BILL ANALYSIS �
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CONSENT
Bill No: SCR 83
Author: Monning (D)
Amended: As introduced
Vote: 21
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE : 7-0, 4/1/14
AYES: Jackson, Anderson, Corbett, Lara, Leno, Monning, Vidak
SUBJECT : California Law Revision Commission
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This resolution authorizes the California Law
Revision Commission (CLRC) to continue its studies on whether
specified laws should be revised.
ANALYSIS :
Existing law:
1.Authorizes the CLRC to study topics approved by concurrent
resolution of the Legislature.
2.Prohibits an employee or member of the CLRC, with respect to
any proposed legislation concerning matters assigned to the
commission for study, advocate for the passage or defeat of
the legislation by the Legislature or the approval or veto of
the legislation by the Governor or appear before any committee
of the Legislature unless requested to do so by the committee
or its chairperson.
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SCR 83
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This resolution:
1.Reauthorizes the CLRC's study of 23 specified topics.
2.Requires that before commencing work on any project within the
calendar of topics authorized or directed for study by the
Legislature, the CLRC shall submit a detailed description of
the scope of work to the Chairs and Vice Chairs of the
Committees on Judiciary of the Senate and Assembly, and any
other policy committee that has jurisdiction over the subject
matter of the study, and if during the course of the project
there is a major change to the scope of work, submit a
description of the change.
3.Provides that CLRC staff is invited to appear and testify at
any committee hearing of a bill to implement a CLRC
recommendation, for the purpose of explaining the
recommendation and answering questions posed by the committee
members, provided that the staff may not advocate for the
passage or defeat of the legislation.
4.Requests that the CLRC provide a copy of a recommendation to
each member of a policy committee that is hearing a bill that
would implement the recommendation.
Background
The CLRC was created in 1953 and tasked with the responsibility
for a continuing substantive review of California statutory and
decisional law. The CLRC studies the law in order to discover
defects and make related recommendations to the Legislature for
needed reforms.
The CLRC's enabling statute recognizes two types of topics the
CLRC is authorized to study: (1) those that the CLRC identifies
for study and lists in the Calendar of Topics that it reports to
the Legislature; and (2) those that the Legislature assigns to
the CLRC directly, by statute or concurrent resolution. In the
past, the bulk of the CLRC's study topics have come through the
first route - matters identified by the CLRC and approved by the
Legislature. Once the CLRC identifies a topic for study, it
cannot begin to work on the topic until the Legislature, by
concurrent resolution, authorizes the CLRC to conduct the study.
Direct legislative assignments have become much more common in
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recent years, and many of the CLRC's recent studies were
directly assigned by the Legislature.
Comments
SCR 83 is the biennial concurrent resolution authorizing the
CLRC to study selected topics. According to the author, this
resolution would continue the CLRC's existing study authority of
23 specific topics, direct the CLRC to provide a detailed
description of any new study to the Chairs and Vice Chairs of
the Judiciary Committees and any policy committees that have
jurisdiction over the subject matter of the study, and provide
guidance relating to the distribution of CLRC reports and
appearance of CLRC staff as witnesses at committee hearings.
FISCAL EFFECT : Fiscal Com.: No
AL:e 4/2/14 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: NONE RECEIVED
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