Laws in California: Lawmakers overturn more than 270 bills

California lawmakers today eliminated hundreds of costly legislative proposals, including high-profile ones on crime and technology.

While weeding out about a third of 830 bills, House committees rejected a bill that would have banned broadband providers from charging higher fees or offering slower internet service in low-income areas, and another that would have banned law enforcement from relying solely on facial recognition to arrest or search suspects.

The committees also considered several Republican crime bills, including one that would have required stricter background checks before the state. releases sexually violent offenders. That prompted the author, Republican Senate Leader Brian Jones of San Diego, to say that Democratic leaders in the Assembly “are now complicit in helping the Newsom administration protect these offenders over families.”

Also rejected were two bills by the youngest Republican senator, Marie Alvarado-Gil of Modesto: one increases the severity of the offense for making threats in schools or places of worship, and one criminalizes the possession of fentanyl while armed.

Other highly publicized bills, however, survived today's hearings – much to the relief of some advocates who had fought for their causes for years.

Chris Lodgson, an organizer with the Coalition for a Just and Equitable California, said he barely slept all night with nervous anticipation. He and a handful of others from the Bay Area and Stockton had come to the Assembly hearing to watch the results of three reparations bills, including Senate Bill 1403 by Democratic Sen. Steve Bradford of Inglewood, which creates the California American Freedmen Affairs Agency.

As each of their bills was discussed in the rapid reading, the organizers shook hands, breathed a sigh of relief – and after all three bills were passed, some burst into tears.

Lodgson said the bills represent a historic moment: “For reparations to be effective, sustainable and successful, we must not only focus specifically on this unique American community of descendants, but we also need new institutions, new resources and new ideas. Today we move one step closer to that reality.”

The suspense files hurdle occurs twice a year, when the two budget committees churn through hundreds of bills with a price tag ($50,000 or more from the general fund, $150,000 or more from a special fund) with no discussion and few recorded votes. In addition to weeding out costly bills, it is also a notorious way for lawmakers to kill politically sensitive bills.

Today, each committee decided the fate of bills passed by the other chamber. The Senate committee held up 174 of 515 Assembly bills, and the Assembly committee held up about 100 of 313 Senate bills—a total of 33%.

That's comparable to the 32 percent of 1,009 bills considered in the suspense file hearings in May, but higher than the 25 percent average over the past decade, according to lobbyist Chris Micheli.

An important topic this year: the state’s budget crisis.

Buffy Wicks, chair of the Legislature's budget committee, an Oakland Democrat, began the hearing by reminding people that in June, Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature agreed to a budget that closed a $47 billion deficit for next year. Wicks said the budget situation “weighs heavily” on the committee.

Other bills that did not survive would have included:

One of the most closely watched bills — which would require Google and Meta to pay publishers for using news content — has been referred to the Senate Rules Committee, giving the bill's author, Wicks, its supporters and its opponents — a powerful coalition of tech companies — more time to negotiate.

The more than 500 bills that passed today still need to receive final approval before the Legislature adjourns on August 31 to land on Newsom's desk. The costs of the bills he signed will be factored into the governor's budget proposal in January.

While the governor's office did not comment on the suspense file, it pointed to its July 18 veto of AB 1272 – a bill that would have required the State Water Resources Control Board to adopt guidelines for water diversion and use: “It is important to remain disciplined when considering bills with significant financial impacts that are not included in the budget.”

CalMatters reporter Briana Mendez-Padilla contributed to this story.