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California Legislative History and Advocacy

URL: https://libguides.law.ucla.edu/callegislativehistory

Accessing the California Legislative Websites

The California legislature has two websites: the current website for bills introduced from 1999 forward and an older, archival website for bills introduced from 1993 to 2016:

What Legislative History Materials Can I Find on the California Legislative Website?

Both the current and archival California legislative websites provide:

  • The history of the bill: A list all of the actions taken on the bill, including the dates it was voted on the floor, heard in committee, and amended.
  • Votes, by legislators for and against the bill, including total votes and the names of supporters and opponents, in each committee and on the floor.
  • The text of the bill, from the time it was first introduced, through each amendment, to the final chaptered version.
  • Bill analyses: Short memos explaining how the bill would change existing law and summarizing the arguments made for and against it. The analyses are prepared by legislative staff working for committees, before each committee and floor vote. 

For most legislative history research, this information will be enough.

However, if you need a truly comprehensive history of the bill, keep in mind that the legislature's website does not include reports prepared by other agencies, testimony or reports by supporters and opponents of the bill, or press coverage. If you need this information, you'll also need to do one or more of the following:

Retrieving Legislative History Materials on the Current California Legislative Website (1999-)

Screencap of California legislature's current search page. Key features described below.

To retrieve legislative history materials for a bill on the current LegInfo website, input the bill number in the Bill Number: field in the format AB1023 or SB1023 and use the Session Year: dropdown to input the year.

Alternately, if you don't have a bill number, you can select the Text Search or Advanced Search tabs to search by keyword.

Screencap of California legislature's page for AB 1023 (2011-2012). Key features described below.

Once you access the bill's page, you'll see the most recent text of the bill, with a set of tabs across the top of the screen. 

Several tools help you read the text of the bill:

  • You can view earlier versions of the text of the bill using the Version: dropdown in the upper right corner of the screen.
  • You can use the Compare Versions tab to compare different versions of the bill to each other.
  • You can use the Today's Law As Amended tab to compare the bill with current law. For bills that successfully passed, the Today's Law As Amended Tab also provides a link to see how the bill amended the law at the time it was passed.

As their names suggests:

  • The Bill Analysis tab provides access to the analyses written for the bill.
  • The Votes tab provides the names and total numbers of legislators who voted for and against the bill at each committee and floor vote.
  • The History tab provides a chronological list of all of the actions taken on a bill, and
  • The Status tab identifies where the bill is currently (e.g., in a specific committee, on the floor, chaptered, or died).

Retrieving Legislative History Materials on the Old California Legislative Website (1993-2016)

Screencap of old California legislature's search page. Key features described below.

To retrieve legislative history materials for a bill on the old LegInfo website, use the SESSION dropdown to input the year, use the HOUSE dropdown to select ASSEMBLY (for Assembly Bills, abbreviated AB) or SENATE (for Senate Bills, abbreviated SB), and input the Bill Number in the bill number search box.

Alternately, if you don't have a bill number, you can select the Keyword(s) radio button to search by keyword.

Screencap of old California legislature's page for AB 1023 (2011-2012). Key features described below.

Once you access the bill's page, you'll see a list of all the documents associated with the bill, including the bill's history, the different bill texts, the bill analyses, and the votes taken on the bill.

Some very old bills may list the documents but not have links to the full text. For these bills, search the bill number (e.g. 1023) in Lexis or Nexis Uni's California Legislative History Materials sections, which go back a few years further than the California legislature's website.