In The Loop- January 24, 2025
The Screening Process
Two weeks have passed since the start of the legislative session and committees are ready to raise concepts and bills. The last of the organizational meetings were held this week and all committee meetings moving forward will be to take official action on setting the agenda for the legislature.
Some clients may be familiar with this stage of the session where each legislative committee has a “screening” committee which reviews prospective legislation to take up in committee. On the committee sits the chairs and ranking members who thoroughly evaluate whether or not, (1) the bill is within the appetite of committee members, and (2) if the scope of the legislation matches the priorities of the leadership for each of the four caucuses. While most of the committee works bipartisanly, there will always be topics that divide party lines where the chairs ultimately decide if it deserves to be on an agenda or not. This was very complicated in the 2017-2018 sessions when the Senate was spilt 18/18 and each committee had three chairs to decide the fate of legislation.
Remember, for the vast majority of items there’s consensus between the parties on what should receive a public hearing. However, the screening committee also decides the fate of legislation to be voted out of committee. What factors are used to determine this? A mixture of everything. From the feedback coming out of the public hearing and the political will to pass something, to the willingness for language to change if necessary.
Hopefully this insight in the internal vetting process of considering legislation is helpful to for the next steps when working with S&L.