IN SUMMARY Lawmakers shelve dozens of significant bills, many opposed by special interests. They include proposals on police reform, housing, health care and more. _ Lea este artículo en 

español._ Forget about new protections for California kids cruising the internet. There will be no new requirements for crime labs to process old rape kits. And some households behind on

their water bills won’t get more time to pay them back before their pipes get shut off.  Those were some of the more than 200 bills California lawmakers killed today in the rapid-fire and

often mysterious procedure known as the suspense file.  Officially, the procedure promotes fiscal responsibility, allowing lawmakers to consider costly bills together and weigh their

transparency is weak on,” said Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez, the San Diego Democrat who chairs the appropriations committee. “But I’ve never once had the Speaker come to me and say, ‘This

isn’t politically feasible.’” With more than 350 bills on the Senate’s suspense file and more than 500 on the Assembly’s, the lobbying leading up to today is intense: “Everybody but God

himself has contacted me on a bill,” Gonzalez said. Though she downplayed the role of politics, one of her predecessors said the job is like being the “Speaker’s henchman.” They can use the

suspense file to prevent an idea they don’t like from becoming law, exact revenge on a fellow lawmaker or shield their colleagues from having to take a position on a controversial proposal.

  “You’ve got to be prepared to take really tough decisions for the caucus,” former Assemblymember Mike Gatto said on a recent podcast.  Governors also try to bottle some things up in the

suspense file, Gatto said, adding that when he left office in 2016, then-Gov. Jerry Brown thanked him for keeping legislation from reaching his desk.  The suspense file, of course, is not

the only tool for slaying bills. Lawmakers can also kill them simply by doing nothing. For the last two years, the Assembly has allowed policy committee chairpersons to decide whether to

give bills a hearing. That means they can silently snuff them just by not taking them up for a vote. This is how Democrats, who control the Legislature, have killed some of the most

progressive bills introduced this year, including proposals to develop a single-payer health care system, ban fracking and levy a wealth tax. It’s also what doomed an attempt to repeal a ban

on local soda taxes. Gov. Gavin Newsom has said he will not sign tax increases this year, with the state awash in COVID-19 relief money from the federal government and taxes paid by

wealthier residents benefiting from a booming stock market.  “When you’re enjoying a $76-plus billion — and growing — operating surplus, I don’t think it’s the time to do tax increases,”

Newsom said last week as he presented his updated budget.  Still, one major tax increase survived the suspense file today — a proposal to increase taxes on international corporations to fund

homeless services.   Here’s a look at some key proposals that stalled in today’s massive culling: CRIMINAL JUSTICE A year after protests across the country over police accountability and

racism, lobbying by law enforcement groups effectively watered down or stopped a handful of bills aimed at policing the police: * A proposed requirement that background checks explore if law

enforcement officers have been affiliated with hate groups in the past stalled amid opposition from the California Correctional Peace Officers Association.  * The biggest police reform bill

of the year — which would allow the state to kick bad cops out of the profession for certain types of misconduct and make it easier for people to sue officers and departments for civil

rights violations — survived the suspense file, but only after it was watered down. The version that’s moving ahead is more limited in when a person can sue the police — a change the bill’s

author, state Sen. Steven Bradford, said was “difficult to accept.” But, the Gardena Democrat said in a statement: “Compromise requires us to work together to find common ground.”  For the

second year in a row, the appropriations committee killed a bill requiring law enforcement agencies to process their backlogged rape kits. The California Public Defenders Association argued

the bill would take away resources to test other types of evidence.  _—Byrhonda Lyons and Robert Lewis_ HOUSING An effort to streamline affordable housing funding by creating one place for

developers to apply for tax credits, bonds and subsidies is on hold until next year. UC Berkeley’s Terner Center and the state auditor argued this approach would cut the cost and time it

takes to build affordable housing, but state Treasurer Fiona Ma, whose office would have given up some power, called the overhaul “risky.”  Assemblymember Buffy Wicks’ third attempt to

create a registry making it easier to determine who owns rental housing died amid opposition from the California Association of Realtors, which argued the registry would burden property

owners. The Realtors — a political powerhouse in Sacramento — spent nearly $350,000 on lobbying between January and March and also opposed a measure to curb evictions and another to help

first-time homebuyers by ending a mortgage interest deduction on second homes, which died before they even got to the Assembly appropriations committee. _—Manuela Tobias_ POVERTY AND

