Toolkit: How to Influence the Legislative Process
Every year, the California legislature proposes and votes on hundreds of bills that significantly impact students and parents throughout the state. Making your voice heard during the legislative process is an important step in advocating for education reform; knowing how to do it effectively can stop bad bills and help get good legislation passed.
A brief overview of the legislative process follows, with tips on how you can get involved at each step.
Understanding the Legislative Process
California legislators in both houses — the Senate or the Assembly — come up with bill ideas. These bill proposals may originate from the legislators themselves or from outside sources who are considered bill “sponsors.” Bill authors often invite like-minded legislators to be joint authors or coauthor a specific measure. A joint author has full authority over the bill and can present the bill on their own in committee or on the floor; a coauthor does not have this authority.
Legislators submit general concepts or specific wording for the bill to the Office of Legislative Counsel, where attorneys draft or fine-tune the text of the bill to match legal conventions. They also cross-reference legal code sections related to the legislation and review the constitutionality of the proposed law.
Once the Office of Legislative Counsel has produced a clean version of the bill, the legislation is submitted to the respective Senate or Assembly clerks — also known as being “put across the desk” — where it is assigned a bill number and “read” for the first time. The bill will also be put into the legislative database, California Legislative Information, where anyone can search for statutes, track bill proposals or find other information related to the legislative process.
Within days of submitting the bill to the house clerk, the respective Assembly or Senate Rules Committee will assign the bill to one or more standing committees for review and votes based upon the legal code sectional jurisdiction that the bill falls under (for example, the Committee on Education in the Assembly or the Senate Standing Committee on Education).
The bill is then heard by one or more policy and/or fiscal committees. During this step, the bill is debated and discussed, and testimony is heard. Members of the public may also speak out in support or opposition of the bill. Ultimately, the committee votes on whether to pass or reject a bill. Once the bill is successfully passed out of all committees, it goes to the floor of the house of origin (Assembly or Senate) for a full vote.
Making Your Voice Heard
Contacting the Bill’s Author
Any member of the public can learn about a specific bill by contacting the bill author’s legislative office. You can ask for details about the purpose of the bill, and who the sponsors are and which legislators may be co-authors. Each legislator’s office has a staff person assigned to cover one or more policy areas who should be prepared to discuss the bill. The author’s office will usually have a fact sheet about the issue the bill addresses that they can send to you via email.
You can — and should — let the staff person in charge of the bill know your opinion about the bill, but understand that the most effective communication is one that is brief and to the point. If you are seeking amendments for the bill, be very clear about what you want to see changed and explain the reasons for those desired changes.
Participating in the Committee Process
One of the most powerful ways members of the public can impact the future of a bill is to participate in the committee process when the bill is considered. Below are the steps to follow at this stage.
Submitting Written Support or Opposition to a Bill
Find the date of the first committee hearing on the committee’s website. Committees usually accept support or opposition letters and neutral commentary during a window typically a week or so prior to the bill being heard in committee. Most submissions are handled electronically via an online portal available on the committee website or by email. This allows for the committee consultants to process your input or concerns and for the author of the proposal to consider improvements or amendments to the bill. At this step, tell others you know to submit their commentary. You can do this with phone calls, but letters and emails are more effective. These letters should also be brief (two pages maximum but one page is better).
When expressing your opinion about a bill, it should fall into one of these five categories:
support the bill outright,
support the bill with amendments,
neutral position expressing facts and opinions about the bill that may be useful for context of the bill,
oppose the bill unless amended, or
oppose the bill outright.
The most effective comments about a bill clearly communicate which of these positions you are taking. If you are citing sources such as academic studies, be sure to clearly cite the source and provide a link to it. A summary of a larger brief or white paper can reference a larger work but should not be the letter itself.
Testifying in Support/Opposition to the Bill
Committees will allow members of the public to testify about a particular issue the bill addresses, usually allowing the main witnesses (or first few) two minutes to deliver their commentary.
Be sure to state your name, if you’re formally representing an interested group, where you are from, whether you support or oppose the bill. Keep your comments brief and to the point. It is custom and practice of the house that you are speaking to the chair of the committee, not the bill author or even members of the committee. If you are asked a question, you should always direct your answer, “through the chair.” Remember to be respectful and act professionally to ensure your comments are taken seriously.
After public testimony is finished, the bill author gives a final statement to the committee, and the committee votes on the bill. If the bill passes the committee, it might go to other committees (such as the Judiciary, Health or Higher Education Committee) if applicable. The bill will likely go to the House’s Appropriations Committee where they evaluate all bills which may have a fiscal impact to the state. Keep in mind that while they consider the cost to the state government, rather than the economic impact to California as a whole.
Members of the public have the opportunity to submit comments to each committee that hears the bill. For the Appropriations Committee in particular, the committee members read a fiscal impact analysis for each bill, and these are publicly available online. If you believe the analysis is inaccurate, you can communicate this to the committee members or consultants, but be prepared to provide your written material. And be prepared to submit updated letters if the bill is significantly amended. Some committees will only track support and opposition positions if the letter reflects the latest amended version.
The Floor Vote
Once the bill passes out of all its assigned committees, it heads to the House Floor for a vote. During this time between when the legislation leaves the last committee and is scheduled for a House vote is another important opportunity for members of the public to make their voices heard by contacting their legislators and asking them to vote yes or no on the bill. You can do so by calling or emailing your legislator’s office, or mail a letter to their office. You can choose to contact their local office in your area or the Sacramento office emailing. Again, it is important to be brief, to state your reasoning clearly, and make sure they know that you live in the legislator’s district.
At this point, the legislation is “read” a second and third time on the Floor of the House where it was originally introduced (e.g., Assembly or Senate). After the third reading, the author will present the proposal and any member of that House has the opportunity to debate the measure and make a motion on the bill, usually to vote to approve it.
During the debate and vote on the floor among the members of that House, there is no public comment or testimony. If passed, the bill is sent to the other House (e.g, from the Assembly to the Senate or vice versa), where the Rules Committee accepts it and proceeds to assign the bill to a particular committee to begin the review process all over again.
There are rare instances where both houses agree to hear the bill simultaneously and work out the differences concurrently — usually with a budget bill or a complicated or politically-challenging measure. Once this process takes place, a conference committee report is made in lieu of the bill and cannot be subject to amendments on either house floor.
It is possible to contact members of conference committees about your opinion on the bill, but these committee meetings might be scheduled very quickly so it’s easy to miss this opportunity. Staying in contact with the bill author’s staff and signing up for LegInfo updates on the bill’s status can help you stay apprised of fast-moving developments.
Bills must also be amended at least 72 hours before a final floor vote to give the public a chance to weigh in.
Advocacy After the Bill is Passed
If a bill passes both houses of the Legislature, it goes to the governor, who has twelve days to sign or veto the bill. If the governor takes no action, the bill automatically becomes a law without his signature.
During that period, members of the public can send letters and emails to the Governor’s Office to express your opinion about the bill and ask the governor to sign or veto it.