Record number of bills introduced in California legislative session in 2023

Over the past decade, the California Legislature and its 120 legislators have introduced between 1,900 and 2,500 bills a year each year in biennial legislative sessions. While fewer than 50 additional bills are introduced after the deadline (for example, due to a rule waiver or a bill introduced by a committee that is not subject to the submission deadline), the number of submissions is higher than usual in the 2023 California Legislative Session. , and this is the highest figure in more than a decade.

As of February 17, 2023, the deadline for introducing new bills in this session, there are 1,751 Assembly bills and 881 Senate bills, for a total of 2,632 bills. There are also six special session bills (3 each in the Assembly and the Senate).

Of these introduced bills, there are 495 spot bills and 551 intention bills between the two chambers, for a total of 1,046 replacement measures. This means that 40% of bills introduced are currently filler measures.

For comparison, the following is a list of the total number of bills introduced by the two houses by the respective deadline every February for the past ten years:

• Total bills submitted in 2022 for the deadline: 2020.
• Total bills submitted in 2021 for the deadline: 2369.
• Total bills submitted in 2020 for the deadline: 2203.
• Total bills submitted in 2019 for the deadline: 2576.
• Total bills submitted in 2018 for the deadline: 2177.
• Total bills submitted in 2017 for the deadline: 2495.
• Total bills submitted in 2016 for the deadline: 1993.
• Total bills submitted in 2015 for the deadline: 2297.
• Total bills submitted in 2014 for the deadline: 1930.
• Total bills submitted in 2013 for the deadline: 2256.

The most notable difference is that fewer bills are always introduced in the second year of the session than in the first year. So, if we look at history, next year, in the second year of the 2023-2024 Legislative Session, there will be about 2,000 bills introduced.