How to Use the California Legislative Index

According to the Office of Legislative Counsel, which produces the legislative publications, the Legislative Index (often referred to as the “Index”) is a compilation of all legislative measures for the current Legislative Session in the form of a subject matter index.

Joint Rule 13.1. provides: “The Legislative Counsel shall provide for the periodic publication of a cumulative Legislative Index, which shall include tables of sections affected by pending legislation. The State Printer shall print the Legislative Index in the quantities, and at the times, determined by the Secretary of the Senate and the Chief Clerk of the Assembly. The costs of that printing shall be paid from the legislative printing appropriation.”

This legislative publication provides an index of the subject matter of every bill, constitutional amendment, concurrent resolution, and joint resolution, both as introduced and as amended. Index entries are not removed from the index when the subject matter is deleted from the measure in the course of passage.

Online, the Office of Legislative Counsel provides a Legislative Index, Prior Sessions, which are the final editions of the Legislative Index beginning with the 2017-18 Legislative Session.

The Legislative Index looks like the following: