Psychedelic therapy and workers’ rights bills fail to advance in California’s tough budget year

By TRÂN NGUYỄN and SOPHIE AUSTIN
Associated Press/Report for America

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California lawmakers on Thursday voted to keep hundreds of bills from advancing for a floor vote during a tough budget year. They made the cuts during a mysterious process in which lawmakers decide — with no explanation — which bills get a chance to become law later this year and which ones should not move forward. A bill that would have legalized psychedelic therapy and those that would have given property tax and financial assistance to descendants of enslaved people were among those that didn’t make the cut. A larger share of bills did not make it out of a key Assembly committee compared with previous years. California faces a multibillion-dollar budget deficit.