2026-02-16T15:01:00-0500 / CBS新闻
几十年来，加州立法者要求进行州审计，加州民众为这些审计买单，而州审计长则提供了关于如何解决州政府内浪费、欺诈和监督失败问题的详细建议。
在大多数情况下，哥伦比亚广播公司新闻部加州分部发现，立法者并未就这些建议采取行动。
[点击探索：加州立法者审计问责追踪器]
当他们确实采取行动时，前多数党领袖却在委员会中悄悄否决了数十项经审计支持的法案。州长加文·纽森（Gavin Newsom）至少否决了另外十几项法案。
哥伦比亚广播公司新闻部加州分部的一项调查发现，立法者未能落实大约四分之三针对立法机构的州审计建议，导致超过300项法定整改措施悬而未决。
如今，来自两党的立法者——以及州议会两院的议员——都表示，是时候解决这一积压问题了。
新上任的立法审计主席、民主党议员约翰·哈拉贝迪安（John Harabedian）称这些调查结果是一个”警钟”，并表示立法机构有机会在本届会议上由新一批议员着手解决长期存在的问题，明年还将迎来新的州领导层。
“我认为，随着立法机构迎来新一批议员和新州长，这是一个直面这些问题的绝佳机会，”哈拉贝迪安说。
共和党参议院少数党领袖布莱恩·琼斯（Brian Jones）也表示，这些数据令人担忧。
“四分之三的审计建议未得到处理，这太荒谬了，”琼斯说。
两位立法者都强调，审计过程本身是无党派的。
“这是无党派的，甚至不是两党合作——而是无党派的，”琼斯说。”当审计长着手处理某个问题时，他们不带任何偏见。”
机构会遵守，立法者却不会
根据2006年《综合审计问责法案》，州审计长必须发布年度报告，指出一年内未被实施的机构建议。机构必须公开解释为何未采取行动或何时计划遵守。
机构大约落实了四分之三的建议。相比之下，立法者落实的针对他们的建议仅为四分之一。
对于立法者，存在以下问题：
- 没有要求对未完成的立法建议进行年度总结
- 立法者未采取行动时，没有正式的解释要求
- 法案夭折或被否决后，没有集中跟踪机制
为何整改措施停滞不前
对立法记录的深入分析揭示了多项经审计支持的改革失败的原因。
超过60项法案是基于审计结果起草或提出的，但后来均夭折。一些因内部政治分歧而停滞，另一些则面临州机构的抵制。
有些法案被悄悄搁置在委员会或暂存文件中，未进行公开投票，这通常表明民主党超级多数派领导层不支持该法案。
至少还有十几项与审计相关的法案在立法机构通过后被州长纽森否决。
在几份否决意见中，州长认为额外监督不必要或提议的变革成本过高。
语气的转变
多年来，前州审计长伊莱恩·豪尔（Elaine Howle）自愿每年发布报告，总结专门针对立法机构的未决建议。
这些报告：
- 列出了每一项未解决的立法建议
- 确定了负责的政策委员会
- 记录了相关法案是被提出、搁置、通过还是否决
它们构成了一个集中的问责框架，本质上是立法机构未完成事务的清单。
2022年豪尔卸任后，州长纽森任命了新的州审计长格兰特·帕克斯（Grant Parks），这一报告制度也随之终止。
哥伦比亚广播公司新闻部加州分部发现，在豪尔担任审计长期间，纽森州长在其第一任期内至少否决了十几项经审计建议支持的法案。根据公开记录，自帕克斯上任以来，他似乎没有否决过任何与审计相关的法案。
在他首次参加的联合立法审计委员会听证会上——该委员会负责决定哪些审计请求获得批准——帕克斯暗示了语气的转变。
在介绍帕克斯之前，新上任的联合立法审计委员会主席大卫·阿尔瓦雷斯（David Alvarez）承认，过去审计有时会在立法机构和行政部门之间造成”对立关系”。
对此，帕克斯强调保持”平衡语气”和”与行政部门合作”的重要性，并补充道：”我们不是要针对他人或博取媒体关注，”帕克斯澄清道。
报告制度的变化
审计长办公室告诉哥伦比亚广播公司新闻部加州分部，停止制作详细列出未决建议和与审计相关的否决情况的特别立法报告，是为了”优化审计资源的使用”。
发言人达娜·西马斯（Dana Simas）在一份声明中表示，将工作重心转向核心审计工作将提高法定审计和立法批准审计的及时性。她补充说，建议仍然可以在审计长网站上公开获取，”我们在2024年1月对网站进行了升级，以显著改善用户体验，现在可以按问题或政策领域、机构以及审计发布年份对建议进行详细搜索。”
然而，升级后的网站没有专门搜索”对立法机构的建议”的功能。
以公共安全为例，该网站当前的搜索功能仅返回4份公共安全审计报告，其中只有2份可见的立法建议，而忽略了过去五年发布的其他公共安全审计中数十项额外的未决立法建议。
要找到这些建议，用户必须手动搜索档案，查阅数百份单独的审计报告，才能识别出仅自2021年以来就已发布的数十项未决立法建议。
实际上，仅依靠当前搜索工具的立法者无法看到未完成立法建议的全部范围。
立法者表示，这一缺口至关重要。
立法机构非常信任审计结果，因此通过了一项法律，要求州机构要么实施审计建议，要么公开解释为何不实施。
这种公开问责机制已被证明有效。机构落实了超过80%的审计建议。但针对立法机构的类似框架尚未建立。
因此，哥伦比亚广播公司新闻部加州分部建立了一个。
利用公共记录，我们整理并汇总了各审计报告中的立法建议，创建了”审计问责追踪器”——一个专门关注针对民选立法者的建议的数据库。
重建问责框架
哥伦比亚广播公司新闻部加州分部 | 立法审计问责追踪器旨在服务于立法者和公众。
该数据库汇总了十年的立法审计建议，并跟踪：
- 哪些法案被提出
- 哪些法案被搁置
- 哪些法案通过
- 哪些法案被否决
- 哪些建议仍未解决
本届会议上，近半数加州立法者是新当选的。许多未决建议是在现任议员上任前提出的。
“当这些报告回到立法机构时，我们的工作就是利用这些信息进行明智的立法，”琼斯说，他承认需要向新立法者宣传州审计的重要性。
哈拉贝迪安表示，他打算跨委员会和跨党派合作解决积压问题。
“我希望到今年年底能解决其中一些问题，明年解决更多问题，然后我们将继续推进，”他说。”我们有责任为民众做到这一点。”
[点击探索：加州立法者审计问责追踪器]
