House May Pass 500 Bills This Week
The House Chamber in Springfield
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“Everyone’s dinner plans are TBA all week,” texted one Democratic lawmaker joking about the glut of bills likely to move through the House of Representatives this week.
Friday is the looming Third Reading Deadline to advance House bills to the Senate and Monday marked the first time since the new General Assembly was took office in January that the chamber passed a bill…any bill.
The House passed 71 bills Monday and members have been told to expect as many as 500 bills to move through the chamber this week.
“It’s insane,” said one House Democrat who spoke freely on the condition of anonymity. “It’s going to be a long week.”
Members are allowed to move up to five priority bills through the end of the week, and while some Democrats expect to realistically move 250-300 bills this week, most members say they’re preparing for closer to 500 pieces of legislation to get a vote.
A spokesman for Speaker Chris Welch called the 500 estimate the “top end.”
“Either way, a lot will move,” said another member.
“I don’t think we have any idea what to expect [for sure], but I anticipate we’ll do our best to get through all of the pending bills,” said another high ranking Democrat.
But some members are privately, and maybe not so privately, frustrated by the crush of bills the week of the third reading deadline when members could have dispatched non-controversial legislation over the past two months.
“It’s annoying,” said one Democrat. “We don’t look like we can manage our workload.”
Another Democrat was more dismissive of the frustration.
“[There’s a] little bit,” the lawmaker said, saying many bills were “working through amendments” and others were taking time due to “member management.”
For now, members are expecting long nights on the House side of the third floor all week.
It isn’t clear yet if many of the more controversial pieces of legislation discussed so far this spring will move this week as some bills are expected to get pushed off to later in the spring either through an extension in passage deadline or by sticking the language into a shell bill.
