Tracking Bills That Matter: How California law creates power outside the State

FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE) — California has more than 150,000 laws on the books, governing everything from environmental policy to school lunch menus. But laws don’t enforce themselves.

According to Chris Micheli, an adjunct law professor at the McGeorge School of Law, when lawmakers want to solve a problem or regulate an industry, they often write bills that create entire agencies, boards, or councils to carry out and enforce the law.

“We've created all of these agencies and departments and boards and commissions to do that work of running the government for the state of California,” Micheli said. “That's the executive branch's job—to interpret, apply, and enforce what the Legislature passes.”

Most of the time, those oversight bodies are traditional state agencies. They’re staffed by public