Essay on How to Enact a Bill in Ca

Submitted By jason9908
Words: 2060
Pages: 9

It is not an easy feat to enact new statute in the California legislature. There are many steps to the process, and many more obstacles to overcome throughout the legislative process. The main obstacle to overcome within the California legislative process is that of interest groups, and the lobbyists that they employ. I feel that the best means of enacting new statute to require vehicle venders to maintain a 10% inventory of my solar-electric-gas hybrid car would be to amend the California Constitution. I feel that this would be the best means, even though it requires a 2/3 vote, because of the difficultly future legislatures would have in an attempt to modify the amendment in future years. The first step to enacting an amendment to the California Constitution would to be first to come up with the idea for the amendment, which I have above (this is how all legislation begins). The next step would be to find a Senator, or Assembly member, to author the bill I have proposed. The subject of my bill can have only one subject, which is fine because I only wish to see my fuel saving cars on dealer lots. Once I have found a legislative officer to author my bill, they would send the idea, and language, of the bill to the Legislative Counsel. There the bill would be drafted into the actual bill. The drafted bill then would be returned to the Legislator that authored the bill for introduction in his/hers given house. I would choose to first introduce my bill into the California Senate. I would choose the Senate because of its history of being less bipartisan, and the fact that Senators are commonly more experienced legislators than those in the Assembly. My hope is that the professionalism, experience, and non-bipartisanship of the Senate would help the bill achieve the 2/3 super majority vote it needs to pass, and would facilitate passage in the Assembly. The next process, after drafting the bill, would be to introduce the bill in a Senate meeting for its first reading. In this step the Clerk would read the bill number, the name of the author, and the descriptive title of the bill. Once the bill has been read, it would automatically be electronically sent to the Office of State Printing. Here it would be in print for a minim of 30 days before it could be acted upon. Once the bill has been in print for 30 days, the bill would be sent to the Rules Committee, whom assigns the bill to the appropriate committee according to subject. In this step of the legislative process, I would have to find an interest group that would be willing to lobby the legislator on behalf of my bill. Interest groups are the main source of campaign funds for California legislators, which buys access to them and influences their vote (so let’s hope I find a rich one). Interest Groups also supply volunteers to work on legislative election campaigns, and endorse legislative candidates in elections, helping to get them elected. My bill would first be sent to the transportation committee, which is a Standing Committee, which meets throughout the legislative session and meets at regularly scheduled times. In the committee process the author of the bill would first present the bill; then lobbyists, opponents and supporters of the bill, would testify on behalf of the bill. In committee, the bill can be either passed by a majority vote, defeated by a majority vote, or be passed as amended. Once the bill has been passed through the Standing Committee it would be sent to the Appropriations Committee, because there would have to be state funding for a regulatory group to enforce the statute. Once the bill has passed through the Standing Committee, and the Appropriations Committee, it would be read a second time in the Senate and placed in the Daily File for the third reading. During the third reading the author of the bill explains what the bill entails, and then the bill is discussed by the members of the members of the Senate. Here