January 1, 2023
Golden State Republican Women
Janet Price, President
Submitted by the GSRW Legislative Analyst Committee
Karen Contreras, Lou Ann Flaherty and Elaine Freeman,
California Legislature Starts January 3, 2024
The California legislature is about to start a new session. Although the system appears chaotic, their schedule is defined and detailed below.
January 1, all new statutes, the bills that the Governor signed from the 2023 session, take effect. The 2024 session officially starts on Wednesday, January 3 and the legislators reconvene. This is the second year of a two-year session. What defines the two-yearsession is the term for elected Assembly members. 2024 begins their second year.
A significant date is January 10 when the Governor must submit a draft budget to the legislators for their review and begin negotiations. This year, the State has a $61 billion dollar deficit (plus or minus). Keep in mind that at this time last year (2023), the Governor was looking at a $100 billion dollar surplus so that is a swing or deficit of $161 billion. It will be interesting to see who wins and who loses in the budget process.
The dates that legislators must adhere to are:
February 16, the last day for bills to be introduced by the Assembly and Senate. Assembly bills are reviewed by their committees and then forwarded to the Senate. Bills in the Senate are reviewed by Senate committees then sent to the Assembly.
March 22, each house must pass their bills out.
By May 3, each house must pass or reject bills introduced in their house.
May 10, a big day requiring the final budget to be passed by the Legislature and must be submitted to the Governor on May 11.
By May 24 each house has to pass or reject bills in the other house.
June 21, the last day for each house to pass bills introduced in the second house.
August 6, all policy Committees are to be heard and report to fiscal committees on bills introduced in their house. This is where “trailer bills” which are bills not heard by committees in either house but are supposed to deal with only spending issues tied to the budget. However, it has become common for these “trailer bills” to include policy issues.
August 31, the last day for each house to pass bills and the Governor has until September 30 to sign, veto or allow bills to become law without his signature.
Legislative Portal links- Express your support or opposition to a bill or directly to the Legislative committee currently reviewing it (as an individual, not as a member of RW or GSRW)– click here, or the bill’s author- click here, enter your bill # and look for tab at top of the bill page labeled”Comments to Author”
