Last Thursday, the Assembly and Senate Appropriations Committees met to determine which bills on the Appropriation Suspense File will move out of committee and be eligible for a vote on the Floor.
All bills that are in the Assembly and have an annual cost to the budget of $150,000 or more or bills in the Senate that have a cost of $50,000 or more to the General Fund or $150,000 to any special fund, are placed on what is called the Suspense File. This is a way for the Senate and Assembly leadership and Appropriations Chairs to evaluate all bills together, understand the collective impact they would have on the State Budget, and weigh policy priorities. They then decide in a Suspense File hearing which bills to allow to move forward and which to hold in committee (bill effectively dies).
There is no public testimony at this hearing. While ostensibly a way for the Appropriations Committees to look at the bills holistically with the budget, the reasons for why some bills get off of the Suspense File for a vote and which are “held” often seems opaque.
The Legislature will then have until May 27th to pass any Assembly bills out of the Assembly and any Senate bills out of the Senate, also known as the “House of Origin” deadline.