300 Fewer Bills Introduced in California Legislature in 2025

The first year of the new two-year session started off very slow, with hundreds fewer bills introduced by the end of January than had been introduced two years ago. Although there were many bills introduced in February this year, and it looked like we might catch up to the pace of two years ago, the final total was 2,364 bills introduced in the Senate (854) and the Assembly (1,510).

By comparison, two years ago, at the beginning of the 2023–24 session, there were 1,771 Assembly bills and 891 Senate bills introduced, making a total of 2,602 bills 300 more than were introduced this year. This 12% drop can be attributed to the bill introduction limits imposed by the Speaker of the Assembly, which dropped from 50 bills to 35 bills over the course of two years. Other contributing factors include the impacts of the fires in Southern California, as well as the new administration coming into Washington and issuing so many executive orders so rapidly, which left many legislators, particularly on the Democratic side of the aisle, unsure how they might respond.

The policy impact the number of bills introduced this year by the bill introduction deadline remains to be seen. Only time will tell how many of those bills move forward, how many become two-year bills, and how many simply die due to lack of support.