Crunch Time Begins for Calif. Lawmakers

It’s finally the time of year when committee hearings come to an end, and all-day floor sessions begin – day after day, until lawmakers adjourn at the end of next week.  But they’ve got some big issues to tackle first – none bigger than prisons.  Two competing plans propose different ways of responding to a federal court order requiring the state to reduce overcrowding in its prisons.

Other bills the fates of which are still up in the air include fracking regulations, a minimum wage increase, several gun and ammunition control measures, and changes to the California Environmental Quality Act.

And there’s always the chance that brand-new bills will emerge out of thin air at the eleventh hour through the process known as “gut-and-amend.”