INEQUALITY A proposal to shield more Californians who are late on water bills from having their water shut off stalled in the face of opposition from municipal water agencies. But hope is

not lost for those late on water bills. Newsom wants to spend $1 billion to bail out consumers and providers crushed by water debt. And another bill to create a water assistance program

survived today’s bloodbath. A number of proposals aimed at using the tax system to help low-income consumers also died, including a bill to make parents without income eligible for

California’s tax credit for young children of as much as $1,000, a proposal to help low-income workers maximize their tax refund by choosing from the last three years of income and a plan to

create a state tax credit for employers who hire people who are disabled veterans, on public assistance or formerly incarcerated. For each, legislative analysts questioned whether the

benefits outweigh the cost to the state. _—Jackie Botts_ HEALTH CARE Insurance companies prevailed in killing a bill that would have allowed the state to require health plans to issue

“emergency payments” to struggling health providers in public health crises. The legislation was backed by doctors and dentists who said the pandemic left many medical and dental practices

cash-strapped because of fewer patient visits. A bill to hire a chief school nurse at the state level also failed, even though — as CalMatters reported last year — California is one of only

10 states without someone in that position. _—Ana B. Ibarra and Barbara Feder Ostrov_ ENVIRONMENT  An attempt to streamlinepermitting for residential solar systems died amid opposition from

unions representing electrical workers. Environmental groups supported the bill that would have required cities and counties to establish online permitting and automated approvals for

residential solar systems — a response to the often sluggish permitting process and the associated costs that has caused consumers to cool toward adopting solar systems. Environmentalists

also lost out with the stalling of a bill to require companies doing business in California with more than $1 billion in annual revenues to publicly report their greenhouse gas emissions

from both direct sources, such as manufacturing, and indirect, such as from their supply chain. The bill’s delay until next year “shows just how much control corporate polluters still have

in California,” the head of the California League of Conservation Voters said in a statement. _—Julie Cart_ HIGHER EDUCATION Legislation aimed at preventing universities from reducing

students’ financial aid when they receive private scholarships is on hold until at least next year. A bill that would have dedicated $20 million to expand mental health services to students

attending the state’s public colleges and universities also stalled, but Assemblymember Kevin McCarty said he’ll try to fund it through the state budget. Legislation to ensure support staff

at California State University campuses get 5% merit raises failed amid opposition from university leaders.  Another measure that stalled would have barred the University of California from

entering into contracts with health providers that forbid UC medical staff from providing reproductive healthcare and gender-affirming care for transgender patients. It was pulled to give

the UC until next year to establish its own policies, said a spokesperson for the bill’s author, Sen. Scott Wiener of San Francisco. The proposal was also opposed by Catholic hospitals,

which have partnerships with UC hospitals.  Left to live another day is arguably the most consequential higher education bill — a massive expansion of state financial aid.  _—Felicia Mello

and Mikhail Zinshteyn_ BROADBAND ACCESS AND INTERNET SAFETY The pandemic-induced shift to remote work and distance learning prompted a slate of proposals aimed at closing the digital divide.

Two of them died today:  Concern that kids can too easily drift into violent or inappropriate content online prompted a bill that would have prohibited features such as auto-play videos and

in-app purchases, unless parents opt-in for their children. But it died for a second year in a row, even after being narrowed to address the tech industry’s opposition to an earlier

version. _—Jackie Botts, Ben Christopher and Zayna Syed_ _CalMatters reporters Rachel Becker, Nigel Duara and Jocelyn Wiener contributed to this story._ _For the record: An earlier version

of this story incorrectly reported that bills to increase transparency and accountability on nursing home ownership and to shorten the waiting period for end-of-life decisions had been

killed. Also, the story has been changed to say that a bill to require reporting of greenhouse gas emissions has been delayed a year. _ As befits a good murder plot, California lawmakers

target potential victims by placing the bills on what they call the “suspense file.”