Designating “Spot” Bills in the California Legislature
Designating “Spot” Bills in the California Legislature By Chris Micheli It is easy to identify a “spot” bill that is introduced in the California Legislature. The first place to look is in the Legislative Counsel’s Digest. The second place, naturally, is to look at the text of the bill. As described by the Legislative Counsel, a “spot bill” is one that does not make any substantive change to existing law, “and would not otherwise affect the ongoing operations of state or local government.” On the other hand, an “intent bill” is one that merely makes a statement of legislative intent. In the Digest, the reader will find one of the following three statements after the explanation of existing law in the Digest (following the paragraph that begins with “Existing law…): “This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to ….” “This bill would make a technical, nonsubstantive change to ….” “This bill would make no...