Legislative Update
4.21.2014
Memorandum
From: Jay Aronson, The Connsensus Group
Date: April 10, 2014
Negotiations are well under way between the Governor's Office and Democratic leadership over the budget for the next fiscal year. With just under four weeks left of the session, confidence is high that a negotiated budget will emerge before the constitutional deadline on May 7th.
Two bills of interest came out in File form this week:
1. File 403, HB 5355, AAC Collaboration Between Board of Education and School Resource Officers
2. File 404, HB 5357, AAC Chronic Absenteeism Both bills are now ready to potentially be acted upon in the House.
Both the House and Senate were in session on Wednesday with the Senate working late into the night debating Sen. Williams' GMO seed bill, amongst others. The Senate voted to ban such seeds from entering The state. At the time of the vote there was no guarantee that the House had the votes to pass it or that it would even be taken up by the House as the Speaker was not In favor of the bill. However the bill passed, largely along party lines.
The House was back in session on Thursday. And, lo and behold the Speaker asked for suspension of the rules to take the GMO bill up. The Speaker knew the bill would be a "talker". But he also knew that the GOP had their biggest fundraiser of the year Thursday night and therefore would not want to talk it all night. Therefore, out of respect to the Senate Leader the Speaker allowed the bill to come to the Floor for debate. The bill died on the House Floor.
