Greetings,

Yesterday was the fiscal committee cutoff, which was preceded last week by the policy committee cutoff. The policy cutoff comes before fiscal cutoff because many of the policy bills may have a fiscal impact as well. The policy committees vet bills for policy only and so many of these bills have to be vetted through an appropriate fiscal committee before it can be passed by the full House. There are four fiscal committees--two spend money (Appropriations and Capital Budget), one raises money (Finance), and one both spends and raises money (Transportation).

You noticed the number of bills on the daily Introduction Sheet diminish prior to the cutoff. House bills will continue to be dropped for whatever reason but have virtually no chance of moving forward. The daily Intro Sheet will now begin to fill with Senate bills being passed over to the House. Bills passing to opposite House now must replicate the committee process they just successfully completed in their house of origin. House members are not allowed to sign onto Senate bills so these Intro Sheets are for information purposes mainly.

I can still use your input however if you have the time to review the Floor Calendar (green) and Suspension Calendar (blue). The Suspension Calendar holds bills that will come to the floor with broad bi-partisan support. The Floor Calendar are the rest of the bills that weren't agreed to be put on the Suspension Calendar. If you have thoughts/concerns on any of these bills I'd appreciate hearing them asap as they are subject to be called to the floor at any time once they're on the calendar. Frequent checking of this calendar is necessary as a bill may suddenly appear and be subject to vote without having had much time for prior consideration. So, many eyes are helpful.

Its been very busy coming up to cutoff so I've finally got a little time to correspond with you. Thanks for all your help so far, but remember we're not even half way through. We still have the Senate to wade through and then the Governor. Budgets are now being finalized and will be released soon--and of course the House, Senate and Gov need to negotiate the final budget. Lots of work ahead. I'm being whipped into caucus as I write this so I'll get back to you again later.

Thanks again for all your help.

- Bob