California, like many other states, occasionally establishes pilot projects via legislation. For comparison, pilot projects are rarely used by Congress but are more regularly used by state legislatures.

So what is a pilot project? It is, essentially, a temporary program established by statute which is often combined with a study and a sunset date.

What is California’s SRIA process?

SRIA stands for a Standardized Regulatory Impact Analysis. It’s required to be done for any so-called major regulations. Under existing law, all regulations are required to have an analysis of the potential economic impact of a proposed regulation. In 2011, the Legislature determined that for financially impactful regulations, which

Today we’ll take a look at what Ray LeBov and I consider the key elements of successful lobbying in California. The first of these four is the Four P’s.

The Four P’s are: Process, players, policy, and personality.

  • Process – Understand the rules governing the legislative process in the Constitution, the Government Code, the Joint

I recently took a look at how the number of bills that Governor Newsom signed and vetoed compared to previous years in his administration and previous governors. Today let’s look at some themes that emerged for why he vetoed the bills that he did.

The most common reason – which is not unique to

With all the legislative deadlines completed, and all the bills signed or vetoed, we can now take a look at the 2021 legislative session by the numbers. Just more than 800 bills reached the Governor’s desk, including close to 700 bills that were passed in the final month of the legislative session.

2,421 bills

Another topic that Ray LeBov and I have put thought into is advice for organizations hiring a lobbyist. There are numerous things to think about when you’re hiring an employee lobbyist or a contract lobbyist, and we offer some of our best practice suggestions for navigating that process.

Regardless of the type of individual

One of the most critical things for a lobbyist to get right is the lobbyist-client relationship. This is something my colleague Ray LeBov and I have written about before and the most important advice we can impart is that expectations need to be set early by both parties – what does the client expect

Over the years, my colleague, Ray LeBov, and I have seen some mistakes that are common among new lobbyists but have also been made by more experienced advocates as well. I’ll detail some of those here.

Not reading the bill

Don’t rely on someone else’s description or understanding of the bill. Read the bill

Today we’ll take a look at some key differences in four common legislative floor operations at the end of the legislative session versus earlier in the session.

Concurrence

Under Assembly Rule 77, a vote to concur in any Senate amendments to an Assembly Bill must meet the same vote threshold required for the bill

With the 2021 legislative session at a close, we can now turn our attention to the actions Governor Newsom can take on the bills that were passed at the conclusion of the session on September 10. Governor Newsom can consider bills under October 10.

As a quick reminder, there are three actions that the