by Gwynne Middleton
Interim committee season is just around the corner. This year ten committees will meet to study pressing issues during these months when the General Assembly is not in session. Chaired by legislators and staffed by the Legislative Council and the Office of Legislative Legal Services, each interim committee gathers information through meetings and tours held in the Capitol and throughout the state to inform legislative recommendations and potential bills for the upcoming session. Below you’ll find important details for each 2015 interim committee:
Important Dates and Deadlines for
Interim Committees and Task Forces
An interim committee that chooses to request bills must do so by Friday, October 2, 2015. The deadline for submitting drafting information to OLLS is Monday, October 5, 2015 (if the meeting to request bills is held on October 2), or by three days after the meeting when bills are requested for drafting. Thursday, October 22, 2015, is the deadline to finalize bill drafts for distribution to the interim committee and release for fiscal analysis. The deadline for distributing bill drafts and fiscal notes to the interim committee is Friday, October 30, 2015 (if the committee’s final meeting is held November 2), or three days before the final meeting at which the committee will take final action on bills. Finally, Monday, November 2, 2015, is the deadline by which an interim committee must approve final bill drafts.
For the first time this year, the LCS staff must prepare a fiscal note for each interim committee bill before the Legislative Council can consider the bill. Meeting the deadline schedule for requesting and finalizing bills will help ensure that each interim committee bill moves smoothly through the legislative review process.
For more information about meeting agendas and summaries for each committee, visit the Legislative Council’s helpful page on interim committees here, and if you’re interested in learning more about where interim committees come from, check out this Legisource article, “To Really Drill Down on an Issue, Consider Creating an Interim Study Committee.”