How to...understand legislation

1. What does SB or AB mean?

- the beginning title of the bill, "SB" or "AB" refers to where the bill was introduced, in the House (AB) or the Senate (SB). The bill is introduced by a congressperson in the house that they are a member of

2. What does the number besides those two letters mean?

- this is the actual bill number; the number is assigned based on when the bill was introduced. This, paired with initials of the house it originated from, give the bill a unique name that can be used to look up further information.

3. What now? How do I get more information? How do I see the bill?

- navigate to the California Legislative Information website

- if you don't put any bill number in and just click search with only the session highlighted, a list of all the current bills will be returned with a few keywords about them each! This is a great tool to learn what is being voted on currently

- if you do put a specific bill in the search, you will be given multiple options allowing you to read the text full out, look at the history and amendments, or review an analysis. 

- I recommend reading the"Legislative Counsel's Digest"under the "bill text" tab, priorly or instead of reading the bill text. This will give you an overview of what the bill is about in an easier to read fashion.

- Furthermore, look at the most recent bill analysis; here you will see the arguments for opposition and support, along with another explanation of the bill, and what laws are currently in place that will be affected. 

4. How's the bill doing? What's it up to?

- check on the history of the bill by navigating to the "history" tab on the site. Here you can see where the bill is, where it started, and where it's going.  Another way to see this information is through the "status" tab. 

5. I want more information! How do I get that?

- navigate to the "status" tab and figure out who the main author is. Contact that congressperson and request a "fact sheet" via email or phone call. This will have even more information concisely