BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 71
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 71 (Huber)
As Introduced December 20, 2010
2/3 vote
ELECTIONS 7-0 APPROPRIATIONS 17-0
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|Ayes:|Fong, Logue, Bonilla, |Ayes:|Fuentes, Harkey, |
| |Hall, Mendoza, Swanson, | |Blumenfield, Bradford, |
| |Valadao | |Charles Calderon, Campos, |
| | | |Davis, Donnelly, Gatto, |
| | | |Hall, Hill, Lara, |
| | | |Mitchell, Nielsen, Norby, |
| | | |Solorio, Wagner |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | | | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY : Requires the Secretary of State (SOS) to create a
report each calendar quarter that identifies the bills that were
lobbied during the prior calendar quarter and the lobbyist
employers who lobbied on each of those bills. Specifically,
this bill :
1)Requires the SOS, not later than 90 days following the end of
each calendar quarter, to display on his or her Internet Web
site a list of the lobbying interests containing a specific
reference to a bill number that were reported on a lobbying
disclosure report, accompanied by a list of all lobbyist
employers who reported each of those lobbying interests for
the prior calendar quarter.
2)Clarifies that when a filer describes his or her lobbying
interests on a periodic lobbying report, the lobbying
interests shall include the bill number, if any, of
legislation lobbied for or against during the reporting
period.
3)Makes other technical and corresponding changes.
EXISTING LAW requires the SOS to maintain on the Internet an
updated list of lobbyists, lobbying firms, and lobbyist
employers.
AB 71
Page 2
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, costs to the SOS will depend on the type of
information system developed to review, sort, and post the
lobbying reports online. Lobbyist filings per quarter currently
exceed 3,000. To review, sort, and manually enter these filings
into the database, generate a report and post on the SOS Web
site will cost up to $100,000 annually. A more advanced system
allowing users to search lobbying firms by entering a specific
bill number would entail one-time costs of $150,000 and up to
$100,000 annually. A completely automated system that sorts
electronically-filed documents would cost about $500,000
one-time for system development with minor ongoing costs.
COMMENTS : According to the author:
During the 2007-2008 Legislative Session, special
interests spent $558 million to influence the
legislative process. While existing law requires
disclosure, the way the state provides this
information makes it difficult for the public to
identify what legislation lobbyists are trying to
influence. Currently, lobbying records listed online
are not linked to an issue. The only way to determine
which lobbyists are working for or against specific
legislation is to spend hours viewing or photocopying
hundreds of lobbying disclosure reports, search each
and every report and build a list cross-referenced
with over 3,000-4,000 bills introduced in the
Legislature every two years. AB 71 would require the
Secretary of State to create an issue-by-issue list
that details online all lobbying interests that tried
to influence the decisions made on a specific piece of
legislation.
This bill is similar to AB 1274 (Huber) of 2009-10 which was
approved by the Assembly, but was held on the Senate
Appropriations Committee's suspense file.
California voters passed an initiative, Proposition 9, in 1974
that created the Fair Political Practices Commission and
codified significant restrictions and prohibitions on
candidates, officeholders and lobbyists. That initiative is
commonly known as the Political Reform Act (PRA). Amendments to
the PRA that are not submitted to the voters, such as those
AB 71
Page 3
contained in this bill, must further the purposes of the
initiative and require a two-thirds vote of both houses of the
Legislature.
Analysis Prepared by : Ethan Jones / E. & R. / (916) 319-2094
FN: 0000889