05/28/15

Today the Legislature met a significant deadline that required them to act on bills with a potential state fiscal impact.  Today the Senate and Assembly Appropriations Committees took up the “suspense file,” acting on a number of bills with school facilities implications.  When bills are initially heard in the Appropriations Committee, the Committee will often defer action, sending bills to suspense.  This is a mechanism whereby each house collects and prioritizes bills with state fiscal implications, acting upon them at a later date.  Bills that are “held” in the Appropriations Committee at this point in time will likely not be moving forward through the legislative process for the remainder of the year; they become “two-year bills” with the opportunity to move again at the beginning of 2016.