Cataloging the Detritus of my Life
I’ve decided to end the Tuesday Share posts. I wasn’t getting any feedback on them, and they didn’t seem to draw any additional traffic. In the future items I find on the Internet that interest me enough will get full write-ups here. All other interesting items will be shared through Google Reader. You can see those items, as well as any comments I might have on them, here.
Part two of a multi-part project explaining how laws are made in California.
part 1 of this series can be found here.
In Part 1 I described how legislators introduce bills into their respective houses and the first few steps of the legislative process. We left off with bills being assigned by the Rules Committee to a policy committee that. The policy committee is where the public has an opportunity to address the legislature concerning each bill and legislators have the opportunity to question the bill’s author and those who support or oppose the bill. Policy committees each cover a specific policy field and are staffed by legislators interested in that field. The Assembly has 26 policy committees (and two fiscal): Aging and Long-Term Care; Agriculture; Arts, Entertainment, Sports, Tourism, and Internet Media; Banking and Finance; Business and Professions; Education; Elections and Redistricting; Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials; Governmental Organization; Health; Higher Education; Housing and Community Development; Human Services; Insurance; Jobs, Economic Development, and the Economy; Judiciary; Labor and Employment; Local Government; Natural Resources; Public Employees, Retirement and Social Security; Public Safety; Revenue and Taxation; Transportation; Utilities and Commerce; Veterans Affairs; and, Water, Parks and Wildlife. The Senate has 19 policy committees (and 2 fiscal as well): Banking, Finance and Insurance; Business, Professions and Economic Development; Education; Elections, Reapportionment and Constitutional Amendments; Energy, Utilities and Communications; Environmental Quality; Food and Agriculture; Governmental Organization; Health; Human Services; Judiciary; Labor and Industrial Relations; Local Government; Natural Resources and Water; Public Employment and Retirement; Public Safety; Revenue and Taxation; Transportation and Housing; and, Veterans Affairs.
Once a bill has been assigned to a policy committee it is put on the committees agenda (State law requires that 4 days notice be given for bill hearings) and the committee accepts letters from the public and private sectors regarding it. At a committee hearing the author presents their bill and then those who are in support of the bill are allowed to make a presentation, and the public is allowed to comment. Questions can and are often asked by committee members to the author and supporters of the bill, debate often ensues. After the supporters have finished presenting those who oppose the bill, if any, are given time to address the committee with their concerns, and proposals to remove their opposition to the bill. After arguments for and against the bill have been heard the author gives a closing statement to the committee. During the presentation of the bill amendments to the bill can be offered by committee members to the author, who can either reject or accept them, though bills can, and are, amended without the consent of the author. Once discussion of the bill has ceased the Committee will vote on the bill. If the bill receives a majority vote to pass it on, then it continues through the legislative process, if it fails passage the bill is dead. Authors are generally granted reconsideration after a bill fails passage in committee, giving them time to talk to committee members and convince them to vote the bill out of committee. Once a bill fails on reconsideration it is dead.
After a bill leaves a policy committee on a vote a number of things can happen. If the bill has costs associated with it (over $250,000) it must go to the Appropriations committee before being heard on the floor (I’ll talk about this fiscal committee in a future post). If the bill covers more than one policy area (say a bill about about college funding for Veterans that would be heard by both the Higher Education and the Veteran Affairs committees) it will go to the second committee it was referred to. If the bill is going to be amended, it has to go to the Assembly desk to be amended, read a 2nd time, and then it goes to 3rd reading or referred back to committee.
If you remember from the first post every bill has to be read three times before moving out of its house of origin. Next time I’ll explain 2nd and 3rd reading and talk about the two fiscal committees.
