Image by Thawatchai ChawongOPINION – As the legislature begins deliberations on cap-and-trade reauthorization, two questions are paramount: Has the cap-and-trade program accomplished its initial goals, and what should be its goals going forward?
Sen. Mike McGuire, photo by APNew Senate pro Tem Mike McGuire announced his Senate Democratic Leadership Team and committee membership assignments for the 2024 Legislative year. The Senate Rules Committee will ratify the committee memberships next Wednesday, February 14, 2024.
The rules of consent, image by anabarauliaANALYSIS – For those tuning into the Senate and Assembly Floor Sessions during deadline weeks, you are likely to hear the terms “consent,” (both floors), “special consent” (Senate Floor), and “batching” (Assembly Floor). What do those terms mean? How does batching differ from the consent calendar? What is the difference between consent and special consent? Chris Micheli explains it all for you.
Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon. Photo from his Facebook page, cropped and modified for Capitol Weekly.Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon released the full list of Assembly committee assignments via Twitter yesterday.
The state Capitol in Sacramento. (Photo: Kit Leong, via Shutterstock)ANALYSIS: One of the long-running points of contention when California courts examine what’s known as “legislative intent” is the judiciary’s general disdain for statements made by the authors of legislation. Those clear-language statements accompanying bills, common in the Capitol, seek to offer guidance and state the purpose and intention of an author’s legislation.
The state Capitol in Sacramento. (Photo: Cassionhabib, via Shutterstock)On March 23, about 80 people gathered on a Zoom call to launch Daybreak PAC, a political action committee aimed at moving the California Legislature to the left by supporting progressive candidates and policies. The PAC is headed by activist Jackie Fielder, an unsuccessful state Senate candidate who challenged incumbent Democrat Scott Wiener last year in San Francisco.
The state Capitol in Sacramento. (Photo: Always Wanderlust, via Shutterstock)When preparing to lobby legislative committees, the focus is on legislative staff and then legislators. There are two types of staff for our purposes: committee and member. Committee staff, referred to as committee consultants, are those who work directly for the legislative policy or fiscal committees. Member staff are those who work directly for an Assembly member or senator.
The state Capitol in Sacramento. (Photo: Adonis Villanueva, via Shutterstock)Lobbyists at the state Capitol have noticed a trend developing over the use of letters to the Daily Journals in the Assembly and Senate as a substitute for making bill amendments. It’s a development little noticed by the public, but it is being closely watched by those with business before the Legislature.
The state Capitol in Sacramento. (Photo SchnepfDesign, via Shutterstock)Clearly, Washington, D.C., and Sacramento share many things in common — including such negatives as a hyper-heated political culture, insularity and a pervasive sense of entitlement. And California’s Legislature is obviously based upon the federal legislative model. Nonetheless, their legislative rules are different, so let’s take a look at some of the major distinctions.
Nurses and physicians in a busy hospital corridor. (Photo: Monkey Business Images)The California Nurses Association is still committed to pushing through its controversial universal health care bill despite stiff opposition from the Democratic Assembly Speaker and medical professional organizations. The union has a strong ally in front-runner gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom, who says that a single-payer system as proposed in Senate Bill 562 is the best way to provide health care to all.