https://soundcloud.com/capimpactca/an-overview-of-governor-newsoms-2019-bill-actions

Now that the deadline for Governor Newsom to act on the legislation that made it to his desk has passed, we can take a brief overview of how he acted on the bills that made it to the Governor’s desk in his first year in office.

In total, 1,042 bills – out of 2,625 that were introduced – made it to the Governor’s desk. Of that 1,042, 740 were acted upon in the final month of the 2019 legislative session. As a result, 40% of the bills introduced made it to Governor Newsom’s desk, which is about the average. 33% of the bills introduced were signed into law and 6.5% of the bills introduced were vetoed. The percentage of introduced bills being signed is down compared to Governor Jerry Brown’s final year in office in 2018 (33% signed into law in 2019 compared to 45% in 2018), and Governor Newsom’s veto rate was also lower the former Governor Brown’s in 2018 (6.5% vetoed this year compared to 9% last year).

Of the 1,042 bills that reached Governor Newsom’s desk, 870 bills were signed. Of those that were signed into law 66% were Assembly Bills, of which 83% were authored by Democrats, 9% were authored by Republicans, and 8% were committee bills. The remaining 34% of bills signed into law originated in the Senate. Of the SBs, 76% were authored by Democrats, 10% were authored by Republicans, and 14% were committee bills.

On the other hand, Governor Newsom vetoed 172 bills that reached his desk. Of those, 71% were ABs. Of the ABs, 88.5% were authored by Democrats and 11.5% were authored by Republicans. Looking at the Senate Bills that were vetoed, we see that 84% of the vetoed SBs were authored by Democrats and 16% were authored by Republicans.