House Rules Committee Moves off the Dime
To be honest, it was another pretty slow week at the Capitol. But, there was some needed action in the House Rules Committee- and some good things happened there (the House Rules committee passed 55 Senate bills this week but 55 are still in backstock).
The Bills that we’re interested in that were heard in House Rules all passed this week (see last week’s blog), so there will be some action on those this week in Caucus and Committee of the Whole and maybe some floor votes (3rd Read) too.
Conference Committee Deadline Approaching
This week will be an important one – especially for bills in which there’s a difference between the House and Senate versions. That’s because Friday (4/19) is the last day for conference committee assignments (bills that have been amended in the opposite house need to return to their house of origin for another vote… if there isn’t agreement on the amendments a conference committee needs to meet to hammer out a solution).
State Budget
Not much action above the water on the state budget. The state is expected to have a $1B surplus this year and there’s differences of opinion about how much to put in the rainy day fund and of course what other priorities rise to the top of each legislator’s list.
Our top budget priorities are getting the needed state match for Kids Care (more on that below), an appropriation to cover a new oral health benefit for pregnant Medicaid members (SB 1088), and an increase in the state loan repayment program and residency funds to improve access to care in rural and underserved areas (SB 1354).
Here’s this week’s Legislative Tracking Spreadsheet courtesy of our public health policy interns Tim Giblin & Annissa Biggane.
