California's All-Night Legislative Binges

It turns out that Lil’ Wayne plays a crucial role in the United States legal system. How? By keeping state senators awake. Important bills involving millions of dollars are often put on the table at night. This means that lawmakers need to be awake to deal with them and they have a variety of creative ways to do it, especially in California, which has had six all-nighters so far this year, thanks in part to rules that require a two-thirds majority to pass its budget. Methods for staying awake at crucial moments include sleeping-bag slumber parties; Lil’ Wayne-heavy playlists to keep lawmakers pumped, and best of all, ‘70s singalongs (think bipartisan James Taylor songs in the members lounge). "I think by the end of 'American Pie,' we had a dozen or more folks singing," California Assemblyman Jared Huffman told The Wall Street Journal.