Sacramento: The Inside Scoop, Part 1

What I Thought #1: Senators and Assembly members actually read bills before they vote on them. Until I saw Fahrenheit 9/11, I thought this was true of our federal representatives as well.

The Reality As I See It Now: Many don't. Committee staff read the bills and prepare an analysis (which is basically a summary of the bill and its implications) for the committee members. Because there are SO MANY BILLS, it's practically impossible to read them all.

My Commentary: Many bills are looooong and complicated and hopelessly boring, so I suppose this is understandable, but again it goes back to TOO MANY BILLS. It was one of the first things I wrote down as I sat and watched the Senate Education Committee's weekly meeting. They had 5 hours to go through 30 bills. 30 bills! I'm told there is a cap on the number of bills you can introduce, but clearly it's too high.

What I Thought #2: Senators and Assembly members write the bills.

The Reality As I See It Now: They don't write the actual language of the bill. I figured they did, since a lot of them are lawyers anyway and hey, how hard can it be to write a bill? But once they have an idea for a bill, they send it down to some committee that I can't remember the name of (can't find it right now) and those people draw up the proper language so that it's legit.

My Commentary: Maybe if they had to write the bills themselves there wouldn't be so many.