Chris Micheli

How Many Bills Has Governor Newsom Considered?  By Chris Micheli             Now that the 2025 Legislative Session has ended and, as we head into the second and final year of the biennium session and Governor Gavin Newsom’s last year in office, how many bills have reached the Governor’s Desk? And how many of those bills have been signed or vetoed by Governor Newsom?             The following is a chart with the data for his first seven years in office:   Year Total Number of Bills Reaching GGN Desk Total Number of Bills Signed by GGN Total Number of Bills Vetoed by GGN 2019 1,042 870 172 2020 428 372 56 2021 836 770 66 2022 1,166 997 169 2023 ...

Why Legislative Counsel Should Draft All Ballot Measures  By Chris Micheli             I found myself recently discussing initiatives and the common drafting concerns expressed by those who review them. With measures placed on the ballot by the Legislature, the attorneys in the Office of Legislative Counsel (OLC) for the California Legislature draft them, as OLC does for all legislative measures (bills, resolutions, and constitutional amendments). On the other hand, measures placed on the ballot by initiative are almost always drafted by private attorneys, few of whom have received any training in drafting legislative measures. One suggestion I made to this group of lawyers was to require all ballot measures, whether proposed by the Legislature (which is done today) or by the People (through the initiative), to be written by the attorneys at the Office of Legislative Counsel. Just as the Office of the Attorney General is re...

Some Types of Bills Require Specified Statements  By Chris Micheli             Urgency statutes, fiscal emergency statutes, right of public access, local or special statutes, and reimbursement disclaimers utilize explanatory statements. Of course, I would like to see more bills contain explanatory statements. Several of these three types of measures are actually required to do so by the state Constitution. It is an excellent practice by the Office of Legislative Counsel (OLC) to use explanatory statements in all of the different types of legislation. Let’s take a closer look at these five types of bills: Urgency Clauses             Article IV, Section 8(d) concerns urgency statutes. It provides the following:   (d) Urgency statutes are those necessary for immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety. A statement of facts constituting the...

Can a Legislator Re-introduce the Same Bill Next Year?  By Chris Micheli             As we head into the second year of the 2-year California Legislative Session, some legislators may want to re-introduce a bill that did not make it to the Governor’s Desk during this first year. Are there any applicable rules governing this question?             The Joint Rules of the Assembly and Senate contain Joint Rule 54, which is titled “Introduction of Bills.” Subdivision (a) discusses the deadline for bill introductions and exemptions from that deadline. Subdivision (b) concerns when the Assembly and Senate Desks are open and what occurs after the printing of a bill.             Subdivision (c) gives us guidance on reintroduced bills. It states: “ (c) Unless approved by the Committee on Rules of the house of origin, a...

Number of California Bills by Code – 2025 Edition  By Chris Micheli             California’s 29 Codes, beginning with the Business & Professions Code and ending with the Welfare & Institutions Code, contain over 156,000 statutes. Each year, more statutes are being considered through legislation. So, how many bills introduced in 2025 affect these 29 Codes?             In the following chart, I look at the number of bills adding, amending, or repealing sections of California’s 29 Codes during the 2025 Session, along with the 2023-24 Session statistics for comparison purposes. The following chart contains those numbers:   Code 2025 2023 – 24 Business & Professions 333 632 Civil 290 495 Civil Procedure 179 310 Commercial ...