Before adjourning for Spring Recess last week, the state Senate and Assembly appropriations committees moved a total of 115 bills onto their “suspense files.” What follows is a rather opaque process that could end with roughly a third of those bills killed — away from public view and with little to no debate.
As CalMatters’ Ryan Sabalow explains, any bill estimated to cost at least $50,000 gets placed on the suspense file. Next month, and again in August, the appropriations committees will either move the bills off of “suspense” so they can advance through the Legislature, or hold them — essentially killing those measures for the session.
Last summer the committees nixed about a third of the 830 bills on suspense. The process can be fast-paced, and with few votes recorded it can be difficult for both the public and even lawmakers who authored the measures, to know why bills were spiked.
- Assemblymember Corey Jackson, a Moreno Valley Democrat whose child tax credit bill died last year in the suspense file: “The way we treat the appropriations process is a non-democratic process; I believe that it’s a corrupt process.”
That same summer, other lawmakers and advocates accused Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration of inflating the cost estimates of health care bills in order to block them by way of the suspense process. A spokesperson for the administration said the claim was “outrageous and inaccurate.”
Lorena Gonzalez, a former chairperson of the Assembly Appropriations Committee and current president of the California Labor Federation, does not consider the suspense file process to be secretive, however. She said anyone can review the committees’ fiscal analyses and comment.
The bills placed on suspense last week included measures that would allow homeless students to live out of their cars; require food sold in prison vending machines be priced at market retail price; and create the California Latino Commission.
CalMatters events: Join CalMatters’ Marisa Kendall and policy leaders on April 24 as they tackle what’s working to address homelessness and affordable housing — and what’s not. Register today to attend online or in person at the SAFE Credit Union Convention Center in Sacramento.
And earlier on April 22, Fresnoland and CalMatters’ Yousef Baig are teaming up to explore the future of the High-Speed Rail project with key decision makers and local leaders at the Fresno City College Old Administration Building Auditorium. Register here.
How have Trump’s executive orders and other recent actions affected you? CalMatters is working with public radio partners to gather perspectives across the state. Share your thoughts here.
Other Stories You Should Know
Conflict of interest?
California’s lieutenant governor and 2026 gubernatorial hopeful Eleni Kounalakis has real estate holdings that netted her hundreds of thousands of dollars last year. Though she isn’t prohibited from making money off these properties, the earnings could potentially cause a conflict of interest if she wins her bid for California’s highest office, reports CalMatters’ Alexei Koseff.
In addition to owning a stake in grazing land, solar fields and properties across Northern California and the Central Valley, Kounalakis receives income from three buildings around the state Capitol where interest groups, lobbyists and others with business in state government hold their operations.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Kounalakis’ campaign said if she is elected governor, she will place “any assets that may present a conflict of interest into a blind trust.”
But John Pelissero, the director of government ethics at Santa Clara University, said Kounalakis would have been well-advised to distance herself from these assets as lieutenant governor.
- Pelissero: “If she’s benefiting financially from lobbying, then the optics of it are troubling. It would be reasonable for any member of the public to look at that and say, ‘That’s odd.’”
Newsom allocates money to wildfire prevention
Three months after deadly wildfires swept through Los Angeles County and killed 30 people, Gov. Newsom signed legislation Monday to provide more than $170 million in state funding to help prevent wildfires, writes CalMatters’ Alejandro Lazo.
The money comes from Proposition 4, a $10 billion bond measure voters approved in November. Six conservancies operating under the governor’s Resources Agency will receive the money to manage vegetation removal and forest thinning around their regions. At least half of the money will go to conservancies in Southern California, while a third will go to conservancies in the Sierra Nevada.
The governor also issued an executive order Monday that enables projects funded from the new legislation to benefit from a March emergency proclamation. The proclamation put a temporary statewide pause on certain provisions of two key California environmental laws to speed up wildfire prevention efforts. Some environmental groups have criticized the order.
- Shaye Wolf, climate science director at the Center for Biological Diversity: “This funding doubles down on forest destruction rather than investing in real wildfire safety measures like home hardening in communities.”
And lastly: Funding for dementia research restored
As part of the President Donald Trump administration’s purge of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, the National Institutes of Health terminated in March a University of California researcher’s grant studying dementia. But last week, the agency reversed its decision. Find out more from CalMatters’ Mikhail Zinshteyn.
California Voices
In addition to “soft costs,” such as development fees to local governments, time is a major reason why it is so expensive to develop housing in California, writes Jason Ward, co-director of the RAND Center on Housing and Homelessness.
Other things worth your time:
Newsom OKs $2.8B to close Medicaid funding gap after expanding immigrant coverage // AP News
Newsom shuns Southern CA in public utilities commission appointments // Los Angeles Times
Federal antisemitism probes in CA: Is your college under investigation? // KQED
Trump’s volatile trade policy creates new problems for CA state budget // Los Angeles Times
How Trump administration’s transgender athlete order affects CA high schools // The Mercury News
For CA’s largest public union, telework poses challenge — and opportunity // The Sacramento Bee
Magnitude 5.2 earthquake northeast of San Diego shakes most of Southern CA // The San Diego Union-Tribune
A young mom’s slaying was horrific. Then came the cruelties of a CA court // San Francisco Chronicle
Undocumented workers vital to Fresno restaurants. How much will deportations hurt? // The Fresno Bee
