Weekly Legislative Summary

Legislative Days 20-24
February 22, 2021, to February 26, 2021
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What a week it has been. It was a five-day push under the Dome. There are lots of discussions as to when Crossover day will occur.  Crossover is the last day that a bill can pass in one chamber and be sent to the next chamber.  Bills that do not get a floor vote by crossover day generally will not be passed for this year.  Today, an adjournment schedule was discussed that shows Crossover day as Day 28 (March 8th).  The resolution outlines that Sine Die (or the last day of the session) will be March 31st.  We are on the home stretch for this session.  Lori and I continue to stay afoot of every bill we are interested in as the whole machine keeps chugging along.  There is still the heavy restriction down at the Dome due to COVID-19. It means that while remoting, I have had multiple monitors up and running, listening to multiple meetings take place this week as every committee has had a full schedule.
 
There was lots of controversy on the floors for difficult election reformation, law enforcement reformation, and weapon carry license reciprocity bills.  Even though bills are limited to a one-hour debate on the floor, many have gone over due to extensive deliberation. You can tell that our legislators are passionate about these bills and are debating them as much as possible to make sure these bills are as good as can be prior to passage. One bill that did not have any controversy that we liked seeing move through smoothly from the House into the Senate was the DBF's Housekeeping bill (H.B. 111). The Senate introduced the bill on Monday and referred it to the Senate Banking and Financial Institutions. On Thursday, the bill was presented to the committee, and the bill received a vote of DO PASS.
 
Friday’s calendar is full and there are a number of bills that will be voted upon.  The blog is up to date as of noon on Friday.  We will update any important matters in next week’s advocacy update.  

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