Chris Micheli

Maximum Number of Bills in the California Legislature  By Chris Micheli             Under prior rules of the Senate and Assembly in the California Legislature, during their 2-year Sessions, Assembly Members could introduce a maximum of 4,000 bills (50 bills x 80 members) and Senators could introduce a maximum of 1,600 bills (40 bills x 40 members) for a total of 5,600 bills between the two houses. Of course, hundreds of resolutions and constitutional amendments could also be introduced. And, there were over 100 bills in both houses authored by committees, particularly the budget committees. While legislators have not gotten close to the 5,600 bills cap in the past decade, this year’s reduction in total bill introductions will result in a major reduction. For the current 2025-26 California Legislative Session, Assembly Members can introduce a maximum of 2,800 bills (35 bills x 80 members) and Senators can introduce a maxim...

What Comes After Reducing Bill Limits?  By Chris Micheli Now that the bill introduction limits have been reduced in both the Assembly (thank you, Speaker Rivas) and Senate (thank you, PT McGuire), I hope that a few other things might change in the legislative process. First, in light of considering fewer bills, many would like to see the standing committees do away with the “2-and-2 for 2 minutes each” rule. Even if a cap on the number of principal witnesses were to remain (perhaps increasing it to 3 or 4), a 2-minute limitation is unwarranted. Legislators should hear from experts and engage those individuals with questions and debate. Of course, witnesses should be admonished from providing duplicative testimony, but 4 or 5 minutes would allow more information to be provided. And, hopefully, that additional, substantive testimony would elicit discussion and debate among the committee members as they decide whether to proceed with proposed legislation. In my opinion, most wit...

Add an Affordability Question to Legislative Bill Analyses By Chris Micheli                For those around during the pandemic, you may recall that a number of policy committees included in their committee worksheet a question about how the particular bill was related to addressing problems associated with the pandemic. That prompts me to suggest the following for the 2025 Session: In this “year of affordability,” perhaps Senate and Assembly committees should include a question in their bill worksheets such as: How does this bill address affordability in this state? Or, will this bill result in a reduction in the cost of purchasing for citizens or the cost of doing business in California? And then the committee should include that information in their bill analysis for consideration by legislators.