THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS Policy committees in the House worked diligently this week to finalize their spending recommendations for the FY2023 Budget Adjustment Act (BAA). Each committee sent a letter to the House Appropriations committee outlining their BAA priorities. Many of these recommendations are in response to Governor Phil Scott’s proposals. Some are new proposals offered by policy committees in the House. As of this writing on Friday afternoon, the House Appropriations committee is nearing initial approval of their version of the BAA. The goal is to hold a straw poll at some point today and vote the bill out of committee early next week. This would set up a floor debate in the House later next week, and final passage in the House by the end of the week. The relatively quick speed at which the BAA is moving is an interesting contrast to the tempo elsewhere in the legislature. With historic turnover in both the House and Senate many legislative committees have spent the better part of the first four weeks acclimating to their areas of jurisdiction, holding introductory hearings with administration officials and stakeholders from the private sector and getting updates on legislative reports that were commissioned last year. Once the BAA passes the House, it heads to the Senate Appropriations committee. Next week the work will begin in earnest in the House on the FY2024 budget. |