Membership of Assembly Panels Announced

With Republicans complaining about delays and partisanship, Assembly Speaker Cruz Bustamante on Friday announced formation of 27 committees, a prerequisite before 1997 lawmaking can begin in the lower house.

As expected, Democrats will outnumber Republicans on the committees, which can vote to kill bills, set them aside or pass them on for votes on the floors of the Assembly and Senate.

Republicans charged Friday that this process took so long that it left the Assembly with nothing substantial to do since it convened Dec. 2 for a day, then began meeting regularly Jan. 6.

Democrats responded that delays are common in putting together committees in the 80-member house, and that it is just as common for the opposition to complain, as did John Nelson, press aide to Republican Minority Leader Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove).

Bustamante set a “new, modern record for failure to organize the house,” Nelson said.

And in the process, Nelson said, Bustamante brought to an end the spirit of cooperation that the speaker said would be the norm when he was elected to the Assembly leadership two months ago.

Judging from the makeup of the committees, members’ operating budgets and the office space allotments that Republicans received--all determined by Bustamante--Nelson said: “The verdict is in: more partisanship, more bitterness, more scorched earth than we’ve seen in several years.”

Majority Floor Leader Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles), who took part in discussions to choose committee members, said the Republicans were quibbling.

“The idea that we were dilatory was smoke and mirrors,” he said.

The process lasted longer than usual, he said, because it took time to find appropriate spots for 27 new members with no Sacramento experience.

Now that the committees have been named, he said, members will need another two weeks to bone up on subject matter before they will begin hearing discussion of bills.

“Just trying to compose the committees with that lack of experience made it difficult,” Villaraigosa said. “It wasn’t like the old days, where you had plenty of people with four, five and 10 years’ experience.”

In a common refrain heard when the Assembly majority changes hands, as it did this fall, Villaraigosa said Democrats treated Republicans better than they were treated in the GOP victory of 1994.

Besides the permanent committee assignments, Assembly and Senate leaders announced earlier this week they would assemble a “super conference committee” on welfare reform. The panel will have 12 Democrats and six Republicans divided between the two houses, prompting Pringle to say, “I’m disappointed in the 2-to-1 advantage” given to Democrats over Republicans.