Before leaving for spring break on Friday, March 22, legislators amended 194 bills. When they return from spring break on Monday, April 1, policy committees will be running at full steam, with only four weeks to review fiscal bills and five weeks to review non-fiscal bills.

CLFP staff is busy analyzing these new amendments to determine if they will have an impact on the food processing industry. Several of these bills are "gut and amends," which mean that they have been completely rewritten.

The CLFP Legislative Affairs Committee will be convening on April 12 to discuss the top legislative priorities for 2013 and develop a "hot sheet" to be presented to the CLFP Board at the Annual Board meeting on April 25, 2013.

In addition to evaluating bills, CLFP staff is also busy keeping up with ever-changing legislative membership. The Legislature has been in flux since a number of senators have left office to pursue other opportunities, including former state senators Juan Vargas, D-San Diego, and Gloria Negrete McLeod, D-Chino, who went to Congress in November, and Michael Rubio, D-Bakersfield, who recently took a job in the private sector. Assemblyman Hueso recently won Senator Vargas' old Senate seat; Assemblywoman Norma Torres, D-Pomona, and Ontario Mayor Paul Leon will face-off for McLeod's seat in a May runoff. The primary special election to fill former Sen. Michael Rubio's seat will occur on May 21, and if none of the candidates win an outright majority, the two top vote getters will face-off July 23.

There will be domino effect to fill the assembly seats for those assembly members who are elected to the Senate.