Legislative Session

New York's Andrew Cuomo may be a freshman governor, but he's no rookie. For 12 years, during his father's two terms in the governor's mansion, and as attorney general, Cuomo had an up-close look at how Albany works — and its famously gross dysfunction. By all assessments, he drew on that experience to have a productive first legislative session, capped by passage of a same-sex marriage bill while the whole country was watching. Just two years earlier, a measure to legalize same-sex marriage had failed.

A controversial proposal to allow some nurses, midwives and physician assistants to perform certain early abortions was withdrawn by its author Friday because it lacked enough votes to pass a key legislative committee. The bill had the backing of the leaders of both houses of the Legislature and of Planned Parenthood but was opposed by an influential nurses union and by foes of abortion rights. Proponents argued that the measure would make it easier for women who live far from urban areas with plenty of abortion providers to get safer, less intrusive procedures.

Reporting from Sacramento -- A weary Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan sat before the Senate Natural Resources committee Friday and began to introduce the leader of California's upper house. She paused. "Senator Whatshisname," said Buchanan, a Democrat from the East Bay town of Alamo, drawing laughter from Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) as he sat nearby. It was that kind of bleary-eyed week for the California Legislature, which churned through hundreds of bills in a rush to rewrite environmental, tax and regulatory laws before adjourning for the year.

Rick Perry's communications chief Ray Sullivan says the Texas governor remains open to the possibility of another run for president in 2016 and has learned many "valuable" lessons about the intensity, pace and scrutiny that candidates must endure. The subject came up -- unprompted -- in a conversation with reporters in the lobby of the North Charleston hotel where Perry had just announced  he was leaving the presidential race. Sullivan was asked whether the governor planned to run for re-election in Texas.

Gov. Bill Clements of Texas will not allow abortion restrictions on the agenda of any upcoming special legislative session, a spokeswoman said. Clements said the Nov. 14 special session will be limited to workers' compensation reform. "We're not going to cloud the issue of the special session on workers' compensation by putting in these other extraneous issues," he said.

Lawmakers spent more than $1 billion in an end-of-session spree, approving bills that would fund everything from new construction at prisons to more remedial programs for struggling students and, in a midnight finale, the purchase of a new redwood park. The largest single measure came when the Assembly early Tuesday agreed to $245 million for the state's share to buy Headwaters Forest, 7,500 acres of ancient redwoods in Humboldt County. The federal government will pay an additional $250 million.

Bowing to a resignation threat by Georgian head of state Eduard A. Shevardnadze, Georgia's Parliament on Tuesday imposed a two-month state of emergency on the war-ravaged country to combat a wave of criminal and paramilitary violence. The vote came late in the evening, after Shevardnadze reacted to the Parliament's reluctance to impose the emergency by tendering his resignation during a televised legislative session and stalking out of the hall with the words, "I'm fed up with it all."

Another California legislative session is history, again without so much as one performance in sound public policy that anyone could call outstanding and keep a straight face. Failing to repeat a championship season happens often enough in professional sports. But making government deliver--building roads and transit systems, running first-rate schools, balancing the budget and providing adequate health and other services for the poor who cannot live without them--is no game.

In the last stretch of the 1993 Legislative session, Sacramento lawmakers have 10 days to act on a variety of measures, including four that would go a long way toward improving the business climate in California. Sending a signal that the state is, indeed, acting to keep competitive is even more important these days, considering news reports of the exodus of people from California.

California lawmakers left Sacramento over the weekend after concluding a 1997 session that often appeared chaotic and inept but somehow managed to get done what had to be done, and considerably more. Most notably, the Legislature and Gov. Pete Wilson--for he is an integral player in the process--adopted a balanced $68-billion state budget that provides a major infusion of new money into public education.

When the dust settled on Gov. Jerry Brown's first legislative session in nearly three decades, no group had won more than organized labor, which heralded its largest string of victories in nearly a decade. At the urging of the food workers' union, Brown agreed to crack down on the use of automated checkout machines in grocery stores. At firefighters' request, he approved new restrictions on local governments seeking to void union contracts. He guaranteed wages for workers in public libraries that are privatized — a bill sponsored by another labor group.

In the Capitol courtyard where Arnold Schwarzenegger once puffed cigars, Gov. Jerry Brown sits in the fall breeze sipping coffee, munching almonds and holding marathon study sessions on hundreds of bills. One catches his eye: a bid to legalize the stuffing and exhibition of dead mountain lions. He OKs it, even as he scoffs with the weariness of a headmaster convinced his students haven't learned much. "This presumably important bill earned overwhelming support by both Republicans and Democrats," Brown writes in his signing message.

Local governments will be unable to ban male circumcision under a new state law signed by Gov. Jerry Brown. The bill, by Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Silver Lake), was drafted in response to a proposed San Francisco ballot measure that would have prohibited any foreskin cutting that was not deemed medically necessary in that city. That proposed ordinance was struck from the ballot by a Superior Court judge in June, amid protests from doctors and religious groups. A similar measure was proposed in Santa Monica but was later pulled back by proponents.

Reporting from Sacramento -- Democrats have more control of California government than they've had in nearly a decade, yet in the legislative session that ended early Saturday, they made some very Republican-like moves. The Legislature the Democrats dominate passed bills that would ease environmental rules on some developers and order bureaucrats to be more business-friendly. And after battling for months to raise taxes, Democrats championed tax cuts for small companies. Some of the moves were incremental, and business won, as usual, far fewer victories than Democrats' traditional labor allies.

Reporting from Sacramento -- A weary Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan sat before the Senate Natural Resources committee Friday and began to introduce the leader of California's upper house. She paused. "Senator Whatshisname," said Buchanan, a Democrat from the East Bay town of Alamo, drawing laughter from Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) as he sat nearby. It was that kind of bleary-eyed week for the California Legislature, which churned through hundreds of bills in a rush to rewrite environmental, tax and regulatory laws before adjourning for the year.

State lawmakers Thursday were considering sweeping changes to a landmark environmental law with a measure that would allow the governor to exempt large development projects from lengthy court challenges. The proposal is modeled on a separate bill that would give that benefit to developers of a proposed football stadium in downtown Los Angeles. Introduction of the bill in the final days of the legislative session, amid a flurry of other activity, raised alarm among some environmentalists.

The ongoing drama--or soap opera--that is Sacramento begins its new act Monday with the question: Can a lame-duck Republican governor and a Democrat-dominated state Legislature work in harmony to develop rational solutions to California's daunting problems? A formidable agenda awaits Gov. Pete Wilson and the Legislature as lawmakers assemble in the stately 19th-century Capitol for their 1997-98 session.

Gov. Gray Davis issued a proclamation Thursday calling for a special legislative session to begin Oct. 9 so he can push lawmakers to approve a rescue plan for Southern California Edison. The state Senate adjourned earlier this month without voting on the Edison deal backed by Davis, and the Democratic governor had said he planned to call legislators back for a special session to begin Oct. 2. Davis is hoping to help Edison avert bankruptcy.

A controversial bill that would have criminalized "intrusive" pat-downs by airport security died in the Texas Legislature on the final day of a special session Wednesday, but some lawmakers say they will take up the legislation in the future. The bill, which prompted federal officials to threaten to ground flights in the state, failed during the Legislature's regular session in May, but was revived when Gov. Rick Perry ordered that it go on the special session's agenda. The bill passed in the Senate, but in the House a four-fifths vote was required to suspend constitutional rules and bring the bill to a vote.

New York's Andrew Cuomo may be a freshman governor, but he's no rookie. For 12 years, during his father's two terms in the governor's mansion, and as attorney general, Cuomo had an up-close look at how Albany works — and its famously gross dysfunction. By all assessments, he drew on that experience to have a productive first legislative session, capped by passage of a same-sex marriage bill while the whole country was watching. Just two years earlier, a measure to legalize same-sex marriage had failed.