BILLS BOTTLENECK IN LEGISLATURE.

Byline: Noah Isackson Associated Press 

California lawmakers are behind schedule - and now they're paying for it.

Ready or not, the Legislature's June deadline is fast approaching. Lawmakers must vote on hundreds of bills by Friday or put them off until next year, a rule that could delay action on some important issues.

``It happens just about every year, we start feeling like schoolchildren just days before a test,'' said Assemblyman Bill Leonard, R-Rancho Cucamonga. ``There's been a lot of procrastination and now we've got lots of work to do.''

Piled among the stacks of paperwork are bills that would tighten gun laws, lower the cost of health care, fight school violence, let doctors help terminally ill patients end their lives and raise a cap on damages in medical malpractice cases.

Legislators say getting to those bills in a holiday-shortened work week won't be easy. The pace is particularly hectic in the Assembly, where lawmakers may consider upward of 100 bills a day, compared to a workload of 30 to 50 on a typical mid-session day.

``We ought to rest up,'' said Jim Cunneen, R-Campbell. ``The work days are going to get longer and could go into the next morning.''

Fourteen-hour sessions may prove unavoidable - but Speaker Pro Tempore Fred Keeley, D-Santa Cruz, said it's his job to try.

``I'm the traffic cop for 80 drivers trying to go through the same intersection,'' Keeley said, referring to the number of Assembly members. ``It's my job to make sure they get there safe and fast.''

Keeley has tweaked parliamentary procedure to achieve that end.

Authors are now encouraged to put their bill up for a vote immediately instead of ``passing and retaining,'' which lets them take it up later in the day. Those who aren't ready to present must ``pass on file,'' which lawmakers dislike because it delays a vote for at least one day.

Keeley also tries to discourage Assembly members from a popular but time-consuming habit: talking. Whenever the Assembly considers a bill with bipartisan support, he reminds the author that he or she need not use the five minutes allotted to introduce it.

Some veteran lawmakers say changing floor procedures won't speed anything up because the damage has already been done.

The hundreds of bills on the Assembly's agenda are the result of lawmakers who overwork themselves by serving on too many committees, said Richard Floyd, D-Carson.

``Just about every bill passes out of committee,'' Floyd said. ``Some of us are on five, six, seven committees. It's too much work so they vote according to a cheat sheet and say yes on everything.''

Some lobbyists agree, and add that term limits force legislators to make friends quickly and make every effort to keep them by voting ``aye'' in committee hearings.

``New members under term limits are trying to be more collegial to their colleagues and I think in some ways they have mistaken collegial for voting `aye' on anything,'' said Kathleen Snodgrass.