SCA 14: Legislative procedure.

Session Year: 2015-2016
House: Senate

Version:

The California Constitution requires that the proceedings of each house of the Legislature and the committees thereof be open and public, except as specified.

This measure, the California Legislature Transparency Act, would require the Legislature, commencing January 1, 2018, to make audiovisual recordings of the open and public proceedings of each house of the Legislature and the committees thereof, as prescribed. prescribed, and to authorize members of the public who attend those proceedings to make recordings of and to broadcast the proceedings, as prescribed. The measure would require the Legislature to provide these its recordings to the Legislative Counsel for purposes of making the recordings promptly available to the public and would require that the recordings remain reasonably accessible to the public for not less than 20 years. The measure would require the Legislature to enact laws to implement these provisions, provided that the bills enacting such laws would be required to be published in final form on the Internet for at least 12 days prior to the final vote in each house.

The California Constitution prohibits either house from passing a bill until certain requirements are met, including that a committee or house not hear or act on the bill until the 31st day after it is introduced and that the bill with amendments has been printed and distributed to the Members of the Legislature.

This measure would additionally prohibit the Legislature from passing a bill unless the bill has been published on the Internet in its final form for at least 72 hours prior to the final vote in the second house. This measure would require the house of origin to pass a bill by a second rollcall vote following the final vote in the second house if the bill, as first passed in the house of origin, had not been published on the Internet in its final form for at least 72 hours prior to that vote and was not amended thereafter in the second house. The

This measure would authorize a committee to hear or act on a bill on the 16th day after the bill is introduced. The measure would also prohibit a bill from being passed in either house until the bill, in the form to be voted on, has been made available to the public by publishing it on the Internet for at least 72 hours before the vote. The measure would authorize the Legislature to waive these requirements, as prescribed, if specified requirements are met with respect to a state of emergency declared by the Governor.

Discussed in Hearing