California Speaker Robert Rivas launches review of law outcomes

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California Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas is rolling out a new legislative oversight effort aimed at determining whether state laws are working in practice, including hearings and meetings to review the outcomes of statutes selected by lawmakers who volunteered to take part. The effort, which he said will run through the current legislative year, is meant to produce “findings, actions and solutions” in the fall, while any law changes stemming from the results would likely have to wait until lawmakers return for the next session.

Rivas described the plan during a press briefing Tuesday, saying it would involve legislative hearings that examine how well state laws are working. He said the program—dubbed the Outcomes Review Oversight Project—would help lawmakers reassess laws they authored or championed and, if necessary, improve them.

Details about how the initiative will be carried out remain limited, including how many laws were submitted for consideration and how much time the review will require. Rivas also did not specify clear criteria for which statutes would be selected, according to the reporting, saying instead that the choice was based on lawmakers’ voluntary participation.

Under the project, Rivas said 14 Assembly members will evaluate 13 laws enacted in the last decade, often laws they wrote themselves. The list includes a 2015 measure that empowered the state labor commissioner to crack down on wage theft and a law enacted last year requiring mortgage forbearance for Los Angeles wildfire victims.

Rivas said the lawmakers involved will hold committee hearings and community meetings as part of the review process, and that they will announce “findings, actions and solutions” in the fall. He also said reforms to strengthen any laws identified as ineffective will likely wait until at least next January, when a new legislative session begins.

At the same briefing, Rivas said oversight should include asking difficult questions about whether laws are effective and then following the answers wherever they lead. He said, “Meaningful oversight certainly means asking hard questions … about how effective those laws have been, but then being willing to follow the answers wherever they may lead,” adding that the hearings would help lawmakers create “a new culture here that emphasizes accountability.”

Gail Pellerin, chair of the Assembly Elections Committee, said the initiative reflects that passing a law is not the finish line. She said the real measure of success is whether a law is working “in the real world for the people it was meant to serve.”

Pellerin said she will lead the review of a 2024 law she authored aimed at ensuring foster children remain homed while foster family agencies work to get insured. The law required the California Department of Social Services to report last year the options to keep those agencies insured, but Pellerin said Tuesday there appears to be “no progress” on that report, and a department spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.