Political science

The California Legislature Differences from the U.S. Congress

Equal Bicameral

• Lower house is the Assembly • 80 members elected every 2 years • Each district has about 450,000 constituents (700,000 for the U.S. House of

Representatives)

• Upper house is the Senate • 40 members serve for 4 years

• Half run each 2 years • Each district has about 900,000 constituent

• Term limits • Legislators are limited to a total of 12 years in the legislature • May serve in one or both houses

• Only about 1/3 of bills become laws

Leadership

• Speaker of the Assembly is much more powerful than the Speaker of the House: • Controls committee appointments

• Present Speaker is John Perez (new Speaker will be Toni Atkins)

• President Pro tem in the Senate not as powerful • Shares power with rules committee

• Became more influential under old term limits rules because Senators could serve for 8 years (as opposed to the 6 for Assembly)

Other features

• Governor may use the line item veto for an appropriations bill

• State legislature is less visible to voters than Congress (media rarely covers it)

• State legislature is not involved in judicial appointments

• No filibuster

• Initiative process means that legislature doesn’t have a monopoly on legislation (for good or ill)

• Seniority plays a much smaller role

Problems

• Term limits • Never develop sufficient expertise

• Especially a problem for leadership

• Less willing to compromise because they don’t have a long working relationship with other legislators

• Cedes power to bureaucrats & lobbyists • Has contributed to a rise in minority representation

• E.g., Latino legislators increased from 6% in 1990 to 23% today

• Gridlock over taxation • 2/3 vote required for increasing taxes by state legislature (Prop. 13)

• Staff slashed by 40% in 1990 (first term limits initiative)

The bright side

• Term limits have contributed to a rise in minority representation • E.g., Latino legislators increased from 6% in 1990 to 23% today

• (see NCSL web site for more demographic information)

• No filibuster

• 2/3 requirement for passing state budget removed in 2010

• Districts now drawn by a citizen commission rather than by the legislature

• Open primary encourages less extremism