After 3 1/2 days with no Assembly in place, we were sworn in today a little after noon.  The ceremony was orderly and timely, including the attendence by Governor Schwarzenegger, a very rare thing for a governor to visit the Assembly chamber for its swearing-in ceremony…for sure the first during the 3 swearing-in ceremonies I’ve been around.  I thought it was a great gesture and a signal of his interest in working with the Legislature.  A bi-partisan chord was what was trying to be struck by those that spoke…and it lasted until the rules of the house were brought forth for adoption as we do at the beginning of each 2 year session.  The kicker: As usual, Republicans only received the rules draft that we were to vote on at about 9:30 AM, with no time for us to really consider them, members got copies much later.  So that put a damper on the bi-partisan love fest but that’s how the majority issues the rules each year.  One colleague remarked to one of the freshmen members, "There, you’ve experienced your first [vote] loss already!"  Also, about 80 bills were introduced on day one, a number which will grow to about 1900 by the end of the bill intro period this spring.  So, we are off to the races again.  

Some priorities for this year:

-Balance the budget.

-Make the bonds that the voters approved perform, dollars getting to projects, not bureaucracy and more environmental mitigation land buys.  This means actual highways, levees, and water storage.

-Health Care Reform that is market based and not government run.  People need to care about the cost of the health care that they as US citizens are using.  HillaryCareLite isn’t going to make it. 

This entry was posted on Monday, December 4th, 2006 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.