Session Week 10

Key Points for This Week
● DOT Reform Advances
● Hemp Consumables Legislation Advances
● Candidate Filing Opens

The One-Minute Drill
The Big Picture: The Senate passed its version of the sweeping DOT reform bill on Thursday, sandwiched between hours of lengthy debates over the Hemp Consumables Regulations bill.

1. Senate Advances Sweeping DOT Reform
The News: On Thursday, the Senate gave third reading to their sweeping DOT Reform Bill (S. 831), without adopting any of the previously carried over amendments.

● The Details:
○ Gives DOT greater ability to enter into public-private partnerships.
○ Expands DOT’s tolling authority.
○ Transfers National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) authority for permitting to DOT from the Federal Highway Administration.
○ Allows counties and cities to take ownership of roads from the state.
○ Provides greater oversight over county transportation committees.

What’s Not Included: The Senate did not include language to make the DOT a cabinet agency under the governor. Several funding components of the bill were also removed, including an electric vehicle registration fee increase, electric car charging fee increases and mitigation fees for new housing developments.

What’s Next: The bill is headed to the House. If it follows the pattern the House established with their version of the DOT Reform bill, it will be referred to the Ways & Means Committee when the body gavels back in on Tuesday. From there, leadership will decide whether to add their language to this existing bill, or continue working through their iteration of the bill and hope for passage before the clock runs out.

The Senate Hemp Regulations Dominate Debate
The Senate spent the week debating H. 3924, legislation regulating hemp-derived THC products. For the first time in recent memory, the Senate went into the early morning hours Wednesday night (well Thursday morning), finally adjourning debate for the day at 12:15AM.

What happened?
The bill was amended throughout the week to permit entities to sell gummies and other hemp consumables, but restricted all sales to liquor stores only (as opposed to functioning much like beer/wine versus liquor with a milligram split. When time came to take a final vote on the bill, the legislation failed by a vote of 15-25, with Majority Leader Shane Massey saying the body expected to deal with the topic again on Thursday. 

And on Thursday? Thursday led to more behind-the-scenes negotiations with the Senate recessing for hour long periods of time to try to work out compromise language.

The bill finally passed late Thursday afternoon, restoring much of the language in the original version of the bill for convenience and grocery stores to sell hemp products at the 5% range, but behind a counter only. Gummies and other consumables can be sold, but only behind the counter. An additional amendment failed that would allow for and train servers to serve hemp based beverages at bars and restaurants.

Why It Matters: The debate exposed cracks within the Republican party and leadership. Additionally, these new restrictions will impact retailers and many bars and restaurants that are currently serving these products.
The House The House was on Spring Break this week… the first of two planned furlough weeks they’ll take before the end of the session.

In Committees
Municipal Tax Relief - S.866
The Senate Finance Committee advanced legislation that would allow a municipality to hold a referendum to enact a penny sales tax within municipal boundaries if their county does not currently have a penny sales tax.

Childcare Programs - S.770
A Senate Family & Veterans Services Committee took testimony on a bill that would expand access to certain childcare programs for individuals with certain income caps and employment. The bill was ultimately carried over. 

Regulatory Reform - S.254/H.3021
A Senate Judiciary Subcommittee continued to take testimony on bills that would lessen regulatory burdens on small businesses. No action was taken.

The Week Ahead
In the Senate:
● Floor Watch: The Senate will likely take up the tax conformity bill and the transgender bathroom bill.
● Committees: Senate Finance subcommittees will wrap up their work on the state budget. 

In the House:
● The House will begin heavy committee work again as they work to fill the calendar for the second half of session. 

Candidate Filing Opened
Candidate filing opened on Monday at noon for all partisan offices (non-partisan offices such as school board will open in August). Filing closes on March 30 at noon.