Pennsylvania Gov. Wolf's COVID-19 disaster declaration ends but opioid disaster declaration continues; situation 'worse than ever' in part of Philadelphia mcall.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from mcall.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
While the classic Schoolhouse Rock! song
“I’m Just A Bill” only touched on what happens to legislation that doesn’t make it past committee hearings, bills in the Texas Legislature often die throughout the session, barely even making their way to the chamber floors.
Before the session begins, lawmakers file bills that they want to become law. Once it’s filed, a bill is referred to a committee that will host debate and discussion on it.
Committees have a lot of bills to consider. To put that into perspective, this session,
committees in the state House of Representatives. With a legislative session that only lasts five months, some bills are bound to not even be discussed.
The Bills That Got Away: Proposed Laws In The Texas Legislature That Never Got A Hearing keranews.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from keranews.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
[co-author: Jessica Griswold]
Legislative Chess
It’s the time of year when the legislature plays chess. Sometimes it even plays speed chess, with programs, initiatives, and tax code changes flying in and out of bills as they move back and forth between chambers. Each chamber attempts to position its priorities to its best advantage, sometimes by holding the other chamber’s priorities as hostage.
A House committee may remove a section of a bill that its Senate counterpart spent months discussing. And vice versa. A committee may also attach one of these pieces to a different bill, using it as a “vehicle” to shore up its chances of survival. In non-COVID times, legislators play a version of three-dimensional chess, with players sitting on different floors in the Statehouse working their own individual chess boards.
The governor’s office unveiled a 900-page energy overhaul bill Wednesday, accelerating a yearslong process which advocates hope will end in a comprehensive clean energy platform as the session nears its final month.
The stated goal of the bill is to drive Illinois to 100 percent “clean” energy by 2050. That, Deputy Gov. Christian Mitchell said in an interview Wednesday, would include nuclear power as a major contributor. Another goal is to bring Illinois to 40 percent of its utility scale energy produced by renewables, such as wind and solar, by 2030. Right now, that number is around 8 percent.
The bill contains some of the provisions put forth in other legislation, raising the rate cap on ratepayer bills for renewable projects from about 2 percent to 3.75 percent; ending formulaic rate increases for utilities immediately; and prohibiting natural gas companies from assessing a surcharge on bills starting January 2022.