An attempt to explain the legislative process in California
Part 1. Bill Creation and Introduction
Writing all this down is such a hassle and a poor way to explain a fairly involved process, I tried to draw a flowchart that would show just how the system works but either I’m very bad at using simple graphic programs (unlikely) or the makers of flowchart software like their programs being unintuitive and overly complicated (more likely). So until I can figure out these arcane and obscure drawing programs I’ll have to use words to paint this picture…
Like everything legislation (laws, bills, statues, code, etc.) starts out as an idea. Most of these ideas come from regular people like you and me (or organizations of regular people like you and me) who’ve taken that idea to their state representative, either an Assemblymember or Senator (find your’s here), and convinced them to try and make a law based on it. Or the member has their own ideas (truly?!) Once a legislator has an idea they fill out a form that explains what they want the law to do and how they want it implemented and hand that over to the Legislative Counsel of California. Leg. Council is the team of lawyers and attorneys who work for the Assembly and Senate, they do legal research, draft the actual bill language, find out where in statute it’d fit, conflicts that your new law would create, tell you if a similar law already exists or has been attempted before, etc. In rare instances they serve as the actual lawyers for members of the Legislature if the they need legal representation, counsel, etc.
Once all the legal book work has been done the draft bill is returned to the legislator for review (by him/her or the people (individuals, interest groups, lobby groups) who originated the idea). If there are problems the draft is sent back to Lg. Council for correction. Once the bill has been drafted to the author’s satisfaction the bill (the actual physical document with the author’s signature is delivered to the desk (either Senate or Assembly). The bill is assigned a number (bills are numbered on a first come-first served basis) by the Chief Clerk, for the Assembly, or the Secretary (Senate). Once the bill has been assigned a number it is read for the first time at the desk, the California Constitution states that a bill must be read on three different days before it is passed out of a house (this can be suspended with a vote of 2/3 of the body).
Once a bill has been introduced and read for the 1st time, it goes to the Rules Committee where it is assigned to a policy committee for debate and public comment. The bill is then sent to the State printer to be printed. Bills cannot be acted on until after 30 days from their introduction and printing. This gives citizens, policy institutes, and legislators and their staff time to read and understand each bill before it is taken up in a policy committee.
Next post I’ll explain the policy committee process, describe the various Senate and Assembly policy committees, and how bills are amended.
So here you can see the the Heavy Support models from my Necron army. I don’t really use the Monolith that much (as it is an immediate target and the Monolith is no good at taking on Mech lists), got to love that model though, big and intimidating. Actually Necrons aren’t that great in 5th edition, their troop choice is limited in usefulness, as are the Flayed Ones, and Pariahs (absolutely useless). So, until the codex gets updated, showing up with this army puts you at an immediate disadvantage. That being said, they are still numerous people who don’t quite understand how 5th edition changed the game (I’m still learning new things) so if you play well and exploit your opponents ignorance/weakness you can still pull off some great wins. Anyway the army list will be posted at a latter time as it is in major flux as I update it to deal with 5th edition (total re-write). Lets get to the models!
Heavy Support fist and we start with the Monolith. This is a very large model! About the heights of a Land Raider if you put it on its end. I used the same paint scheme as was on my warriors: bolt gun metal, with scab red. The model was base coated black and then the base of the model was given a number of layers of tin bitz to make it look worn as if, partially buried, before dry brushing over with bolt gun, and then a sparse brushing of mithril silver. Considering it is one of the first models I assembled and painted I think it turned out pretty well.
Heavy Destroyers are the closest the Necron player has to a melta-gun which is absolutely necessary in 5th addition as tanks and transport vehicles come into their own in this iteration of the game. While very powerful with a strength 9 AP 2 weapon in a full squad that is just 3 shots. Again the same palette as used through-out the army with the white on the head to draw attention to the face and the blue on the chest for a little variety.
I have a third one of these that isn’t yet painted. I was getting bored with the palette so I put in another tone of red on the legs. The one on the right has a particle projector, which is useless as the BS of 2 and can not hit the broadside of a barn. I haven’t been using them but are including them now as they help keep my warriors coming back.