contractor.

The bill was significantly watered down this year after it was defeated in 2015 amid industry opposition.

“I cannot believe why you are even debating this bill,” Beary said. “People died. You should ensure all balconies are scrutinized in this state to prevent this from happening again.”

Contractors are not required to report to the board any settlements related to defects in their work, which supporters of SB465 say is routine in other professions.

The firm that constructed the Berkeley balcony, Segue Construction of Pleasanton, had a history of settling construction defect cases. Segue agreed to $26.5 million in legal settlements for construction defect cases between 2012 to 2015.

The licensing board said it was unaware of the cases because state law does not require the company to report them.

The bill, by Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, and Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, failed last year in the Assembly Business and Professions Committee after the legislation initially attempted to require contractors to report defective construction settlements and lawsuits to the licensing board. SB465 was revived this year and now only requires the licensing board to study whether the public would be best served if contractors were required to report lawsuits or settlements involving allegations of defective work.

That change led opponents, like the California Building Industry Association and the Southern California Contractors Association, to remove their opposition to the bill. No one spoke in opposition to SB465 on Wednesday, when the Assembly Appropriations Committee heard the bill.

The committee did not vote on the bill Wednesday, but will have to decide by Friday if it moves forward. Several Democratic and Republican lawmakers on the committee indicated Wednesday that they planned to vote in favor of the bill.

If the bill passes the committee, SB465 has to be approved by the full Assembly and Senate by Aug. 31.

“So many lives have been changed,” said Jackie Donohoe, the mother of Ashley Donohoe of Rohnert Park, an Irish American who was killed at age 22 in the Berkeley fall. “That’s why it’s so important for this bill to pass.”

Donohoe said she warned her daughter not to drink and drive or drive too fast, and always asked that she text when she arrived somewhere.

“My daughter did all those things,” she said. “I would never in a million years think to say, ‘Ashley, don’t walk out on a balcony in the United States of America.’”

Donohoe’s niece, Olivia Burke, 21, was also killed in the collapse. Donohoe said the tragedy has forever changed the family’s lives, robbing them of milestones, like her husband walking her daughter down the aisle in a wedding in which she anticipated Burke would have been a bridesmaid.

“Her father did carry her up the aisle,” she said. “He carried her coffin up the aisle. And her beloved friend and cousin Olivia did follow her. She came after her in her coffin.”

Melody Gutierrez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mgutierrez@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @MelodyGutierrez