Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

Corporation for Public Broadcasting to Close After Funding Cut, in Blow to Local Media

14 hours ago

‘Freedom Week’: California Gun Owners Rush to Buy Ammo After Court Ruling

16 hours ago

Wall Street Selloff Sparked by Trump Tariffs, Amazon Results, Weak Payrolls

17 hours ago

US Construction Spending Extends Decline in June

17 hours ago

Global Shares in Red After US Jobs Data, Trump’s Tariff Salvo

17 hours ago

Construction of $200M Trump Ballroom at the White House to Begin in September

2 days ago

US Senate Committee Backs $1 Billion for Ukraine in Pentagon Spending Bill

2 days ago

Trump Says Mexico Trade Deal Extended for 90 Days

2 days ago

Fresno Unified Trustee Susan Wittrup Responds to $162,000 Payout

2 days ago
CA Lawmakers Quietly Sideline Bills in Secretive Suspense Process
gvw_calmatters
By CalMatters
Published 4 months ago on
April 15, 2025

State senators meet during a suspense file hearing at the Capitol Annex Swing Space on O Street in Sacramento, Aug. 15, 2024. (CalMatters/Fred Greaves)

Share

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

In just 24 minutes and without any debate, the most powerful committee in the state Senate last week moved 33 bills from public view into a secretive process that will decide whether the measures live or die.

By , CalMatters

Two days later, its sister committee in the Assembly moved 82 of its bills in under two minutes to the same secretive, uncertain future.

If history is any guide, between a quarter to a third of those bills will be killed next month. For most of the bills, no one but lobbyists, a handful of capital staffers, lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s policy team will know exactly why.

So it goes with the Senate and Assembly’s appropriations committees, the gatekeepers for bills proposing to spend taxpayer money. The committees’ “suspense files” are where hundreds of bills die quietly each year. The fates of the bills that were moved to the file last week – along with dozens of others that will be added later – will be announced in a single hearing on what’s known as “suspense day” scheduled for May.

As CalMatters has reported, members of the Legislature almost never vote in public hearings to kill bills by attaching their names to a formal “no” vote. For instance, of 2,403 bills that died in the two-year session that concluded last fall, only 25 were killed by a majority of lawmakers voting “no.” Instead, bills tend to die behind the scenes. It can be incredibly difficult for members of the public to learn who killed a measure and why.

The appropriations committees’ suspense files are the most notorious example.

‘A Corrupt Process,’ Says Dem Lawmaker Corey Jackson

The opaque process frustrates some lawmakers, including Assemblymember Corey Jackson, a Democrat representing Moreno Valley. He has criticized Democratic leadership for not doing more to address homelessness, inequality and people moving out of state.

“The way we treat the appropriations process is a non-democratic process; I believe that it’s a corrupt process,” Jackson said.

Per decades-old policy, any bill that’s estimated to cost taxpayers at least $50,000 gets placed on the suspense file. Twice a year – once in May and again in August – the committees announce which bills move bills off of “suspense” and can advance through the Legislature.

Last summer, the committees culled about a third of the 830 bills that had been placed on suspense. Some of them were controversial.

Republicans were outraged that the committee didn’t vote on their bill seeking to add new requirements before state officials could place “sexually violent predators” in communities.

The Senate’s top Republican, Sen. Brian Jones of San Diego, accused Democratic leaders of protecting “predators over families.”

But some Democrats, including Jackson, also were frustrated. Jackson had a child tax credit bill die in the suspense file. Asked last week if he knew who was responsible for killing the bill, Jackson said, “That’s part of the process. You don’t know in many cases.”

When Cost Estimates Kill California Bills

Other Democrats last summer also accused the Newsom administration of inflating cost estimates to kill health care legislation the governor’s team didn’t like through the suspense process. The Newsom administration insisted its estimates were accurate.

“The administration looks forward to tackling some of the most pressing policy challenges with the Legislature, but doing so within the confines of our budgetary constraints,” Christian Beltran, legislative director for Newsom’s Department of Finance, told the Senate Appropriations Committee last week.

Last week, the 82 bills that moved to the Assembly appropriations suspense file included measures on overnight parking for homeless students, vending machine prices in prisons and corporate homeownership.

In the Senate committee, measures on indigenous missing persons cases, gun-dealership inspections and the formation of a California Latino Commission were all moved to the suspense file.

Now the behind-the-scenes work begins for lobbyists such as Chris Micheli, who is advocating for a bill that was moved last week to suspense.

“You’re going to have conversations with the staff of the committee and the members of the committee, particularly the chair, who is most influential in terms of what bills, you know, stay or go,” Micheli said.

Appropriations Chairs Make Hard Calls

Former chairs of the appropriations committees – called “approps” in Capitol shorthand – told CalMatters it can be a difficult position to be in. The chairs often have to make tough decisions to kill particularly controversial, poorly thought out or expensive bills that the leaders of the other legislative committees didn’t want to make.

Lawmakers sit a row of green chairs, in front of American and California state flags during a hearing. A lawmaker in the middle is wearing a pink jacket, while lawmaker to her left is wearing a green one, and the lawmaker to her right is wearing a bright orange jacket.
Assemblymember meet during a suspense file hearing at the Capitol Annex Swing Space in Sacramento, on Aug. 15, 2024. (CalMatters/Fred Greaves)

 

“I would get angry with people,” said Lorena Gonzalez, a former Democratic assemblymember from San Diego who is now president of the California Labor Federation. “I’d have policy (committee) chairs come to me and they’re like, ‘Oh, I couldn’t kill these. But here are the bills I think you should kill.’ I’m like, you know, ‘Grow some balls.’ ”

Plus, chairs also have to deal with colleagues who take it personally when their favorite bills are killed.

