If the bottleneck in the Senate doesn’t break soon, observers say, House members could be twiddling their thumbs next week … and the week after that.
Suffice it to say, an April 27 adjournment, House Speaker Shap Smith’s ostensible goal, is looking overly optimistic.
Statehouse mavens — lobbyists, advocates, lawmakers and the like — say the 250-page Senate calendar that came out on Tuesday is a sign that it’ll be awhile before lawmakers bid adieu to Montpelier.
A good sign? The money bills are piling up. The budget bill, now ready to go in Senate Appropriations, can’t move until Senate Finance finishes reviewing the tax bill. Once the Big Bill leaves committee, it typically takes two weeks to go through the final approval process on the Senate floor and then committee of conference.
When asked whether the adjournment date had been changed, Rep. Lucy Leriche told the Democratic caucus: “I think that’s more a question for the president pro tem.”
“If you start doing the math and count backwards, you might come to your own conclusions,” Leriche said.
The math, however, is complicated. The Senate has passed a large number of bills — more than 70. The problem is the most controversial legislation has been left to the bitter end and the result could be an interesting series of sideshows.
The other money bills — capital budget adjustment, the transportation bill — have moved with little difficult. Though neither of these bills is particularly controversial, there will be plenty of Green Room sideshows along the way to adjournment that could slow down the process. The energy bill hit a roadblock last week when three senators on committee voted down the legislation. Sen. Mark MacDonald said he didn’t like a carveout for IBM, the state’s largest energy user.
Meanwhile, the childcare unionization bill, which was attached to a workers compensation measure, is looking unlikely to survive in the Senate, thanks to President Pro Tem John Campbell’s antipathy toward the tactics employed by the American Federation of Teachers.
More to come.
