Busy Senate Rules Committee Agenda on May 23

The Senate Rules Committee’s agenda for its May 23 meeting contains a list of 21 measures whose legislative authors wish to have voted on by the upper house outside the normal procedure for debating legislation on the Senate floor.

“Without reference to file,” is the legislative term of art.

All of the bills these 21 lawmakers wish to have taken up “without reference to file” are resolutions originating in either the Senate or the lower house.

Resolutions are essentially glorified letters, which have no force of law, that commemorate some event or action.

For example, Sen. Curren Price, an Inglewood Democrat, wishes to bring up a resolution, SR 31, recognizing Friday May 25 as Africa Day 2012.

Sen. Rod Wright, a a Los Angeles Democrat, seeks permission to bring up a resolution, SCR 89, proclaiming May as California Beer Distributor Month.

Among the resolutions findings:

“California’s beer distributors are among the state’s leading employers. Located in the state’s 58 counties, beer distributors contribute $931,668,114 annually to California’s economy in direct wages and health care benefits to their 11,743 employees.”

In addition, “California’s beer distributors are primarily family businesses spanning three generations with a long-term commitment to expanding the economic and civic vibrancy of their communities and to growing an ever stronger family business for the benefit of their employees and future generations.”

Wright is running out of time – there are only three legislative floor sessions left before May 31. 

But timeliness isn’t a burning issue for some other lawmakers.

Of the 21 resolutions, lawmakers seek permission to bring up, 11 commemorate events that have already occured – one as far back as January 2011.

Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi’s ACR 3  proclaims January 13, 2011 as Korean-American Day.

The most recent amendments to the measure are dated May 16, 2011. 

Of more recent vintage than the Hayward Democrat’s effort is that of Assemblyman Tony Mendoza, an Artesia Democrat, whose resolution declares January 26 – of this year – as “India Republic Day.” 

“The patriotic fervor of the people on this day brings the whole country together even in her essential diversity,” a reader of ACR 85 learns.

“Every part of the country is represented on this occasion, which makes Republic Day the most popular of all the national holidays of India.”

Elsewhere on the list is another resolution by Mendoza to designate March 2 as “Read Across America Day.”

Former President and Gov. Ronald Reagan would be honored in another resolution by naming February 6 after him. His was born on that day in 1911. March would also be designated as “Irish American Heritage Month” February as “Children’s Dental Health Month” and Leap Year Day – February 29, 2012  –as “Rare Disease Day.”

Not quite as tardy, is ACR 137 by Assemblywoman Toni Atkins, a San Diego Democrat recognizing the week of April 22 through April 28 as “West Nile Virus and Mosquito and Vector Control Awareness Week.”

“Public awareness can result in reduced production of mosquitoes and other vectors on residential, commercial, and public lands by responsible parties, avoidance of the bites of mosquitoes and other vectors when the risk of West Nile virus and other disease transmission is high,” the resolution says.  The vectors, by the way, include – but are not limited to – “ticks, Africanized honeybees, rats, fleas, and flies.”

Coming closest in tardiness is a resolution that would have recognized May 1 through May 7 as “Cinco Day Mayo Week.”

What’s few weeks when it comes to important public policy?

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