How the ‘gut-and-amend’ process swiftly changed a California law days before it started

This summer, the California Legislature felt the need to act quickly before a new law took effect.

In May, the California Attorney General’s office released guidance that said restaurants would need to comply with a new law that requires businesses to include required fees in advertised and displayed prices.

The law, Senate Bill 478, was introduced last year by Senators Bill Dodd and Nancy Skinner and it was due to come into effect on July 1.

By the time the Legislature wanted to make changes to the law after getting pushback from the restaurant industry, several key deadlines had passed.

Not only had this session’s deadline for introducing new bills passed (February 16) but another deadline, which mandates that all bills must have at least passed one chamber to still be under consideration, had also passed (May 24).

The committee Dodd leads, the state’s Committee on Governmental Organization, had a completely unrelated bill, Senate Bill 1524, still working its way through the Legislature, but it fulfilled these requirements.

SB 1524 would change the number of days the governor has to appoint someone to the California Gambling Control Commission from 60 to 45 days.

The bill had already passed the Senate 37-0, but Dodd’s office decided the best way to fix the issue of the “hidden fees” at restaurants was through what is called the “gut-and-amend process.”

Dodd, along with Senator Scott Weiner, wiped SB 1524 clear and rewrote it so that it now listed a requirement for restaurants to list fees on menus and advertisements instead of including them in the publicized price of the meals and drinks.

The new version of SB 1524, introduced on June 5, passed through the Assembly 73-0 on June 24 and then was sent to the Senate to fulfill the requirement of all changes to bills having to be approved by both chambers. The Senate approved the changes by a vote of 39-0 on June 27.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the revamped SB 1524 on June 29, just two days before the hidden fees law went into effect.

As for the original intent of SB 1524, Sen. Dodd’s office said it had no plans to try to make those changes happen this session, which will be his last.

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