From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
|
California State Legislature |
| 2009–2010
session |
 |
| Type |
|
Type |
Bicameral |
|
Houses |
Senate
Assembly |
|
Leadership |
| President of the
Senate |
Vacant
since November 5, 2009 |
| President
pro tempore |
Darrell
Steinberg, (D)
since November 30, 2006 |
|
Senate Minority Leader |
Dennis
Hollingsworth, (R)
since February 18, 2009 |
| Speaker
of the Assembly |
Karen Bass, (D)
since May 13, 2008 |
|
Assembly Minority Leader |
Sam Blakeslee, (R)
since June 1, 2009 |
|
Structure |
|
Members |
120
40 senators
80 assemblymembers |
|
Election |
|
Senate Last election |
November 4,
2008 |
|
Assembly Last election |
November 4,
2008 |
| Meeting
place |
 |
California State Capitol
Sacramento, California |
| Website |
| http://www.legislature.ca.gov/ |
California State Assembly chamber
California State Senate chamber
A few volumes of the journals of each house (Assembly is green,
Senate is red)
The California State Legislature is the state legislature of
the U.S. state of California. It is a bicameral body consisting of the lower house, the California State Assembly,
with 80 members, and the upper house, the California State Senate, with
40 members. New legislators convene each new two-year session, to
organize, in the Assembly Chambers at noon on the first Monday in
December following the election. After the organizational meeting,
both houses are in recess until the first Monday in January, except
when the first Monday is January 1 or January 1 is a Sunday, in
which case they meet the following Wednesday.
The State Legislature meets in the California State Capitol in Sacramento.
The California State Legislature currently has a Democratic
majority, with the Senate consisting of 25 Democrats and 15
Republicans; and the Assembly having 49 Democrats, 29 Republicans,
1 Independent, and 1 vacancy. Except for the period from 1995 to
1996, the Assembly has been in Democratic hands since the 1970
election (even while the governor's office has gone back and forth
between Republicans and Democrats). The Senate has been in
Democratic hands continuously since 1970.
Terms and
term limits
Members of the Assembly are elected from eighty districts, serve
two year terms, and since 1990
are limited to being elected three times. Members of the Senate
serve four year terms and are limited to being elected twice. There
are forty Senate districts, with half of the seats up for election
on alternate (two year) election cycles.
Recordkeeping
The proceedings of the California State Legislature are briefly
summarized in regularly published journals, which show votes and who proposed or
withdrew what. Since the 1990s, the
legislature has provided a live video feed for its sessions, and
has been broadcast statewide on the California Channel and local
access television. Due to the expense and the obvious political downside, California did not keep verbatim records of actual speeches made
by members of the Assembly and Senate until the video feed began.
As a result, reconstructing legislative intent outside of an act's preamble is extremely difficult in California
for legislation passed before the 1990s.
Legislative committees
The most sought-after legislative
committee appointments are to banking, agriculture
and insurance. These are sometimes called "juice" committees,
because membership in these committees often aids the campaign
fundraising efforts of the committee members, because powerful
lobbying groups want to donate to members of these committees .
Legislative
analyst
An unusual institution is the nonpartisan California
Legislative Analyst's Office, or LAO. The LAO analyzes for
legislators the effects of proposed laws. The office is staffed by
several dozen fiscal and policy analysts. The LAO's most visible
public acts are to write the impartial ballot booklet analyses of
initiatives and bond measures placed before the voters and to
provide public commentary on many aspects of proposed and enacted
budget bills.
Overview of legislative
procedure
A bill is a proposal to change,
repeal, or add to existing state law. An Assembly Bill (AB) is
one introduced in the Assembly; a Senate Bill (SB), in
the Senate.
Bills are designated by number, in the order of introduction in
each house. For example, AB 16 refers to the sixteenth bill
introduced in the Assembly. The numbering starts afresh each
session. The name of the author, the legislator who introduced the
bill, becomes part of the title.
The legislative
procedure, is divided into distinct stages:
- Drafting. The procedure begins when a
Senator or Assembly Member decides to author a bill. A legislator
sends the idea for the bill to the California
Office of the Legislative Counsel, where it is drafted into
bill form. The draft of the bill is returned to the legislator for
introduction.
- Introduction or First Reading. A bill is introduced or read
the first time when the bill number, the name of the author, and
the descriptive title of the bill are read on the floor of the
house. The bill is then sent to the Office of State Publishing. No
bill except the Budget Bill may be acted upon until 30 days
have passed from the date of its introduction.
- Committee hearing. After introduction, a
bill goes to the rules committee of the house, where it is assigned
to the appropriate policy committee,
appropriate to the subject matter, for its first hearing. During
the committee hearing the author presents the bill to the
committee, and testimony may be heard in support or opposition to
the bill. The committee then votes on whether to pass the bill out
of committee, or that it be passed as amended. Bills may be amended
several times. It takes a majority vote of the committee membership
for a bill to be passed and sent to the next committee or to the floor.
- Fiscal committee. If the bill which contains an appropriation or
has financial implications for the state.
- Second reading. A bill recommended for passage by committee is
read a second time on the floor of the house. Ordinarily there is
little or no debate. If a bill is amended at this stage, it may be
referred back for another committee hearing.
- Floor vote. A roll call vote is
taken. An ordinary bill needs a majority vote to pass
. An urgency bill or a bill with fiscal implications requires a two-thirds vote. In addition, the California Constitution
requires a 2/3 vote of both houses on the budget bill and on any
bill which would increase taxes (this has posed a problem in 2009,
when California faced a major revenue crisis due to the global
economic downturn).
- Second house. If it receives a favorable vote in the first
house, a bill repeats the same steps in the other house. If the
second house passes the bill without changing it, it is sent to the
governor's desk.
- Resolution of Differences (concurrence or conference). If a measure is
amended in the second house and passed, it is
returned to the house of origin for consideration of amendments.
The house of origin may concur
with the amendments and send the bill to the governor or reject the
amendments and submit it to a two-house conference committee. If either
house rejects the conference report, a second (and even a third)
conference committee can be formed. If both houses adopt the
conference report, the bill is sent to the governor.
- Governor's action. Within 12 days after receiving a bill, the
governor may sign it into law, allow it to become law
without his/her signature, or veto it.
- Overrides. A vetoed
bill is returned to the house of origin, where a vote may be taken
to override the governor's veto; a two-thirds vote of both houses
is required to override a veto.
- California Law and effective date.
Each bill that is passed by the Legislature and approved by the
Governor is assigned a chapter number by the Secretary
of State. These chaptered bills are statutes, and ordinarily become part of the California
Codes. Ordinarily a law passed during a regular session takes effect January 1
of the following year. A few statutes go into effect as
soon as the governor signs them; these include acts calling for
elections and urgency measures necessary for the immediate
preservation of the public peace, health, or safety.
See also
Districts, elections and
members
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