A sea of empty desks inside the California State Assembly

Using Letters to the Daily Journals for Determining Legislative Intent in California

January 2, 2023 6:53 amJanuary 2, 2023 6:59 am

One method to help ascertain the legislative intent behind a specified measure is a letter that is published in the Assembly Daily Journal or the Senate Daily Journal by the bill’s author. These letters, for which there are many each...

The Order of Bill Authors and Co-Authors

April 8, 2022 6:51 amApril 8, 2022 7:00 am

In the California Legislature, there is an order to listing a bill’s authors and co-authors and there are different types of co-authors. So, what is that order? As an initial matter, there is Joint Rule 10.7, titled “Heading of Bills,”...

Picking the Right Bill Author to Be Your Legislative Champion

January 5, 2020 9:07 amJanuary 5, 2020 9:08 am

It is often a time-consuming and sometimes daunting task to find just the right author for a bill to introduce in the California Legislature. How do some lobbyists pick the right bill author? While there is no cookie-cutter approach to...