Looking at 2024 California Legislature’s Bill Introductions

With the February 16 deadline for bill introductions having passed, there were a total of 2,124 bills introduced by yesterday’s deadline for the 2024 Legislative Session, the second and final year of the 2023-24 Session.

Of this total number of bills introduced, there were 1,505 Assembly Bills and 619 Senate Bills.

In addition, of that total, there are 481 spot bills and 193 intent bills, for a total of 674 placeholder bills, which is about 32% of the total bill introductions that lack substantive language upon introduction. (This figure is more in line with historical data, versus last year’s 40% figure.)

Last year, the first year of the 2-year Session, there was a total of 2,632 bills that were introduced in the 2023 Session by the February 17 deadline. As I have previously written, for more than two decades of tracking bill introductions and final actions, the second (even-numbered year) always has fewer bill introductions than the first year. The 2024 Session was not different.

By last year’s February 17, 2023 deadline for introducing new bills, there were 1,751 Assembly Bills and 881 Senate Bills, for a total of 2,632 bills. There were also six special session bills (3 each in the Assembly and Senate). Of those bills introduced, there were 495 spot bills and 551 intent bills between the two houses, for a total of 1,046 placeholder measures. That means 40% of the introduced bills were placeholder measures at the time of introduction.

For comparison purposes, the following is the list of the total number of bills introduced by the two houses by the applicable deadline each February over the past dozen years:

• Total 2024 bill introductions as of the deadline: 2,124
• Total 2023 bill introductions as of the deadline: 2,632
• Total 2022 bill introductions as of the deadline: 2,020
• Total 2021 bill introductions as of the deadline: 2,369
• Total 2020 bill introductions as of the deadline: 2,203
• Total 2019 bill introductions as of the deadline: 2,576
• Total 2018 bill introductions as of the deadline: 2,177
• Total 2017 bill introductions as of the deadline: 2,495
• Total 2016 bill introductions as of the deadline: 1,993
• Total 2015 bill introductions as of the deadline: 2,297
• Total 2014 bill introductions as of the deadline: 1,930
• Total 2013 bill introductions as of the deadline: 2,256

The lowest number of bill introductions during this time in the Senate was 619 this year and the highest was 1,052 (in the 2007 Session). The 2023 total ranked third highest in the past 17 years.

The lowest number of bill introductions during this time in the Assembly was 1,209 (in the 2010 Session) and the highest was 1,833 (in the 2019 Session). The 2023 total ranked second highest in the past 17 years (last year’s total is the exact same number as in the 2007 Session).