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The Legislative Bill Room, California State Capitol. (Photo: ca.gov)

Chart of Placeholder Bills in the California Legislature

There is a clear distinction between a ‘spot’ bill and an ‘intent’ bill

By Chris Micheli, September 25, 2024 2:48 pm

As I have previously written, I believe we should use the term “placeholder bill” for those measures that are introduced in the California Legislature which lack substantive language. That is because I believe there is a clear distinction between a “spot” bill, which has technical or nonsubstantive language changes to an existing statute, and an “intent” bill, which has a general or specific statement of legislative intent.

I began tracking four years ago the number of spot and intent bills introduced annually. As a result, I have developed the following tables for the past two legislative sessions:

SPOT BILLS

2021 Session 254 ABs 127 SBs 381 Total
2022 Session 300 ABs 158 SBs 458 Total
2023 Session 373 ABs 122 SBs 495 Total
2024 Session 366 ABs 115 SBs 481 Total

INTENT BILLS

2021 Session 231 ABs 165 SBs 396 Total
2022 Session 121 ABs 60 SBs 181 Total
2023 Session 319 ABs 232 SBs 551 Total
2024 Session 144 ABs 49 SBs 193 Total
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