Initiative Measure Aims To Retard Gut And Amend Legislation

A reader of the California Constitution would be lead to believe that the course of legislation is orderly and predictable.  Under Article IV, Section 8(b), the legislature may make no law except by statute and no statute except by bill.  Every bill, moreover, must have a single subject and that subject must be expressed in the bill's title.  Cal. Const. Art. IV, § 9.  An author can't simply draft a bill and put it to a vote the next day.  At regular sessions of the legislature, 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 roll call vote entered in the journal, three fourths of the membership concurring.  Cal Const. Art. IV, § 8(a).  Even then, the legislature may not pass a bill unless two additional requirements have been met.  First, the legislature may not pass a bill until the bill with amendments has been printed and distributed to the members.  Cal. Const. Art. IV, § 8(b).  Second, the bill must 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. No bill may be passed until the bill with amendments has been printed and distributed to the members.  Id.

Although the purpose of these requirements is to provide the public with an opportunity to know and comment on pending changes in the law, the legislature has frequently bypassed these requirements by hijacking a bill at the tail end of a session, gutting it and amending in an entirely new text.  The gut and amend technique is the often used when a bill is controversial or likely to generate significant opposition.  Obviously, the practitioners of the gut and amend have no regard for transparency or public input.

Recently, California Secretary of State Alex Padilla cleared an initiative measure that it is intended to address this odious bit of legislative skullduggery.  The initiative would permit the legislature from passing any bill unless it has been in print and published on the Internet for at least 72 hours before the vote, except in cases of public emergency.  The initiative would also allow any person to record legislative proceedings by audio or video means, except closed session proceedings.  Recordings of legislative proceedings could be used for any legitimate purpose, without payment of any fee to the state.

It remains to be seen whether the voters will ever have an opportunity to vote on this measure.  According to the Secretary of State's office, the proponents must collect the signatures of 585,407 registered voters (8% of the total votes cast for Governor in the November 2014 general election) in order to qualify it for the November 2016 ballot. The signatures must be submitted to county elections officials by June 13, 2016.