2025 Legislative Update: Week 13

Tuesday April 8^th was the last day for bills to be passed out of the opposite house fiscal committees. The days leading up to that cutoff were filled with marathon committee meetings where bills and amendments were briefed, caucused on, and then brought to a vote.  There were several bills that were originally scheduled for executive session but got pulled from consideration when it came time to vote.

For those that like to keep track of the number of bills moving through the legislative process, below are the number of bills introduced, and the bills passed by each of the cutoffs we have crossed:

• Bills Introduced so far in the 2025 session: 1,928
• Bills Passed House of Origin Policy Cutoff: 1,154
• Bills Passed House of Origin Fiscal Cutoff: 730
• Bills Passed House of Origin Floor Cutoff: 523
• Bills Passed Opposite House Policy Cutoff: 485
• Bills Passed Opposite House Fiscal Cutoff: 450

After opposite house fiscal cutoff, focus shifted to floor action. Our next cutoff date is Wednesday, April 16^th when bills must be passed off the floor of the opposite house. During this time, bills must get ‘pulled’ from the respective Rules committees so they may become eligible to be brought to the floor. The Rules committee acts as a gatekeeper and can be a place where bills silently die simply by not moving them along for further consideration. The Rules committee is also unpredictable as meetings are often not scheduled in advance. But you know a Rules meeting has happened when you get an email with the list(s) of bills that were pulled.

Once a bill has been pulled from Rules, it needs to be put on a ‘run list’. At that point, the bills are caucused on by each party within that chamber and then brought to the floor for debate and vote. Some bills have quick and simple discussion, and some have numerous amendments and hours of debate before getting to the final vote. It is a complex equation of figuring out which bills to run when, and how much floor time each bill could potentially require.

With the pressing timeline of floor cutoff just a couple days away, the House worked late Friday evening and on Saturday. Both chambers took Sunday off. 

TVW’s Legislative Review does clips each day highlighting some of the hot topics of the day. You can find links to the Legislative Review videos here.

Primer on Concurrence, Dispute, and Conference

If a bill was amended in the opposite house from which it was originally introduced, the house of origin must decide whether it will agree (concur) with the amendments or not. This step must happen before a bill can be sent to the Governor’s desk for signature. There are three potential paths for bills to work towards concurrence: the house of origin can agree with the changes made by the opposite chamber (concur), disagree with the changes and assert the house of origin version should be maintained (dispute), or both chambers could disagree with the opposite house and enter into discussions about a compromise version (conference). More details on each of these below:

• Concurrence: If the house of origin concurs with the amendments, they take a concurrence floor vote to make sure there is true concurrence. There is no further amending permitted in concurrence. It is a ‘yes or no’ vote. If it gets the votes for concurrence, the bill has passed the legislature, and it will head to the Governor.
• Dispute: If the house of origin disagrees with the amendment(s) from the opposite house, they can ask the opposite house to recede from the amendments. This again requires a full floor vote without amendments – the opposite house simply votes ‘yes or no’ whether to recede from the changes they had made to the bill. If the opposite house votes to recede, the bill has passed the legislature, and it will head to the Governor.
• Conference: If the two houses cannot resolve their differences, they can ask for a conference committee to seek resolution. Members from each house are selected to meet to discuss the differences. If they agree on what is to be done, the conference committee issues a report. Both houses must adopt the conference report for the bill to pass the legislature. It is a ‘yes or no’ vote on the conference report in both chambers; no further amendments are allowed on the conference report. If one house does not adopt the conference report (either by vote or inaction), the bill has not passed.

  ---

 Bill Status Report