Senate Appropriations Committee moves 32 bills to suspense file

The California State Senate Committee on Appropriations met in Room 2200 of the 0 Street Building and, without objection, moved 32 bills to the committee's suspense file after authors waived presentation and the Department of Finance declined to appear.

The committee's action means the measures were placed on the suspense calendar for later fiscal consideration; committee members did not hold roll-call votes on the measures during the hearing. Committee members opened the hearing noting the Department of Finance had "let us know that they don't have files on any of the bills up for today's hearing," and that the authors of the bills had waived presentation.

Committee Chair (unnamed) reminded witnesses to limit testimony to fiscal aspects. Several organizations provided brief comments limited to fiscal impacts. Bridal Tuig, representing the California Air Pollution Control Officers Association, said, "We do think there will be significant costs associated with making up for the lost emissions, caused by this bill, and we have significant policy concerned, concerns, as well, with the with, again, with the loss of of of emissions reductions and what that means for public health. So, we're opposed." Chris McCailey, on behalf of the Los Angeles Area Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said the authority is a cosponsor of one measure and that it "does have nominal costs enough to reach suspense, but we hope you'll vote it off later." Nicole Wortleman spoke on behalf of the Orange County Board of Supervisors in support of a different measure; Clifton Wilson testified on behalf of the California State Association of Psychiatrists as a sponsor of another bill.

All 32 bills on the agenda were announced and, after a brief period for public testimony on the fiscal impacts, were moved to suspense "without objection," per the committee record. The committee noted a procedural limitation: authors had waived presentation on each suspense-file candidate and the Department of Finance was not present to discuss fiscal files.

Votes at a glance: each of the following measures was moved to the committee's suspense file without objection (authors waived presentation; no roll-call vote recorded): SB 13; SB 712; SB 25; SB 38; SB 57; SB 68; SB 608; SB 636; SB 71; SB 363; SB 72; SB 98; SB 293; SB 261; SB 701; SB 286; SB 356; SB 439; SB 764; SB 514; SB 539; SB 530; SB 777; SB 556; SB 568; SB 632; SB 669; SB 683; SB 685; SB 698; SB 803; SB 823.

The hearing concluded after the committee confirmed the suspense-file referrals and thanked witnesses for limiting testimony to fiscal aspects. The committee made a brief administrative note to update attendance for Senator Wahab.