Capitol Briefs: And they’re off.

The 2025-2026 legislative session kicked off on Monday with the swearing in of lawmakers old and new. Both chambers then adjourned until Jan. 6, 2025. In this edition of Capitol Briefs we share a few tidbits from Monday’s festivities.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss: To the surprise of absolutely no one, Assemblymember Robert Rivas (D-Hollister) and Senator Mike McGuire (D- Geyserville) were re-elected as Assembly Speaker and Senate pro Tempore respectively. Not that Republicans did not at least try to get one of their own into the Speaker’s position. Reeps nominated Assemblymember James Gallagher (R-Yuba City), but supermajority Dems easily swatted that one down on a straight party-line 59-19 vote. (The Assembly District 32 seat is vacant; Democrat Al Muratsuchi of District 66 was not in attendance.)

Fewer bills on the horizon: Speaker Rivas made clear his focus for this coming session is on how to make California a more affordable place to live and work. To that end, he said lawmakers will have a new lower cap on the number of bills they can introduce.

“Everyone in this room has good and important ideas,” Rivas said. “But our time and energy here are limited. So this session, we are lowering the number of bills legislators can introduce over the two-year term, from 50 to 35, because we want every leader in this room to have the greatest possible bandwidth to focus on laws that uplift affordability and prosperity.”

The Senate implemented a similar cap, down from the previous limit of 40 bills per two-year session.

Odds and ends: Lobbyist and regular Capitol Weekly contributor Chris Micheli compiled a few additional points of interest for Capitol observers:

• The Assembly swore in 23 new members, more than half of whom (12) were female.
• The Senate swore in 12 new members, seven of whom are female. Eight of the new members formerly served in the Assembly.
• Lawmakers introduced a total of 97 regular session bills, 63 in the Assembly and 34 in the Senate.
• Of those, 24 were intent bills and six were spot bills.
• There were additionally three special session measure introduced and one special session constitutional amendment.

Monday fun day: As is tradition on a day where good cheer and collegiality are supposed to be at the forefront of everyone’s mind, many of the members had family and other special people in

The Assembly floor, Dec. 2nd 2024. Photo by Capitol Weekly

attendance to witness their swearing-in, from young children to grandparents. A favorite moment: Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland), observing her two daughters sitting at her desk amidst large bags of coloring pens and paper, asking “How long do you think this good behavior can last?”

The same might be asked of her colleagues on both sides of the aisle.