多年来，警告已被提出，解决方案也已确定。现在，立法者表示他们已准备好向前迈进。
哥伦比亚广播公司新闻部加州分部将继续跟踪这些承诺是否会成为法律。
约翰·凯利（John Kelly）为本报告提供了帮助。
分类：
- 朱莉·沃茨调查（Julie Watts Investigates）
- 政治（Politics）
- 哥伦比亚广播公司加州调查（CBS California Investigates）
- 加州（California）
- 加州的未竟事业（California’s Unfinished Business）
They didn’t just ignore audit warnings — California lawmakers quietly killed dozens of audit-backed bills
2026-02-16T15:01:00-0500 / CBS News
For decades, California lawmakers requested state audits, Californians have paid for those audits, and the State Auditor provided detailed recommendations on how to fix waste, fraud, and oversight failures across state government.
In most cases, CBS News California found lawmakers did not act on those recommendations.
CLICK TO EXPLORE:California Lawmaker Audit Accountability Tracker
When they did act, former majority party leaders quietly killed dozens of audit-backed bills in committee. Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed at least a dozen more.
A CBS News California investigation found lawmakers failed to enact roughly three out of every four state audit recommendations directed at the Legislature, leaving more than 300 outstanding statutory fixes unresolved.
Now, lawmakers from both parties — and both state houses — say it’s time to address the backlog.
The new Legislative Audit Chair, Democrat Assemblymember John Harabedian, called the findings a “wake-up call” and said the Legislature has an opportunity to tackle long-standing issues with a new class of members this session and a new state leadership next year.
“I think that there is a great opportunity with a new class in the Legislature, a new governor, to really tackle these things head-on,” Harabedian said.
Republican Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones agreed the numbers are concerning.
“Three out of four is ridiculous that that’s not being addressed,” Jones said.
Both lawmakers emphasized that the audit process itself is nonpartisan.
“It’s nonpartisan. It’s not even bipartisan — it’s nonpartisan,” Jones said. “When the auditor takes that issue up, they come at this with no bias.”
Agencies comply. Lawmakers don’t.
Under the Omnibus Audit Accountability Act of 2006, the State Auditor must issue annual reports identifying agency recommendations not implemented after one year. Agencies are required to publicly explain why they have not acted or when they intend to comply.
Agencies implement roughly three out of every four recommendations. By comparison, lawmakers fail to enact three out of every four recommendations directed to them.
