Posts Tagged: policy
News
Widely regarded as the most knowledgeable and effective state legislator on mental health issues in the Legislature, Sen. Susan Talamantes Eggman (D-Stockton) is credited with major, bipartisan legislative accomplishments over nearly 12 years, first in the Assembly, now in the Senate, where she chairs the Senate Health Committee.
Opinion
OPINION – In the coming years, we will learn whether California’s government, led by Newsom, will seize the moment to demonstrate the first fully funded, equitable transition off fossil fuels like oil and gas. If we do it right, workers will be the designers and implementers, and will have access to good-paying, union jobs for the long-haul.
Opinion
OPINION – In a state as large and important as California, it makes little sense for us to continue allowing ourselves to be so vulnerable to the vagaries of each shifting budget cycle. Instead, it makes much more sense to develop a more strategic, long-term social investment approach.
Analysis
The California Legislature has a combined 55 standing committees, with 33 in the Assembly and 22 in the Senate. There were 2,661 bills introduced during the 2023 Legislative Session. Those standing committees, and their hardworking consultants (along with their minority party counterparts), reviewed and analyzed thousands of bills during the past two years.
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Analysis
ANALYSIS – Even though the 29 California Codes, in which there are over 155,000 sections, contain guidance on interpreting their provisions, the attorneys in California’s Office of Legislative Counsel (OLC) continue to modernize our state’s statutes. This important work includes the use of gender-neutral drafting of legislation for bills, resolutions, and constitutional amendments.
Opinion
OPINION – Central procurement would enable California to aggregate the needs of dozens of electricity providers and pool this purchasing power to negotiate with project developers of large clean energy projects for the best possible deal.
News
Growing up in San Ysidro, just this side of the California-Mexico border, Lucia Saldivar thought she was going to be a musician, like her father. “Music always helped me make sense of the world and my community,” she says. “Then in high school, I learned a new language to help make sense of the world around me, and that was politics and policy.”
Analysis
ANALYSIS – One of the controversial occurrences during the annual California Legislative Session is so-called “gut-and-amend” bills, or replacing the bill’s contents with a subject which is entirely unrelated to the original contents of the bill. Such amendments raise the legislative issue of “germaneness,” which refers to whether a proposed amendment is relevant to the subject matter currently contained in the measure.
Opinion
OPINION – Through creative thinking and partnerships between state leaders and local dairy farmers, LandFlex is helping us improve water quality and increase supplies to meet our region’s needs while sustaining our local agricultural economic engines at the same time.
Analysis
ANALYSIS – The Enrolled Bill Rule is based upon the separation of powers doctrine. However, the EBR should not be used anymore to prevent a challenge that constitutional provisions or state statutes were allegedly violated when the Legislature enacted a bill.
Sen. Susan Talamantes Eggman, Assemblymembers Kevin McCarty and Jay Obernolte. Image by Associated Press
