Thirty-one in the Assembly; 22 in the Senate – and that’s only the “standing committees,” which have power to hear and pass legislation. When you add in the other committees – ones that hold informational hearings, for example – there are, in most years, more committees than California’s 120 lawmakers.
“It allows for specialization – where you have a finite number of members on a committee that focus on a finite topic,” says Sacramento State political analyst Steve Boilard. “However, I think that you can get to a point where you’ve broken down a subject into too many pieces. That leads to kind of a disconnect.”
For example, the Assembly has separate committees on Agriculture; Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials; Natural Resources; and Water, Parks and Wildlife.
“There is an incentive – a political incentive – to create a large number of committees,” Boilard says: The more committees there are, the more committee chairs – and the more lawmakers who can use their positions to raise money.
CapRadio provides a trusted source of news because of you. As a nonprofit organization, donations from people like you sustain the journalism that allows us to discover stories that are important to our audience. If you believe in what we do and support our mission, please donate today.
