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April 10, 2001 Life
in the Legislature The session is really heating up now. The Long Bill (budget bill) was delivered to the House Friday afternoon. There were surprisingly few amendments in the Senate and three of which I will be working to "correct." The House will caucus (de-velop a partisan consensus) and work on the Long Bill until it is approved. All else is put aside until this beast is tamed and sent to the Governor. We debated the House version of the Growth Bill (HB-1225) all day Tuesday which pushed back a few committees that were scheduled to meet on Tuesday afternoon. Now that the Long Bill has cleared the Senate, Senate bills that were holed up in the Senate Appropriations Committee will be coming out rapid fire, voted on and, if approved, sent to the House. The same scenario looms as House bills languishing in the House Appropriations Committee are primed and ready to be sent to the Senate upon House approval. Conference committees are increasing in number as bills amended in the other body are rejected and a conference committee is requested. Committees of reference (standing committees) will be meeting to hear the late Senate bills and several late House bills that, for some reason or other, were not introduced and heard in the House until this late in the session. All of this activity truly tests one's organizational skills. Watching and preparing for Senate bills I am sponsoring in the House, monitoring bills being heard on second reading, reading all bills before third reading and final vote, reading and preparing for bills being heard in committee, reading conference committee reports to assure a bill has not been changed to where I cannot support it, preparing for budget fights and enduring the hundreds of lobbyist interruptions and demands, can cause for hair pulling and temple rubbing in no time at all! With 33 days remaining and 309 bills somewhere between being postponed indefinitely or the Governor's desk, this is the time legislators nerves become frayed and one begins seeing the stress fractures in their emotional framework. * * * * * * * * All but one of my primary bills have cleared the House and are being decided in the Senate. HB-1373, Creating the Division of Oil and Public Safety, was heard in the House Business Affairs and Labor Committee on Thursday and awaits Second Reading debate. The committee approval on this bill was easy as I obtained co-sponsorship of every member of the committee before introducing the bill. A member is less likely to fight you in committee if they are a co-sponsor! My 55 page bill cleared committee in less than 5 minutes. Not to worry, this bill has three pages of substance and 52 pages of conforming amendments (technical name changes to applicable sections.) * * * * * * * * My bill that attempted to provide funding for agriculture producers to mitigate predator animal damage, HB-1162, was killed in the House Appropriations Committee on Friday. There are simply no funds available for anything other than previously funded programs... and possibly not enough for them either. My last ditch effort of amending the bill to capture any unexpended budget funding in the Department of Agriculture for the Predator Animal Fund hit a snag. The Appropriations Committee did not like the idea of unexpended funds not reverting back to the general fund. I explained that the passage of Amendment 14, which for all intent and purpose made predator animals state property, has caused a significant hardship on the agriculture community. I believe that the state should take care of their "state property" by funding predator control programs beyond the ridiculously low $50,000 it currently expends. Farmers and ranchers should not have to spend their own money to handle depredating or damaging predators when the only effective means of mitigation was eliminated by Amendment 14. HB-1162's dying is not the end. It is only one step in the process. * * * * * * * * Please note that my e-mail address has been changed by the state. It is now <marklarson@qwest.net >. |
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