For lawmakers, there is:
- No required annual summary of unfinished legislative recommendations
- No formal explanation requirement when lawmakers fail to act
- No centralized tracking once bills die or are vetoed
Why fixes stalled
A deeper dive into legislative records revealed multiple reasons proposed audit-backed reforms failed.
More than 60 bills were drafted or introduced based on audit findings, but later died. Some stalled due to internal political disagreements. Others faced resistance from state agencies.
Some were quietly held in committee or on the suspense file without a public vote, often an indication that Democratic supermajority leadership did not support the bill.
At least another dozen audit-related bills passed the legislature only to be vetoed by Gov. Newsom.
In several veto messages, the governor argued that additional oversight was unnecessary or that the proposed changes were too costly.
A shift in “tone”
For years, former State Auditor Elaine Howle voluntarily issued annual reports summarizing outstanding recommendations directed specifically to the legislature.
Those reports:
- Listed every unresolved legislative recommendation
- Identified which policy committee was responsible
- Documented whether related bills were introduced, stalled, passed, or vetoed
They functioned as a centralized accountability framework, essentially a legislative checklist of unfinished business.
That reporting ended in 2022 after Howle retired and Gov. Newsom appointed a new state auditor, Grant Parks.
CBS News California identified at least a dozen audit-recommended bills that Governor Newsom vetoed during his first term, while Howle was auditor. Based on publicly available records, it does not appear he has vetoed any audit-related bills since appointing Parks.
At his first Joint Legislative Audit Committee hearing, where the lawmakers decide which audit requests to approve, Parks signaled a shift in tone.
Before introducing Parks, the newly appointed JLAC Chair David Alvarez acknowledged that, in the past, audits had sometimes created “an adversarial relationship between the Legislature and the Administration.”
In response, Parks emphasized the importance of maintaining a “balanced tone” and “working with the Administration,” adding, “We’re not looking out to get people or gain media attention,” Parks clarified.
A change in reporting
The auditor’s office told CBS News California the decision to discontinue producing the special legislative reports detailing outstanding recommendations and audit-related vetoes was made to “optimize the use of auditor resources.”
In a statement, spokesperson Dana Simas said redirecting efforts toward core audit work would improve timeliness for statutory and legislatively approved audits. She added that recommendations remain publicly accessible on the auditor’s website, “which we upgraded in January 2024 to offer a significantly improved user experience that now offers detailed search capabilities of recommendations by issue or policy area, agency, and the year the audit was published.”
However, the updated site does not provide a dedicated search for “Recommendations to the Legislature.”
Using public safety as an example, the site’s current search function returns just four public safety audit reports, with only two visible legislative recommendations, overlooking dozens of additional outstanding legislative recommendations in other public safety audits issued over the past five years.
To identify those recommendations, users must manually search the archive, reviewing hundreds of individual audit reports to identify the dozens of outstanding legislative recommendations issued since 2021 alone.
In practice, lawmakers relying solely on the current search tools would not see the full scope of unfinished legislative recommendations.
Lawmakers say that gap matters.
The legislature trusts the auditor’s findings so much that they passed a law requiring state agencies to either implement audit recommendations or publicly explain why they have not.
That public accountability has proven effective. Agencies implement more than 80% of audit recommendations. No comparable framework exists for the legislature.
So CBS News California built one.
Using public records, we scraped and consolidated legislative recommendations across audit reports to create the Audit Accountability Tracker — a database focused specifically on recommendations directed at elected lawmakers.
Rebuilding the accountability framework
The CBS News California | Legislative Audit Accountability Tracker is intended to serve both lawmakers and the public.
The database compiles a decade of legislative audit recommendations and tracks:
- Which bills were introduced
- Which stalled
- Which passed
- Which were vetoed
- Which remain unresolved
Nearly half of the California Legislature is new this session. Many outstanding recommendations were issued before current members took office.
“When these reports come back to the legislature, it’s our job to take that information and legislate intelligently,” said Jones, who acknowledged they need to educate new lawmakers on the importance of state audits.
Harabedian says he intends to work across committees and across party lines to address the backlog.
“I’m hoping by the end of this year we tackle some of it, by the next year we tackle more, and we just keep going,” he said. “We owe it to the people to do that.”
CLICK TO EXPLORE:California Lawmaker Audit Accountability Tracker
For years, the warnings were written and the solutions were identified. Now, lawmakers say they’re ready to move forward.
CBS News California will continue tracking whether those promises become law.
John Kelly contributed to this report.
In:
- Julie Watts Investigates
- Politics
- CBS California Investigates
- California
- California’s Unfinished Business
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