Bill Volume of California legislative committees – 2025 Session

The California Legislature has a combined 55 standing committees, with 32 in the Assembly and 23 in the Senate. There were 2,397 bills (1,533 ABs and 864 SBs) introduced during the 2025 Legislative Session. Those standing committees, and their hardworking consultants (along with their minority party counterparts), reviewed and analyzed more than two thousand bills during the past year.

The following charts provide the data for the original bill referrals to policy committees during the 2025 Session (meaning the first committee that received a bill from the Rules Committee). It does not include second or third bill referrals which increase the number below of bills heard by several committees, such as the Senate Judiciary Committee which analyzes and hears a significant number of bills as a second committee of referral.

2025 Assembly Committees and Original Bill Referrals
(Note that these figures do not include second committee referrals; and Appropriations and Rules Committees are not included; historically, about 80% of all bills go through the Appropriations Committee)

2025 Senate Committees and Original Bill Referrals
(Note that these figures do not include second committee referrals; and Appropriations and Rules Committees are not included; historically, about 80% of all bills go through the Appropriations Committee)

As can be seen by the charts above, several thousand bills are analyzed each year of the California Legislature’s biennium session, and this year is no different. An interesting note is the number of first referrals in the second house in comparison to the house of origin.

In the house of origin, there were 1,478 first referrals of Assembly Bills and then 931 Assembly Bill first referrals in the second house, which is a reduction of 547 bills. There were 1,533 ABs introduced this year and 936 ABs passed their house of origin, meaning that 597 bills did not pass their house of origin.

Among Senate Bills, there were 617 first referrals and then 597 Senate Bill first referrals in the second house, which is a reduction of 20 bills. There were 864 SBs introduced this year and 600 SBs passed their house of origin, meaning that 264 bills did not pass their house of origin.

Support for The Micheli Files is provided by The McGeorge School of Law Capital Center for Law & Policy