Committee deadlines for 2019 unveiled

Legislators and the public likely know the timeline for getting bills through the committee process.

It took less than 30 seconds Tuesday for the House Rules and Legislative Administration Committee to adopt a concurrent resolution to set the following deadlines for committees to complete their business this session:

• Friday, March 15 — Committees must act favorably on bills in the house of origin.
• Friday, March 29 — Committees must act favorably on bills, or companions of bills, that met the first deadline in the other body.
• Friday, April 12 — Committees must act favorably on major appropriation and finance bills.

Per House Rule 2.03, the deadlines do not apply to the House Capital Investment Division; the House Taxes, Ways and Means, or Rules and Legislative Administration committees; nor the Senate Capital Investment, Finance, Taxes or Rules and Administration committees.

[READ MORE: The history of committee deadlines]

“The exemption from these deadlines provided for the House Ways and Means Committee in Joint Rule 2.03 does not apply to bills referred by the chair of the Ways and Means Committee to a division of that committee, that remain in a division, with the exception of a major appropriation and finance bill,” the resolution states.

The final deadline comes a day before annual Easter/Passover break that is scheduled to begin Saturday, April 13, and go through Monday, April 22. Legislative activity may resume at 8 a.m. April 23.

The House is expected to adopt the resolution Thursday and send it to the Senate for concurrence. The Legislature must complete its work by May 20.

In 2017, the last budget-setting year, the deadlines were March 10, March 17 and March 31, respectively. In 2015, the three dates were March 20, March 27 and April 24.