Publishing Letters to the Journal (transcript)

Today’s post is on publishing letters to the Journal for determining legislative intent.

Sometimes in order to explain the intent behind a specific piece of legislation, one or both houses of the Legislature will utilize a process by which a legislator publishes a letter stating his or her intent to explain the piece of legislation. For Assembly Members, this is published in the Assembly Daily Journal, and for Senators this is published in the Senate Daily Journal.

Generally this letter from the legislator is used to explain perhaps an ambiguity in the bill, or explain the purpose of a particular change in the law or for some other reason. Again, in both the State Assembly and the State Senate such a letter to the Journal is a rather formal process. For example, the letter must be on the legislator’s letterhead and signed by that particular legislator.

The general custom and practice of the two houses of California’s Legislature is to have the respective leadership staff – meaning both the majority Democrat and minority Republican parties – review the contents of that letter from the legislator and determine whether or not either party has any objections to the contents found in the letter. Now, the consultants to the majority and minority parties may request revisions to that letter to the Journal, otherwise they’ll give their consent.

Now, if approval is not received by both sides of the aisle – and this is a rare occurrence – then the legislator can request that the letter be printed in the respective Daily Journal with a majority vote.

The general practice is that the Assembly letters are authored by the individual Assembly Member and they’re addressed to the Chief Clerk of the Assembly. Senate letters are written by the individual Senator, of course on his or her letterhead, and are addressed to the Secretary of the Senate.