New Ballotpedia report: State legislators enact close to a quarter million bills since 2011

Welcome to the Friday, Sept. 6, Brew.

Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:

1. State legislators enacted close to a quarter million bills since 2011
2. Four state legislatures in regular session, California special legislative session hits speed bump
3. Did you know that there are 19 state representatives and four state senators in 10 states who identify as independents or parties other than Democratic and Republican?

State legislators enacted close to a quarter million pieces of legislation since 2011

State legislators have enacted nearly a quarter million bills across all 50 states since 2011. In a new joint report with BillTrack50, Ballotpedia brings together a dataset of 243,529 bills adopted between January 2011 and May 2024, offering insights into partisan sponsorship, trends in trifecta activity, and breakdowns of output of new laws in each state. The dataset does not include resolutions.

The dataset reveals shifts in state legislative behavior as productivity, willingness to work across party lines, and the makeup of each legislature changes over the years.

Some takeaways from the report include:

• Legislatures enacted Republican-sponsored bills more than any other type of legislation.
• The share of Republican-sponsored legislation in states with Republican trifectas hit a 14-year high in 2023.
• Bipartisan legislation reached a 12-year low in 2022. Overall, bipartisanship has been trending down, but up in states with Democratic trifectas.
• Democrats had more success passing partisan legislation when in the minority. Republicans were more successful in divided governments.
• Two states—Tennessee and Texas—passed more than 1,000 bills per year, while three passed fewer than 100.
• Legislative sessions in 2020 saw 19.5% fewer bills enacted than other even years with complete data in this dataset – a representation of the impact that COVID-19 had on legislative activity. In total, 56.8% of all bills were passed in odd years.

In total, Republicans sponsored 36.7% of legislation (89,395 bills) adopted since 2011, followed by bipartisan sponsorship at 29.9% (72,902), and Democratic sponsorship at 22.9% (55,813). The remaining 10.4% (25,419) had no partisan sponsorship. Dig into the report here for an explanation of these numbers and more analysis.

Circling back to state-specific data, Tennessee and Texas passed an average of more than 1,000 bills per session year. Tennessee passed an average of 2,130 bills per year with a legislative session, nearly doubling Texas’ rate of 1,249 bills. Tennessee passes a large number of local acts through the legislature, which only apply to specific jurisdictions within the state.

Other states that adopted a high number of bills per year include California (991 bills per year with a session), Virginia (918), Louisiana (819), Maryland (745), Nevada (682), Arkansas (647), New York (630), and Montana (603).

On the other end of the spectrum, states that passed the fewest number of bills per year with a session were: Ohio (97), Missouri (77), and Alaska (76),

We should note that the large differences in the number of bills passed by each state do not necessarily indicate more productivity. Each legislature operates under a different set of rules and procedures that affect the number of bills passed. Some states tend to combine individual bills into legislative packages that will reduce the overall number of bills passed. Other states pass local laws through the state legislature, increasing the quantity of legislation both considered and adopted.

We consider Iowa, Idaho, Kansas, and Nebraska edge cases because the majority of passed bills do not have partisan sponsorship.

Nebraska has a unicameral, nonpartisan legislature. Although some legislation has attributed partisan sponsorship, 94.5% of the 1,782 bills included in this analysis do not have partisan sponsorship. Iowa, Idaho, and Kansas all have partisan legislatures, but legislation without partisan sponsorship made up more than 90% of all passed bills in all three states.

To read the complete report, click below.

Four state legislatures in regular session, California special legislative session hits speed bump

Speaking of bill activity, four state legislatures are in regular session as of Sept. 3. Pennsylvania’s session will end on Nov. 30. Michigan, New Jersey, and Ohio’s sessions for this year will continue until at least Dec. 31.

On Aug. 31, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) called a special session for the California Legislature to meet and act on proposals in Senate Bill 950. The Sacramento Bee’s Nicole Nixon reported the bill would have “required oil refiners to maintain reserve stockpiles of gasoline to prevent shortages in case of unplanned maintenance.”

According to KCRA3’s Ashley Avala, “The oil industry has warned Newsom’s proposal could increase prices at the pump for not just drivers in California, but in Arizona and Nevada as well. California gas prices are currently lower than they have been the last couple of summers, but still remain about a dollar more than the national average.”

So far, the special session—which formally began on Saturday, Aug. 31— is not going as precedent would indicate. While the Assembly has agreed to meet, their Senate colleagues have not. Senate President Pro Tempore Mike McGuire (D) said, “We have all been working on this California Made and Clean Energy Package for months, and some of these proposals have been in discussions for the better part of a year. The Senate always had the votes and was ready to get these important measures across the finish line this legislative year and deliver the relief Californians need at the pump and on their electricity bills…We won’t be convening a special session this fall, but we look forward to continuing conversations with the Governor and Speaker about this critical issue in the days and weeks to come.”

According to Politico, the Senate’s plan to not attend the special session is unprecedented. As for whether the move is legal, that is less certain. Speaker of the Assembly Robert Rivas (D) or Newsom could sue McGuire if they believe his actions are illegal, but there hasn’t been any indication of such as of this writing.

State governments hold legislative sessions where elected representatives meet for a designated period to draft and vote on legislation. A state’s constitution, a statute, or the legislature may set the session’s length. A state’s governor or legislature may also call special or extraordinary sessions to address a specific subject matter during or after a regular session.

Did you know that there are 19 state representatives and four state senators in 10 states who identify as independents or parties other than Democratic and Republican? The states are Alaska, Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Vermont.

Ballotpedia tracks the partisan composition of all state legislative chambers. As of Sept. 4, 54.85% of all state legislators in the United States are Republican, while 44.26% are Democratic.

Learn about the partisan composition of state senates here and the partisan composition of state houses here.