Capitol Briefs: Crossover deadline sees majority of bills pass to next house

Crossover by the numbers: With the crossover deadline now come and gone, we thought Capitol watchers might want to peruse some raw numbers, courtesy of lobbyist, law professor, parliamentary process guru and Capitol Weekly contributor Chris Micheli.

A total of 2,159 bills have been introduced in the Legislature so far this year, 1520 in the

Assembly and 639 in the Senate.

Of those, 931 bills (61 percent) have passed off the Assembly floor. Four have also cleared the Senate and been signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

In the Senate, 479 (75 percent) have cleared the chamber, with the Assembly rejecting two and sending seven more to Newsom, who signed them into law to date.

Glazer data mining bill dies: A far reaching proposal by Sen. Steve Glazer (D-Orinda) to tax Big Tech firms to pay for large tax breaks to small media outlets to underwrite the hiring of new journalists died in the Senate last Friday. Glazer spokesperson Steve Harmon said SB 1327 did not have the votes to achieve the two-thirds majority needed for the measure to pass to the Assembly, so Sen. Glazer would turn his attention instead to working on ways to help strengthen Assemblymember Buffy Wicks’ AB 886. The Assembly endorsed measure in June 2023, but Wicks turned it into a two-year bill in order to address some of the concerns it faced from Senate lawmakers.

Crabs, snails and shells, oh my: Lawmakers have a plethora of very serious proposals to consider throughout the rest of this session, including major measures to deal with a massive budget deficit as well as health care, education, Prop 47 reform, etc. But not every bill has such serious connotations. Take for instance Tuesday’s hearing of the Senate Committee of Governmental Organization, which will take up the following trio of bills:

AB 1797, authored by Assemblymember Jim Wood (D-Healdsburg), which would designate the Dungeness crab as California’s official state crustacean.

AB 1850, authored by Assemblymember Gail Pellerin (D-Santa Cruz), a proposal to make the banana slug the state’s official slug.

AB 2504, from Assemblymember Diane Dixon (R-Newport Beach), which would designate the shell of the black abalone California’s official seashell.

As noted in the bill analysis, “Emblems serve as reminders of the state’s heritage and represent the collective consciousness of its people. By recognizing emblems that hold deep meaning and relevance, California can effectively celebrate its past, present, and future, while inspiring residents to appreciate and preserve the state’s legacy.”

Other recent additions to the state’s list of “official” emblems include the pallid bat, the California Golden Chanterelle mushroom, and the dinosaur Augustynolophus.

We’ll update this story as needed.

Get happy: Assembly Speaker Emeritus Anthony Rendon’s (D-Lakewood) next step in gauging California’s happiness – and what role lawmakers can play in making people happier – kicks off on Wednesday when he will host a meeting of the Assembly Select Committee on Happiness and Public Policy Outcomes. In a release, Rendon said the hearing “will focus on happiness and possible public policy solutions across different age groups: youth and young adults, midlife, and seniors” and include data from 57 of California’s 58 counties. The meeting is on Wednesday, May 29th from 1:30-3:30 in Room 444 at the State Capitol. It will also be livestreamed.