Seal of the State of California, image by Aaron KohrANALYSIS – At the end of a California Legislative Session, Capitol observers will hear about the need to have “chaptering out amendments” adopted. However, that is not the correct term to use. “Chaptering out” is the problem that needs to be addressed by amendments, and “double-jointing amendments” are the solution to that problem.
Image by Adao via ShutterstockANALYSIS – There is often confusion regarding effective versus operative dates. Specifically, Capitol observers often inquire when a statute actually “takes effect.” When it takes effect can be different than when the statute is operative.
Frank Lanterman, photo courtesy of the Frank D. Lanterman Political Papers, Lanterman House ArchivesFor more than five decades, the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act has been the foundation for how California treats or fails to treat people with severe mental illness. Now, legislators from both parties seek to overhaul it in ways that reflect advances in medicine, and a better understanding of its failings.
Chloe Bowman, photo by Scott Duncan PhotographyIn this highly polarized world, a young Republican legislative director believes it is still possible to rise above political differences.
The state Capitol in Sacramento surrounded by Capitol Park. (Photo: Merge Digital Media LLC, via Shutterstock)Preservationists understand that their appeal court victory this month will only delay a billion-dollar expansion of the state Capitol building, but they hope legislators will use the time-out to consider alternatives that would kill fewer trees, cost less money and keep Capitol Park more or less as generations of Californians have known and enjoyed it.
Dolores Huerta spoke Tuesday at a meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative. (Photo: Julia Kikhinson, AP)At age 92, civil rights icon Dolores Huerta maintains a busy schedule supporting the causes she has worked for her whole life. She speaks regularly all over the state, recently participated in a re-creation of the famed 1966 farm workers march from Delano to Sacramento, and is campaigning for Texas gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke.
Lobbyists crowd around video screen to watch the floor votes on the last night of the Legislature's session. (Photo: Rich Pedroncelli, AP)The final curtain fell early Thursday on a legislative session that coursed through a pandemic, bolstered reproductive rights, saw a speaker nearly dispatched by his own caucus and drew the national spotlight to a governor who had survived an effort to recall him from office.
Sen. Richard Pan delivers remarks on the Senate floor. (Photo: Rich Pedroncelli, AP)A California lawmaker who rose to national prominence by muscling through some of the country’s strongest vaccination laws is leaving the state Legislature later this year after a momentous tenure that made him a top target of the boisterous and burgeoning anti-vaccination movement.
Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon. (Photo: Rendon's Twitter feed.)Timing is crucial in politics, and the battle over the Assembly speakership is no exception. The clock is ticking. If Rendon continues through the end of the current two-year session, then any change in the speakership will be decided in the next session, following the November elections, when all 80 Assembly seats are up for election.
Editor: Going way back to the 1960’s and 70’s, it was common practice for Assembly Speakers to anticipate and prepare for mid-session plots by disgruntled members of their own caucus to oust them.