Micheli Files
Bill drafting in California: questions and answers
You have questions about the myriad of rules around drafting bills in the California Legislature – we have answers! Or to be more accurate, our good friend Chris Micheli has answers.
You have questions about the myriad of rules around drafting bills in the California Legislature – we have answers! Or to be more accurate, our good friend Chris Micheli has answers.
For the 2025 Session, legislators in both houses are subject to a 2-year limit of 35 bills. But did the lower caps actually produce fewer bills this year? In a special edition of the Micheli Files, law professor and lobbyist Chris Micheli took a look a bill intros going back almost two decades to give us that answer.
What is a “constitutional amendment”? Although California’s Constitution provides for the amendment of this document, our state Constitution does not define this term. A traditional definition of a constitutional amendment is a modification to an existing constitution.
There are numerous types of bills introduced in the California Legislature each year, and an equal number of rules for how and when they are presented. In this week’s Micheli Files, lobbyist and law professor Chris Micheli gives us the lowdown on legislation under the dome.
What is a “resolution” in the California Legislature? Although resolutions and concurrent resolutions are mentioned several times in Article IV of the California Constitution, neither term is defined in that document.
At the end of bills in the California Legislature, there may be “plus sections,” which are uncodified provisions that may do a number of things, such as expressing legislative intent, making legislative findings and declarations, or explaining why a bill may have a certain designation, such as a special statute or an urgency statute.
Definitions can play an important role in legislation. Defining words or phrases is done to provide the reader of the legislative text with clear guidance regarding how those words or phrases are to be understood. Where there are multiple definitions, they are most often found near the beginning of legislative text.
In the California Legislature, there are several types of amendments that can be made to measures, including bills, resolutions and constitutional amendments. To begin, an amendment is defined by Legislative Counsel as an alteration to a bill, motion, resolution, or clause by adding, changing, substituting, or omitting language.
With Governor Gavin Newsom proposing two new state agencies (both a new Consumer Protection Agency and a Housing and Homelessness Agency) to be created as part of the 2025-26 budget, I thought it would be helpful to take a look at how a Governor’s Reorganization Plan (GRP) is enacted.
First, have you heard of the Commission on the Governorship? In the California Constitution, Section 10, there are provisions related to what happens when a vacancy occurs in the office of the Governor.