UPDATE: On January 19, 2012, the Sacramento Bee reported that A.B. 1378 died in the Assembly’s Appropriations Committee. The bill did not get the required motion and second required for consideration. The State Auditor said that the bill would cost about $400,000 a year, and would put the Auditor’s office in the position of investigating its own "client." It is hard to see how the anti-retaliation provision would interfere with the "independence" of her office. And if the anti-retaliation provision ends up costing the State money, it would probably be a result of liability for actual retaliation — showing that there is a problem to be addressed. It is not unheard of, though, for a bill for transparency and against corruption and retaliation, gets buried through a procedure that does not require legislators to generate a record of who voted yes and who voted no. Hopefully, California voters will call on members of the Appropriations Committee to explain why they did not make the required motion and second to advance A.B. 1378.