The House will debate both the budget for the upcoming biennium, SB 1, as substituted and the supplemental budget bill, HB 2, as substituted on Thursday, April 22. All primary amendments that will be offered on the floor for the bills are now available online. In the last seven sessions, anywhere between 200 and 475 amendments have been filed for the budget bill. This time there were 240 pre-filed amendments. Additionally, the supplemental budget bill has a total of 8 pre-filed amendments.
Not every amendment filed will be brought up on the floor for debate, but it is expected the debate will go late into the evening and possibly into early hours the following day. During the 86th Session, the budget bill was voted out of the House after just over 10 hours of discussion and in the 85th it was voted out after 15 hours of discussion.
The House has adopted a calendar rule for both bills that states any amendments offered that increase funds must have an offsetting reduction.
