It is already day 23 of the legislative session. The Senate is busy trying to get all its bills heard and voted out of committee. We still have about 150 bills in committee that need to get to the floor for a final vote before the crossover deadline, which is only two weeks away. There are a lot of things going on.

Most of the bills in committee in the Senate are in the appropriations committee. The deadline for all introduced policy bills that spent money, had to be out of committee on Monday, the 21st legislative day, and sent to the appropriations committee. That committee now has to quickly sort the wants from the needs and come up with a balanced budget. We are also waiting for the next budget forecast, coming in March, which will give us the final direction for all the spending proposals.

The discussion has changed quite a bit over the years as it relates to budget priorities. Now we have things like behavioral health, human trafficking, Medicaid fraud, and whether or not we need a presidential library in Medora. These are all mixed into the discussion, and need to be sorted through. Some are important, other not so much.

Sen. Jerry Klein