SB 699 directs the Legislature to establish a standardized educational course on the United States and California Constitutions for lawmakers and the Legislature's employees. The bill aims to create a common baseline of constitutional knowledge inside the institution so members and staff share a consistent reference point when drafting, evaluating, and implementing law.
For legislative offices and compliance officers this is primarily an institutional-capacity measure: it does not change substantive law but requires the Legislature itself to allocate time, personnel, and curriculum decisions to an in-house training program that foregrounds federalism, separation of powers, and civil rights.
At a Glance
What It Does
The bill adds Section 9025.5 to the Government Code and requires all Members of the California Legislature and legislative employees to attend a constitution course within six months of a regular session convening (or within six months of hiring/assuming office). The Legislative Counsel Bureau, in consultation with the Joint Rules Committee, must develop and run the course, which must be at least two hours and cover topics such as federalism, preemption, separation of powers, the Bill of Rights, and state constitutional rights.
Who It Affects
Every current and newly seated California State Senator and Assembly Member, plus legislative staff across committee offices, leadership offices, and the central legislative staff. The Legislative Counsel Bureau and Joint Rules Committee bear responsibility for course development and delivery.
Why It Matters
This creates a recurring institutional requirement that standardizes constitutional instruction across the Legislature, shifting responsibility for foundational legal education from ad hoc office practices to a centrally managed program. That changes who sets curriculum, how orientation time is used, and where costs and administrative burdens land inside the legislative branch.
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What This Bill Actually Does
SB 699 inserts a single new section into the Government Code that makes a constitution-focused educational course a routine part of legislative life. The course must be available to every Member and employee and completed within a set window tied to the convening of regular sessions or, for late arrivals, within six months of hire or assuming office.
The bill centralizes both the development and delivery of that course by assigning those tasks to the Legislative Counsel Bureau with consultation from the Joint Rules Committee.
The statute prescribes a floor for the course: at least two hours long and covering a list of substantive topics—federalism, preemption, separation of powers, civil rights, the Bill of Rights, state constitutional rights and freedoms, and the roles and responsibilities of the three branches at both federal and state levels. The language names content areas but leaves curriculum design, instructional method (lecture, seminar, online module), assessment, and records management to the implementing office.Practical implementation will require the Bureau to decide whether the course is a single session repeated multiple times during an orientation window, a modular program for staggered hires, or an online on-demand course with a certification mechanism.
The bill is silent on enforcement (for example, whether failing to complete the course affects committee assignments or pay), funding sources for development and delivery, and whether refresher training will be required in subsequent sessions.
The Five Things You Need to Know
The bill adds Section 9025.5 to the Government Code, creating a statutory requirement tied to legislative orientation.
All Members and legislative employees must complete the course within six months of the convening of a regular session, or within six months of hire/assuming a seat if they join mid-session.
The Legislative Counsel Bureau, consulting with the Joint Rules Committee, must develop and conduct the course; no external vendor authorization appears in the text.
The course must be at least two hours long and explicitly cover federalism, preemption, separation of powers, civil rights, the Bill of Rights, state constitutional rights and freedoms, and the roles of the three branches.
The statute does not specify enforcement mechanisms, funding, delivery format, testing, or recordkeeping requirements—leaving key implementation choices to the Bureau and Joint Rules Committee.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
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Baseline requirement for constitutional instruction
Subdivision (a) places the principal obligation on 'all Members and employees of the Legislature' to attend a constitution-focused course within six months of the convening of a regular session. Practically, this makes constitutional instruction a recurring, institution-wide requirement rather than an optional or office-specific orientation item. For offices that already run their own legal briefings, this creates a mandatory overlap that will need coordination to avoid redundant briefings or double-counting staff time.
Timing for mid-session hires and late arrivals
Subdivision (b) provides the timing exception mechanics: new Members who assume their seat after a session convenes, and employees hired mid-session, have six months from their start date to complete the course. That staggered schedule requires the implementing office to support rolling delivery methods—periodic in-person classes or an on-demand online version—so newcomers can comply without delaying their substantive legislative work.
Development, delivery, and required topics
Subdivision (c) charges the Legislative Counsel Bureau, in consultation with the Joint Rules Committee, to develop and conduct the course and sets a minimum length (two hours) and a topic list. The provision centralizes curricular control in the Legislature's professional staff. Because the statute specifies content areas but not pedagogical standards, the Bureau will decide depth, learning objectives, instructor qualifications, assessment, and whether to partner with outside academic or civic institutions.
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Explore Government in Codify Search →Who Benefits and Who Bears the Cost
Every bill creates winners and losers. Here's who stands to gain and who bears the cost.
Who Benefits
- Newly elected legislators: they receive a structured, standardized orientation to constitutional principles relevant to lawmaking, reducing reliance on variable office briefings.
- Legislative staff (especially policy and bill-drafting attorneys): a common baseline knowledge across members' offices can streamline drafting conversations and reduce miscommunication about constitutional constraints.
- Institutional leadership and committee chairs: centralizing curriculum reduces variation across offices and can improve the Legislature's collective ability to identify state-federal conflicts and constitutional vulnerabilities in proposed laws.
- Public policy researchers and civic educators: a formalized program creates opportunities for collaboration, guest instruction, and clearer records on what constitutional topics are being emphasized within the Legislature.
Who Bears the Cost
- Legislative Counsel Bureau and Joint Rules Committee: they must design, staff, and deliver the program, absorbing development time, instructional labor, and administrative overhead.
- Individual legislative offices and staff: employees must allocate work hours to training, which may create short-term productivity costs or require backfilling roles during sessions.
- Legislature's operating budget: absent designated funding in the bill, the program will compete with other internal priorities and may require reallocations or new appropriations.
- Members' offices with bespoke orientation programs: offices that currently provide their own constitutional briefings may need to adjust or consolidate offerings, potentially losing tailored institutional knowledge.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The bill balances two legitimate aims—raising baseline constitutional literacy across the Legislature and keeping institutional training nonpartisan—against a single structural risk: centralizing curricular control and leaving implementation details undefined may standardize instruction but also creates a point where political influence, resource constraints, or minimalist delivery could undermine the stated goal of deeper constitutional competence.
The bill sets content areas and a timing floor but leaves critical implementation details unspecified, creating several operational and policy questions. The lack of a funding directive means the Legislative Counsel Bureau will either absorb costs, require an appropriation, or shift existing resources—each of which has different political and operational implications.
The statute's silence on delivery format, testing or certification, and enforcement mechanisms means compliance could be treated as advisory unless the Bureau and Joint Rules Committee adopt clear administrative rules.
There is also a curriculum-governance tension: centralizing control in the Bureau and Joint Rules Committee standardizes instruction but concentrates decisions over what constitutional interpretations and emphases legislators receive. The specified topics—civil rights, federalism, preemption, separation of powers—are neutral on their face, but the depth and framing of those subjects can influence legislative behavior.
Finally, the two-hour minimum may be too short to move beyond overview-level instruction, raising questions about whether the program will meaningfully change practice or simply check a compliance box during orientation.
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