Be Patient With the Process

The legislative process may seem agonizingly slow at times, but it is a deliberate and deliberative process for good reason. Sometimes legislation is made worse by too much discussion and study. But most often bills are improved by being put to a variety of tests in the two houses of the state Legislature and then in the governor’s office.

Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) is not always content to live with the process he was elected to pursue. When a Senate committee delayed action on two of his bills dealing with chlorofluorocarbons the other day, Hayden immediately threatened to write them into law through an initiative petition campaign. His measures would have banned the sale of chlorofluorocarbons in small cans and required that they be recycled under strict guidelines. “The committee has got to be crazy to do this,” Hayden declared after it postponed action on his legislation until the 1990 session of the Legislature. “This is guaranteed to become an initiative.”

It is necessary to take action against the chemicals because of the damage they do to theozone layer of the atmosphere. But rushing one frustrated man’s opinion into law through voter initiative is not the way to proceed on such a technical issue, where much of the current wisdom is subject to careful scientific interpretation, and when much is to be learned about the effectiveness of alternatives to chlorofluorocarbons.

A more reasoned and rational approach was taken by Assemblyman John Vasconcellos (D-Santa Clara) when an Assembly committee failed to approve his broader legislation that would ban the sale of autos with air-conditioning units using the chemical after 1992.

Vasconcellos urged the committee to hold a forum on banning the use of chlorofluorocarbons to be attended by appropriate leaders and experts. He added: “Let’s make it clear that this is a serious issue.” It is a serious issue. And the proper, prudent approach to that issue is the one Vasconcellos outlined, not rushing to the public with a proposed law that petition-signers do not understand and that has not stood the scrutiny of the legislative process.