Nearly 5000 bills were introduced by California legislators (40 Senate, 80 Assembly) in the last two-year legislative session (2023-2024). That's an average of 42 for each of the 120, and the current biennial session (2025-2026) will likely see a similar number. The vast majority will never come to a vote in either chamber via an opaque process known as the "suspense file" used by both the Senate and Assembly Appropriations Committees, and any bill that has a purported "fiscal impact" of more than $50,000, either by additional expenditure or loss of revenue, must be reviewed by both appropriations committees before they are allowed to go to the respective floors for a vote.
If you live in California you should definitely look at the following link which explains this process:
The Senate Appropriations Committee meets every second Monday and SB 712 was on the agenda for April 28 along with 39 other bills, and 35 went to the "suspense file" including SB 712. The meeting lasted a total of 17 minutes! At the beginning of the meeting the committee chair said 32 were "eligible" for the "suspense file", but the final outcome was 35 out of 40.
Here's a link to the meeting video. SB 712 comes up at 2:10. Give it a watch:
It's not at all clear to me how these bills were banished to the "suspense file" as there was no actual vote on any of them. The one person who testified (against) SB 712 also made the same specious arguments at the
Senate Transportation Committee hearing.
Here is the response I got from my SEMA contact:
"As you know, we expected this bill to go to the “suspense file,” where the committee is holding it and will decide by May 23rd.
Behind the scenes, SEMA and other stakeholders are working to see this bill emerge from committee with approval and move forward."
More to follow...
Duke
If you live in California you should definitely look at the following link which explains this process:
The Senate Appropriations Committee meets every second Monday and SB 712 was on the agenda for April 28 along with 39 other bills, and 35 went to the "suspense file" including SB 712. The meeting lasted a total of 17 minutes! At the beginning of the meeting the committee chair said 32 were "eligible" for the "suspense file", but the final outcome was 35 out of 40.
Here's a link to the meeting video. SB 712 comes up at 2:10. Give it a watch:
It's not at all clear to me how these bills were banished to the "suspense file" as there was no actual vote on any of them. The one person who testified (against) SB 712 also made the same specious arguments at the
Senate Transportation Committee hearing.
Here is the response I got from my SEMA contact:
"As you know, we expected this bill to go to the “suspense file,” where the committee is holding it and will decide by May 23rd.
Behind the scenes, SEMA and other stakeholders are working to see this bill emerge from committee with approval and move forward."
More to follow...
Duke