LEGISLATIVE UPDATE ~ Committees of Conference and On to the Governor! 

Thursday, June 4th will be the last day of the regular legislative session.*  The House and Senate will both meet to vote on Committee of Conference reports.

Committees of Conference (CoC) are formed when significant differences exist between the Senate and House versions of a bill and when there remains some hope that compromise language can be agreed upon. If a compromise is found, a report is filed and the report then goes to both chambers for a vote. This year, all remaining CoC votes will take place when the House and Senate meet on Thursday, June 4th for the last day of the regular legislative session.*  If both chambers accept the CoC report, the bill will be sent to the Governor like any other bill.

Many important bills are still in Committees of Conference. See the full CoC list here. Please note that some of these bills will die in committee if an agreement cannot be reached by the May 28th deadline. Also, please note that as part of the negotiation process, amendments can be add that totally change the original intent of the bill. So we won’t have a full sense of what exactly the House and Senate will be voting at that June session until after the May 28th deadline passes.

In the meantime, we are asking you take action on some bad amendments that are being proposed for certain bills in CoC’s. We also are asking you to contact the Governor, urging her to veto 2 bad bills. For details on these action items, see below.

After June 4th, Kent Street’s focus will turn to accountability—and to the November midterms. It will be up to all of us to let our friends and neighbors know how the actions of our legislators at the State House impact our families, our communities and our state.

* The House and Senate will meet in September to consider whether to override any of the vetoes issued by the Governor. To do so, both chambers need 2/3 of the members present to vote for the override.