The last two weeks of the 60-date legislative session will speed by.  Blink, and the next thing you see will be the joint gaveling at sine die.

Fiscal committees will finish up the bulk of their work this Monday and the rest of the week will be devoted to passing bills out of their opposite houses and negotiating budgets.

The remaining week will center around reconciling bills that changed in their opposite houses. The House will have to decide whether to accept the new versions of bills that changed in the Senate and vice versa. They can accept the changes, in which case the next step for the bill is the Governor’s pen, or refuse to accept the changes, in which case the opposite house can choose to rescind their changes or hold steady. Some bills will be informally negotiated, some could die, and some could see a formal negotiation via a “conference committee.” If a bill is negotiated via a conference committee, the conference report is the final draft of the bill. After that, no additional changes to the bill are allowed.  The Legislators may only vote for or against it.

WSAC is still working on a number of important bills. Bills like: