Can Proposition 54 and the 72-house in Print Rule Be Waived?

Proposition 54, which was enacted by the voters at the November 2016 general election, adopted constitutional and statutory changes dealing with bill amendments and recordings of legislative proceedings.

The proponents of Prop. 54 (in ballot arguments) were specifically concerned with “gut-and-amend” bills that contain “last-minute amendments to bills [that] are frequently used to push through political favors without comment or with little advance notice. Moreover, complex bills are often passed before members of the Legislature have any realistic opportunity to review or debate them, resulting in ill-considered legislation.”

Article IV, Section 8 was amended by Prop. 54 to provide (additions are in italics):

(a) At regular sessions no bill other than the budget bill may be heard or acted on by committee or either house until the 31st day after the bill is introduced unless the house dispenses with this requirement by rollcall vote entered in the journal, three fourths of the membership concurring.

(b) (1) The Legislature may make no law except by statute and may enact no statute except by bill. No bill may be passed unless it is read by title on 3 days in each house except that the house may dispense with this requirement by rollcall vote entered in the journal, two thirds of the membership concurring.

(2) No bill may be passed or ultimately become a statute unless the bill with any amendments has been printed, distributed to the members, and published on the Internet, in its final form, for at least 72 hours before the vote, except that this notice period may be waived if the Governor has submitted to the Legislature a written statement that dispensing with this notice period for that bill is necessary to address a state of emergency, as defined in paragraph (2) of subdivision (c) of Section 3 of Article XIII B, that has been declared by the Governor, and the house considering the bill thereafter dispenses with the notice period for that bill by a separate rollcall vote entered in the journal, two thirds of the membership concurring, prior to the vote on the bill.

(3) No bill may be passed unless, by rollcall vote entered in the journal, a majority of the membership of each house concurs.

As a result, the final form of bills must be in print for 72 hours (which is deemed to be publication on the Internet) before the bills can be voted upon by legislators on the Floors of the State Assembly and State Senate. Two common questions are being raised at this time:

1. Does Prop. 54 apply to all legislative measures? No, it only applies to bills, which either create statutes or place bond measures on the ballot. Prop. 54 does not apply to an ACA or SCA.
2. Can Prop. 54 be waived for legislative ballot measure deals? I don’t think so. The provision in Article 4, Section 8(b)(2) has only one instance in which it can be waived – a gubernatorial written statement to the Legislature that dispensing with the 72 hours is necessary to address a state of emergency per Article 13B, Section 3(c)(2), and a 2/3 vote of both houses is required. The term “emergency” is defined as “the existence, as declared by the Governor, of conditions of disaster or of extreme peril to the safety of persons and property within the State, or parts thereof, caused by such conditions as attack or probable or imminent attack by an enemy of the United States, fire, flood, drought, storm, civil disorder, earthquake, or volcanic eruption.” That limited instance does not appear to apply to a legislative deal on one of the pending ballot measures. By the way, the only time this exception has occurred was on March 16, 2020 to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and it was used for 2 bills enacted on that day for emergency appropriations.