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Assemblymember Monroe Moreno proposes cleanup bill to add legislative retirement oversight, remove fiscal stress‑test requirement
Summary
Assemblymember Danielle Monroe Moreno introduced AB 348 to add the Legislature’s retirement system to the Interim Retirement and Benefits Committee’s responsibilities, clarify appointment and vacancy rules, abolish an internal educational‑evaluation bureau, and remove a statutory requirement that the Fiscal Analysis Division perform and report a biennial budget stress test.
Assemblymember Danielle Monroe Moreno introduced Assembly Bill 348 to the Assembly Committee on Legislative Operations and Elections, asking the committee to update several statutory provisions governing retirement oversight and the Legislative Council Bureau’s Fiscal Analysis Division. The bill would add the legislature’s retirement system to the Interim Retirement and Benefits Committee’s duties, allow appointments of alternate members by the majority leader or the Speaker when a member cannot attend, clarify members’ terms and vacancy‑filling procedures, abolish the Legislative Bureau of Educational Accountability and Program Evaluations within the Fiscal Analysis Division, and remove the requirement that the division perform and report a biennial budget “stress test.”
Assemblymember Danielle Monroe Moreno, who represents Assembly District 1, told the committee she drafted the bill after observing outdated or inconsistent provisions while serving as chair of Ways and Means. She said the Interim Retirement and Benefits Committee—created in 1999 to review public employee retirement systems—does not currently review the Legislature’s own retirement system and that AB 348 would correct that omission and align the committee’s appointment rules with those of other interim committees.
Michael Nakamoto, Chief Principal Deputy Fiscal Analyst with the Fiscal Analysis Division, answered questions about the proposed removal of the stress‑test requirement. He explained that the stress tests compare estimated future revenues and expenditures under various scenarios and that performing such tests in even‑numbered years created operational and objectivity challenges for nonpartisan staff who also serve the Economic Forum. He told the committee the division found producing those stress tests could require assumptions that risked producing results at odds with official forecasts.
AB 348 would also abolish the Legislative Bureau of Educational Accountability and Program Evaluations, a unit created in 1997 to evaluate public school accountability programs. Assemblymember Moreno told the committee that the Legislature created a Subcommittee on Education Accountability within the Interim Finance Committee last session, which she said now performs similar duties and reduces the need for the separate bureau. Sections 3 through 11 of the bill make conforming changes to remove statutory references to the bureau.
No callers or members of the public testified in support, opposition, or neutral positions during the committee’s public‑testimony period for this bill, and the hearing closed with the sponsor available for technical questions.
Ending: The committee hearing record shows the bill presented for committee consideration; no formal committee vote on AB 348 appears in the transcript.
