California Legislature sets new limit for how many bills lawmakers can file

Four thousand eight hundred twenty one: That’s the number of bills California lawmakers introduced in the last legislative session. Leaders say that’s too many and are imposing new limits. 

As of last year, assembly members could file a maximum of 50 bills and senators 40. Now, they’re both limited to 35 after both chambers adopted new rules for the legislative session that started this week.

Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas said that will help lawmakers narrow their focus — and suggests they spend their time on bills that promote affordability. The Salinas Democrat cited a need for legislation that lowers energy costs and helps build more housing. 

“Everyone in this room has good and important ideas, but we all know that our time and energy here are limited,” he told the Assembly on Monday after new members were sworn in. 

Alex Vassar, a spokesman for the California State Library, said the new bill limit might drive lawmakers to pack a similar volume of ideas into fewer bills. 

“So instead of trying to solve one problem with a bill, maybe a legislator will introduce a bill that's a little bit bigger and tries to address two separate issues,” he said. 

The Legislature first put bill limits in place in the 1990s, and they’ve fluctuated since then. 

Vassar said limits help with staff capacity. 

“Each bill, as it heads through committee, as it goes to the floor, it's analyzed by staff,” he explained. “The more bills that are going through the system, the more work it is for staff.”

Vassar added that when there’s a high volume of bills, they don’t all get adequate attention. 

“Limiting the number of bills really does allow staff and members to spend more time thinking on the individual proposals,” he said. 

Just under half of the bills proposed in the last session made it to Governor Gavin Newsom for a signature or veto.

The most ever filed in the California Legislature was nearly 7,000 bills in 1957.