[L]ast minute is as last minute does. Often legislation takes years of preparation, debate and public exposure to make it over the finish line.
But at the end of the two-year biennium, there is often a push to get bills through that haven’t been fully vetted. Or to kill legislation that isn’t in the interest of powerful players.
The deadline is for real. Once the biennium ends, all the bills that don’t make it through the House and Senate die. The restart button has to be pushed for old legislation at the beginning of the next biennium — by a new crop of lawmakers. And next biennium, there will be an unprecedented turnover of leaders in the Statehouse and on the Fifth Floor.
Given that, there is a sense anything could happen next year. And consequently, lawmakers are doing everything they can to control what they can now.
There will be aggressive attempts to kill at least three major pieces of legislation now in play. I predict the following: The Senate renewable siting bill will likely meet a bitter end in House Natural Resources; the ethics commission and ethics rules legislation (which has been under review for three months in Senate Government Operations) will be rendered practically meaningless by the time it reaches the Senate floor; and the marijuana legalization bill will limp out of House Appropriations and pass initially, but killed in its return back to the House after the Senate tinkers with it. The fact that Gov. Peter Shumlin wants the bill could lessen its chances of passing.
This morning the Senate Rules Committee is set to take up the ethics legislation and six House bills that didn’t make crossover. And there is a chance that the committee won’t move head with a new workforce housing program, a victim’s rights bill, raising the smoking age from 18 to 21 or a provision that would give amnesty for certain people with suspended drivers licenses. The jobs bill, which just passed last week in the House, is so politically important that it will be approved.
It’s a sign that things are winding down. Next week, morning committee meetings will end in the Senate.
Expect to see money bills surface next week. The Senate Appropriations and Finance committees are starting to finalize spending and tax proposals.
When it’s all said and done, those are the only two bills that are must-pass. Everything else that isn’t ready for show time will fall short.
Other signs of spring and adjournment? More lawmakers are announcing retirement. (Reps. Tony Klein and Tim Jerman announced they won’t be running last week.)
All in preparation for a summer and fall election season that will mark big changes in the Statehouse next year.
