The legislative calendar establishes a schedule for the 2015-16 Legislative Session and provides important deadlines to the legislative process. While this is a general outline for the legislative year, the Senate and Assembly Daily Files contain the scheduled events for each day the Legislature is in session. These include committee meetings, scheduled hearings, and Governor’s vetoes. For more information on the Legislative Calendar and Schedules, click here.
January 1 – Bills passed in the previous year take effect, unless they have been designated as “urgency” bills with immediate implementation, or a bill that will take extra time to implement (often given a July 1st effective date).
January 5 – Legislature reconvenes for the second half of a two-year session.
January 15 – Last day for policy committees to hear and report to Fiscal Committees fiscal bills introduced in their house in 2015.
January 22 – Last day for any committee to hear and report to the Floor bills introduced in their house in 2015. Last day to submit new bill drafts to the Office of the Legislative Counsel. The Legislative Counsel takes the verbiage (sometimes makes adjustments) and puts it into bill form for the legislators to consider.
January 31 – Last day for each house to pass bills introduced in that house in 2015.
February 19 – Last day for bills to be introduced for the 2016 year. That means a bill, in the form created by the Legislative Counsel, needs to have an Author (a legislator) and a number assigned to it (ex: SB 123 or AB 123) in order to be introduced.
March 17 – Spring Recess.
March 28 – Legislature reconvenes from Spring Recess.
April 22 – Last day for policy committees to hear and report to Fiscal Committees fiscal bills introduced in their house in 2016.
May 6 – Last day for policy committees to hear and report to the Floor nonfiscal bills introduced in their house.
May 13 – Last day for policy committees to meet prior to June 6.
May 27 – Last day for fiscal committees to hear and report to the Floor bills introduced in their house. Last day for fiscal committees to meet prior to June 6.
May 31 – June 3 – Floor session only. No committee may meet for any purpose.
June 3 – Last day to pass bills out of their house of origin. If the bill is a Senate Bill (SB 123, etc.), then it needs to pass out of the Senate by this date and be sent over to the Assembly for its action. The same is true of Assembly bills needing to pass and being sent to the Senate.
June 6 – Committee meetings may resume.
June 30 – Last day for a legislative measure to qualify for the Nov. 8 General election ballot.
July 1 – Last day for policy committees to meet and report bills. Summer Recess begins upon adjournment providing the Budget has been passed.
August 1 – Legislature reconvenes from Summer Recess.
August 12 – Last day for fiscal committees to meet and report bills.
August 15 – 31 – Floor session only. No committees may meet for any purpose.
August 19 – Last day to amend on the Floor.
August 31 – Last day for any bill to pass to the Governor in what is termed an “enrolled” version. The “enrollment” process includes the notation of the exact date and time each bill is sent to the Governor to sign or veto, or he may allow it to become law without signing. (There is no “pocket veto” in California, unlike federal, which allows the President to kill a bill simply by not taking any action whatsoever.) Final Recess begins upon adjournment.
September 30 – Last day for the Governor to sign or veto bills passed by the Legislature. If bills are signed by the Governor, they are CHAPTERED; in other words, filed with the Secretary of State and assigned a chapter number for reference and inclusion in the codes, of which there are 29 (Civil Code, Vehicle Code, etc.).
November 8 – General election
November 30 – Formal adjournment of the 2015-16 Legislative Session at midnight … Sine Die
December 5 – Legislature convenes the 2017-18 Regular Session at 12 noon.
January 1, 2017 – Statutes take effect.
For a glossary of legislative terms (including sine die) click here.