Welcome to Week 5 of the 2013 Legislative Session!  

This is the point in session where the policy committees generally combine hearings on new bills with executive sessions on bills that have already been heard.  Spending too much time hearing a bill, however, can mean that the committee will run out of time to exec other bills!  A good portion of committee time next week will be spent on executive action and if a bill is not out of the policy committee, it will die.... Unless it can get amended onto a living bill! 

And speaking of amendments.....Prior to passage out of committee (or out of the House or Senate), bills are often amended.  While the weekly updates will include the amended versions of some bills, it will not include all.  Amendments or the substitute version of a bill will be included as part of the bill summary.  If the bill has been amended but is not being described in the update, the status will simply say that the bill has been amended.   

Cut-Off Dates Reminder:  
  • February 22nd - Bills have to be out of their policy committee of origin.  
  • March 1st - Bills have to be out of the fiscal committees.  
  • March 13th - Last day to consider bills in their house of origin.  Then the process begins again with bills in the opposite house!  
March is also when the next revenue forecast will take place, which will be followed by the release of the Senate, then House budgets.   As you might imagine, budget discussions are heating up and will continue to do so until a budget agreement can be reached --- hopefully by April 28th, the last day of the regular session. 
 
POC's Bill Tracker is fresh with updates and a handful of new bills. Take a look!

  

Have a good weekend..... 

Laurie Lippold
Public Policy Director