Belt-Tightening California Lawmakers Kill Hundreds of Bills in Fiscal Committees

The California Capitol in Sacramento on April 18, 2022. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

The Senate and Assembly appropriations committees sidelined 275 bills Aug. 15 during suspense file hearings—where bills with significant fiscal impacts are considered without testimony.

Suspense file hearings take place twice a year, and bills that impact the state’s general fund by $50,000 or any fund by $150,000 are typically placed in the file to await votes by the fiscal committees.

In the most recent hearing, the Assembly committee held 95 of 315 bills, and the Senate side held 180 of 515 under consideration.

Known as where bills go to die in silence, the suspense file was used to hold up about one-third of the proposals in the most recent meeting, about equal to the 32 percent held in May and about 8 percent higher than the historical average.

Buffy Wicks, chair of the Assembly’s Appropriations Committee, said the state’s fiscal challenges are the reason.

“We’re still dealing with a pretty constrained budget environment that we have here in California,” Wicks said during opening remarks at the hearing.

“That weighs heavy on us as we make decisions about bills moving forward or not. We want to make sure we’re being judicious.”

The state is navigating a budget deficit that the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office estimated at about $73 billion. Shortfalls could persist for the coming fiscal years, analysts warned in multiple reports released this year.

Some public safety bills were among those on the chopping block, including three measures introduced by Sen. Marie Alvarado-Gil, who switched from the Democratic to Republican party Aug. 8. Senate Bill 226, which would strengthen penalties for possession of fentanyl and a firearm, Senate Bill 796, which focused on threats at schools and places of worship; and Senate Bill 820, which would allow for seizure of property at illegal cannabis grows, were all held by the committee.

Another public safety proposal, Senate Bill 1074—known as the SAFE Act and introduced by Senate Minority Leader Sen. Brian W. Jones to limit the placement of sexually violent predators upon release from prison—was also held on the suspense file.

“The SAFE Act is designed to protect our neighborhoods and families from dangerous sexually violent predators, perpetrators of some of the most horrendous and violent sex crimes,” Jones said in an Aug. 14 press release after the bill was killed. “Without the SAFE Act, predators will continue to be dumped wherever is convenient.”

He has introduced similar measures three times, yet none have passed the Legislature.

Child sex trafficking bills had mixed results. Senate Bill 1414—introduced by Sen. Shannon Grove to target those purchasing children for sex—cleared the legislative hurdle, while Sen. Anthony Portantino’s Senate Bill 1128—which would require sex offender registration for unlawful intercourse with a minor—failed to proceed.

Reparations bills were successful in clearing the appropriations committees, including Senate Bills 1331 and 1403, which would establish a fund to pay out reparations and form an agency to oversee dispersal, respectively.

Celebrating the party’s successes, Republicans in the Senate said their measures that passed related to assisting veterans, sexual assault victims, wildfire survivors, and others that will prove beneficial for Californians.

“These are meaningful victories,” Sen. Kelly Seyarto said in an Aug. 16 caucus press release.

“These bills deliver long-overdue justice, essential support to those in need, protection for the vulnerable, transparency, and assistance to our veterans. These are the goals we are here to achieve.”

Among the bills that passed in the committee were Seyarto’s Senate Bills 920 and 978, which help military families find suitable schools and increase access to state budget information, respectively; Grove’s Senate Bill 1043, which aims to increase transparency for behavioral health facilities and was endorsed by Paris Hilton; and Alvarado-Gil’s Senate Bill 268, which makes raping an intoxicated individual a violent felony.

“This is not a victory for me, it is a victory for her, for him, for all the victims of rape who are served half portions of justice by the current system,” Alvarado-Gil said in an Aug. 15 press release. “No rape is less serious than the other. No rape is more acceptable than another.”

She said the bill will help close a loophole that leaves some victims unprotected.

Assembly Bill 3216, authored by Assemblyman Josh Hoover to allow schools to determine whether phones should be allowed on school grounds and how best to regulate them, passed out of the fiscal committee. Gov. Gavin Newsom recently suggested in a letter to district heads that schools should limit access to phones on campuses.

Some hotly contested measures also passed the fiscal committees, including a journalism preservation bill and an AI regulation bill, both of which face stiff opposition from the tech and AI industries, respectively.

For the 555 bills that cleared the fiscal committees, two weeks remain in the session to pass their respective chambers and, if necessary, return to the house of origin to approve amendments.