Mike Gatto, a former Democratic Assembly appropriations chair from Los Angeles, said he faced intense blowback from some colleagues. He said one fellow Democrat targeted him during a reelection campaign after Gatto killed his bill in suspense. Another retaliated by killing one of Gatto’s bills in a different committee.

“My mandate was to engage in a cost-benefit analysis for the good of the state, to make sure that we did not spend any more than we had,” Gatto said. “Maybe I took the mandate too seriously, or maybe I was not that great with managing human relationships, but I ended up having a number of very upset colleagues.”

Gonzalez said she didn’t think it was fair to call the suspense file process secretive. She said anyone can review the committee’s fiscal estimates and its analyses and weigh in.

But in the end, it’s the chairperson who usually has to take the heat.

“‘I think everybody leaves being approps chair with a lot of people upset with them,” she said.

Digital Democracy transcription manager Hans Poschman contributed to this story.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

US Judges Speak Out About Death Threats, ‘Swattings,’ and ‘Pizza Doxings’

DON'T MISS

It’s Raining Cash for Some 2026 Fresno City Council Hopefuls

DON'T MISS

Fresno County Finds E. Coli at Avocado Lake. Don’t Swim There

DON'T MISS

Trump Fires US Labor Department’s Statistical Leader After Weaker Than Expected Jobs Report

DON'T MISS

Corporation for Public Broadcasting to Close After Funding Cut, in Blow to Local Media

DON'T MISS

Trump Eyes Bringing Azerbaijan, Central Asian Nations Into Abraham Accords, Sources Say

DON'T MISS

Farmers in West Fresno County to Consider 200% Groundwater Pumping Fee Hike

DON'T MISS

Trump Orders Nuclear Submarines Moved Near Russia

DON'T MISS

Fresno Councilmember Vang Accused of Conflict of Interest in Budget Vote

DON'T MISS

Ghislaine Maxwell Moved From Florida Prison to Lower-Security Facility

UP NEXT

Fresno County Finds E. Coli at Avocado Lake. Don’t Swim There

UP NEXT

Trump Fires US Labor Department’s Statistical Leader After Weaker Than Expected Jobs Report

UP NEXT

Corporation for Public Broadcasting to Close After Funding Cut, in Blow to Local Media

UP NEXT

Trump Eyes Bringing Azerbaijan, Central Asian Nations Into Abraham Accords, Sources Say

UP NEXT

Farmers in West Fresno County to Consider 200% Groundwater Pumping Fee Hike

UP NEXT

Trump Orders Nuclear Submarines Moved Near Russia

UP NEXT

Fresno Councilmember Vang Accused of Conflict of Interest in Budget Vote

UP NEXT

Ghislaine Maxwell Moved From Florida Prison to Lower-Security Facility

UP NEXT

Trump Escalates Trade War With Canada Following Palestine Stance

UP NEXT

Valley Crime Stoppers’ Most Wanted Person of the Day: Scott Oscar Whitehead

Trump Fires US Labor Department’s Statistical Leader After Weaker Than Expected Jobs Report

13 hours ago

Corporation for Public Broadcasting to Close After Funding Cut, in Blow to Local Media

14 hours ago

Trump Eyes Bringing Azerbaijan, Central Asian Nations Into Abraham Accords, Sources Say

14 hours ago

Farmers in West Fresno County to Consider 200% Groundwater Pumping Fee Hike

14 hours ago

Trump Orders Nuclear Submarines Moved Near Russia

14 hours ago

Fresno Councilmember Vang Accused of Conflict of Interest in Budget Vote

15 hours ago

Ghislaine Maxwell Moved From Florida Prison to Lower-Security Facility

15 hours ago

Trump Escalates Trade War With Canada Following Palestine Stance

15 hours ago

Valley Crime Stoppers’ Most Wanted Person of the Day: Scott Oscar Whitehead

16 hours ago

‘Freedom Week’: California Gun Owners Rush to Buy Ammo After Court Ruling

16 hours ago

US Judges Speak Out About Death Threats, ‘Swattings,’ and ‘Pizza Doxings’

United States judges spoke out against the unprecedented surge in violence and disturbing threats made against members of the judicial branc...

10 hours ago

United States judges speaking about receiving violent threats over rulings
10 hours ago

US Judges Speak Out About Death Threats, ‘Swattings,’ and ‘Pizza Doxings’

Fresno city hall with council campaign finance money
12 hours ago

It’s Raining Cash for Some 2026 Fresno City Council Hopefuls

E. coli identified at avocado lake
13 hours ago

Fresno County Finds E. Coli at Avocado Lake. Don’t Swim There

President Donald Trump speaks at a dinner with Republican Senators, in the State Dining Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 18, 2025. (Reuters File)
13 hours ago

Trump Fires US Labor Department’s Statistical Leader After Weaker Than Expected Jobs Report

Breaking News from Reuters
14 hours ago

Corporation for Public Broadcasting to Close After Funding Cut, in Blow to Local Media

President Donald Trump delivers remarks in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 31, 2025. (Reuters File)
14 hours ago

Trump Eyes Bringing Azerbaijan, Central Asian Nations Into Abraham Accords, Sources Say

14 hours ago

Farmers in West Fresno County to Consider 200% Groundwater Pumping Fee Hike

President Donald Trump speaks after disembarking Marine One, as he departs for Scotland, at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S., July 25, 2025. (Reuters/Evelyn Hockstein)
14 hours ago

Trump Orders Nuclear Submarines Moved Near Russia

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend