GOP Using New Majority to Retool Senate Bills in Assembly : Legislature: Lawmakers are attaching amendments to resurrect proposals that died before Republicans gained their advantage. Democrats say the practice creates unnecessary discord.

Assembly Republicans--a majority for the first time in 25 years--are flexing their new political muscle by “hijacking” state Senate-passed bills and inserting GOP ideas that were previously rejected in lower-house committees.

The strategy went into high gear last week as a result of the GOP achieving a one-vote majority on committees that previously had an equal number of Republicans and Democrats, which meant controversial bills often died on tie votes.

Assembly Speaker Doris Allen (R-Cypress), under heavy fire from members of her party because she assumed power with 39 Democratic votes plus her own, gave the Republicans a majority on major policy committees for the first time in more than two decades.

Some examples of GOP concepts and proposals contained in dead bills that were brought back to life include:

* A package of more than a dozen measures providing $1 billion in tax breaks for businesses and families was revived in the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee. The package included a bill to grant a $500-per-child tax credit for each youngster under the age of 13 in low- and middle-income families. The tax credit would cost an estimated $585 million.

* In the Judiciary Committee, the GOP gave new breath to Gov. Pete Wilson’s proposed civil justice reform package. Among other things, the package seeks to limit legal damages awarded in court cases, curb frivolous lawsuits, reduce the share of monetary awards taken by lawyers and protect employers from lawsuits brought by ex-employees who leave their jobs voluntarily and later claim they were fired.

* A bill making convicted drive-by murderers subject to the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole was resurrected in the Public Safety Committee. The bill would be subject to voter approval.

* Republicans inserted various amendments into a Senate-passed bill in the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee to change the state Endangered Species Act. The action means the bill probably will have to be referred to a two-house conference committee, where legislators would try to reach a compromise.

The GOP’s tactics scored two victories: one in the Assembly’s committees and the other on the symbolism front, showing that Republicans are actively seeking to move their long-stalled agenda forward.

But whether the Assembly’s Republicans will win the political war is another matter. In reality, they face big obstacles both on the Assembly floor and in the Senate.

“I realize we are still in the testosterone phase in the new Assembly,” Senate President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward) said. “It’s been a long, long time since they [Assembly Republicans] had a majority.

“I think it is appropriate for them to have an opportunity to express their philosophy and point of view, but it is unfortunate when you hijack bills like that because it can cause unneeded tension and discord.”

The fate of the Republican-amended Senate bills, Lockyer said, “will be decided on a case-by-case basis.”

He also noted that any significant changes made to the measures after they left the Senate means they must return to upper-house policy committees for additional scrutiny. The panels can recommend non-concurrence, which sends the bills to two-house conference committees for possible compromise.

Nonetheless, Assembly GOP leader Jim Brulte of Rancho Cucamonga described the Republicans’ effort as “historic.”

“We finally realized the victories that we won at the polls in November of last year,” he said.

Brulte discounted criticism of the new tactics, which seemed to zero in on Democratic-sponsored measures.

“This is not a question of bill hijacking,” Brulte insisted. “Democrats have been amending Republican bills to meet their policy goals for years, so this isn’t inconsistent with the way that they have acted in the past.

“This is a new era. The Republicans have a majority in the Assembly now. We aren’t trying to pick fights. We’re just trying to move our policies along.”

The GOP, Brulte said, believes the amendments have “greatly improved” the chances of bills winning approval.

“The worst-case scenario is the bills get sent to a two-house conference committee and the differences are worked out there,” he said. But, first, the Republicans must win approval on the Assembly floor.

Although they hold a slim 40-39 vote majority over the Democrats with one vacancy, Republicans must muster 41 votes to pass most of the measures out of the lower house.

One of the move vocal critics of the Republicans’ hijacking of Senate-passed bills is state Sen. Quentin Kopp (I-San Francisco).

Kopp, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, recently shot back by flexing his own political muscle.

A Kopp bill allowing state officials to raise speed limits as high as 70 m.p.h. on state highways and 65 m.p.h. on local roads--if Congress and President Clinton remove current federal speed limits--was being heard by the Assembly Transportation Committee.

But Assemblyman Bill Morrow (R-Oceanside) succeeded in getting the panel to insert an amendment that virtually repeals a state law requiring motorcycle riders to wear helmets.

An angry Kopp quickly denounced the tactic and announced that he was simply dropping his bill altogether, with the GOP-amendment included.

Later, the Northern California lawmaker cooled off a bit, but said he would start postponing action on Assembly Republican-sponsored legislation scheduled to be heard by his own committee.

This quickly won Kopp a GOP promise that his speed limit bill would come up for an Assembly floor vote--without the helmet repeal amendment. “So it was a tempest in a teapot,” Kopp said.

Morrow, who lost a similar motorcycle helmet repeal bill in the Assembly Transportation Committee earlier this year, now says he intends to reintroduce it in 1996.