Happy last week of session! The end appears near. Budget conferencing began last week and the remaining issues have been bumped up to the chairs of the full Appropriations Committees of the House and Senate. We are anticipating a final budget to be on the desk sometime on Tuesday. That will start the clock for mandatory 72 hour cooling off period. That is the time between when the completed budget is sent out to all legislators and the time at which the legislature can vote on the budget.
Our team at GrayRobinson is once again providing us with our bill tracker. All of the bills we are tracking are listed on the report in numerical order. Bills that align to our platform are highlighted in yellow. A few of the bills to highlight:
- HB 1473 School Safety by Rep. Trabulsy was sent to the Senate in messages after it passed the House floor. It will be substituted for the Senate bill today with an amendment that clarifies when school gates need to be locked or manned addressing concerns about shared use agreements.
- SB 472 Suits Against the Government by Sen. Brodeur was scheduled to be heard on 2nd reading on the Senate floor on Friday. An amendment was filed on Thursday which addresses some of the remaining concerns that were in the previous versions of the bill including the ability to be able to settle above the caps. That part was eliminated in the amendment. The bill including the amendment was temporarily postponed.
SB 7032 Education by Sen. Simon which creates the GATE program as an alternative for students who are struggling to graduate. The bill passed off the floor unanimously and has been sent over to the House for a floor vote.
