The second half of session is here, but the real second act begins with the conclusion of “house of origin” floor action on February 19. Bills that survive that cutoff will start the process over in the opposite house (i.e., House bills move to the Senate and vice versa). That means a new round of committee hearings will begin on February 20 as bills are heard in the opposite house. So, just because your favorite bill was voted out of its house of origin, that doesn’t mean your work is done – it now must repeat the process before it can go to the Governor’s desk.

This second act moves even faster than the first, with shorter cutoff deadline timetables:

• Policy committee in the opposite house – February 28
• Fiscal committee in the opposite house – March 2
• Last day to pass bills out of the opposite house – March 6

And, of course, all of this will be happening while the two houses start to release and consider their supplemental budget proposals.

What is AWC’s Hot Sheet and what should I do with it?

AWC produces a weekly Hot Sheet that includes a list of bills we think are hot topics for cities. While it’s not an exhaustive list of all the bills we are tracking (or even weighing in on), it includes some of the more critical and popular topics for cities. We update the list every week and sometimes bills drop off (because they are likely dead or have been amended so that we are neutral) or we move them to a different category. If bills that we opposed were amended to improve for cities, then we move them to “monitor” or even “support.”

The color-coded categories are:

• Priority bills – Support: Important bills that support AWC’s priorities that we really like
• Other bills – Support: Bills that are good for cities (but not necessarily priorities) that we really like
• Other bills – Monitor: Bills that we aren’t sure about, could be okay, or could be bad, depending on how they are amended
• Other bills – Oppose: These are the bad bills that we must stop

AWC produces the Hot Sheet as a quick reference guide that you can use when talking with your legislators. Please share it with them, along with your own messages about how the bills impact your community.

Supplemental budget proposals coming soon

We anticipate that we will see the first legislative supplemental budget proposal released shortly after the revenue forecast comes out on Wednesday, February 19. Depending on the timing, we will provide an overview of the budget in the next Legislative Bulletin. Or, if that timing doesn’t work out, then we will send out a separate Budget Alert. Watch for news in your email inbox.

When session ends

If all goes according to plan, the legislative session is set to end on March 12. Join your AWC Advocacy Team on March 19 for an informative recap webinar of city-related issues from the 2020 legislative session. You’ll get a firsthand look at the outcomes of our seven legislative priorities along with other key outcomes of the 2020 session.