With the recently concluded 2019 California Legislative Session, I thought I would look back at the highlights and compare them to the last Legislative Session as a reference point, especially in light of the Democratic supermajority in both houses of the Legislature and Governor Newsom replacing Governor Brown after eight years.
Bills Introduced in the 2019 Session:
Senate 792
Assembly 1,833
Total: 2,625
Of these, 870 bills were signed into law and 172 bills were vetoed.
Data from 2018 Session
694 bills were introduced in the Senate. The total number of Senate Bills introduced in the 2017-18 Session was 1,511. Of those, 647 were signed into law (42.8%) and 86 were vetoed (5.5%).
1,531 bills were introduced in the Assembly. The total number of Assembly Bills introduced in the 2017-18 Session to 3,264. Of those, 1,228 were signed into law (37.6%) and 233 were vetoed (7.1%).
Bill Authors:
Highest Number of Bills Authored by Senators in the 2019 Session (who have a cap of 40 bills per 2-year session):
Cathleen Galgiani – 27
Ben Hueso – 26
Bob Hertzberg, Jim Nielsen, Anthony Portantino – 25
Bill Dodd, Henry Stern, Scott Wiener – 24
For the 2017-18 Legislative Session, in terms of authors and number of bills, the most bills introduced were by Senator Hill with 49, followed by Senator Lara with 45. Eleven senators introduced 40 bills (Galgiani, Glazer, Hernandez, Hertzberg, Leyva, Moorlach, Nguyen, Pan, Portantino, Stone, and Wiener), while five senators introduced 39 bills (Allen, Bradford, Jackson, Skinner, and Stern).
Highest Number of Bills Authored by Assembly Members in the 2019 Session (who have a cap of 50 bills per 2-year session):
Jim Frazier – 36
Autumn Burke – 32
Lorena Gonzalez – 31
Rob Bonta, Wendy Carrillo, Marc Levine, Evan Low – 30
Jacqui Irwin, Randy Voepel – 28
For the 2017-18 Legislative Session, in terms of authors and number of bills, the most bills introduced were by Assemblyman Ting with 102 bills (including budget-related measures). Seven Assembly Members introduced 50 bills (Bloom, Bonta, Burke, Eduardo Garcia, Gonzalez Fletcher, Levine, and Rubio). Seven Assembly Members had 49 bills (Arambula, Caballero, Limon, Low, Quirk, Santiago, and Wood) and three Assembly Members introduced 48 bills (Gipson, Irwin and O’Donnell).
Bill Referrals:
Data from 2019 Session
Senate Committees with the Highest Number of Bills Referred to the committee in the 2019 Session (based on original committee reference):
Education – 167 (49 SBs and 118 ABs)
Health – 150 (52 SBs and 98 ABs)
Public Safety – 149 (62 SBs and 87 ABs)
Judiciary – 123 (32 SBs and 91 ABs)
Governance & Finance – 120 (52 SBs and 68 ABs)
Assembly Committees with the Highest Number of Bills Referred to the committee in the 2019 Session (based on original committee reference):
Public Safety – 217 (165 ABs and 52 SBs)
Health – 202 (158 ABs and 44 SBs)
Education – 138 (114 ABs and 24 SBs)
Transportation – 138 (111 ABs and 27 SBs)
Natural Resources – 124 (103 ABs and 21 SBs)
Data from 2018 Session
The committees with the highest number of original committee references were:
Senate committee bill references by total number of SBs and ABs referred:
Education – 313 (88 + 225)
Public Safety – 288 (111 + 177)
Transportation & Housing – 237 (79 + 158)
Health – 226 (77 + 149)
Governance & Finance – 223 (105 + 118)
Assembly committee bill references by total number of ABs and SBs referred:
Public Safety – 384 (294 + 90)
Health – 300 (219 + 81)
Education – 260 (210 + 50)
Judiciary – 247 (181 + 66)
Transportation – 233 (182 + 51)
Chris Micheli is a Principal with the Sacramento governmental relations firm of Aprea & Micheli, Inc. He can be contacted at 916-448-3075.