Three weeks out from the second funnel deadline, both the House and Senate continued to work through bills on their calendars. Much of the focus was on floor work this week, with a fair amount of committee work peppered between debate blocks. In total, 60 bills were messaged between chambers (26 bills to the House from the Senate; 34 bills to the Senate from the House). By Friday, April 5, all House bills must be out of a Senate committee and Senate bills out of a House committee, except for Appropriations and Ways and Means bills. Additionally, the Senate must confirm all Gubernatorial appointees by April 15.

Appropriations Process Begins

This week brought us our first glimpse of the tax and spend stretch of the legislative session.  The first appropriations bill (Post-Education Funding), Transportation, Infrastructure & Capitals (SF600), moved out of the Senate Appropriations Committee this week.   This is typically the first budget to move through the chambers and the least controversial.  At this time, there are no appropriations subcommittees scheduled in either chamber for Week 11.  This is subject to change, since all budget subcommittees are on-call.  We can expect budget activity to ramp up after the second funnel.

Floor Action

Among the many bills that passed both chambers, Private Generation Tariffs (SF583) passed 28-19 on a generally partisan vote with Senators Green, Kapucian, and Zaun voting against the bill, and Senator Lykam voting for it.  SF583 deals with solar energy and how solar fixtures interrelate with electric utilities.  This bill has the potential to be a part of the work that is completed at the end of session as both chambers work towards adjournment.

Special Election

This Tuesday, Eric Giddens (D) won the special election in Senate District 30 necessitated by the resignation of then Senator Jeff Danielson (D).  Giddens defeated former Republican Representative Walt Rogers by an impressive 2,000 vote margin.  This will restore the margin in the Senate to 32-18 as soon as Giddens is officially sworn in next week after the final canvas of the votes in the election.

Bills Sent to Governor

Through the end of session, we will provide a summary of the bills that have been sent to the Governor, when she signed, and the effective date for each.