A Look at Recent Suspense File Actions

A Look at Recent Suspense File Actions By Chris Micheli

             Recently, the Assembly and Senate Appropriations Committees have been taking four possible actions on measures pending on their respective Suspense Files during the first year of the Legislative Session:

 

·         Do Pass;

·         Do Pass as Amended;

·         2-year Bill; or

·         Hold in Committee.

 

While the latter two actions both preclude the bill from moving this year, this fourth action (“2-year bill) has been used to distinguish between two types of holding measures on Suspense. The “2-year bill” designation means the bill may be considered next year, during the second and final year of Session, while being “held” means the bill is not moving at all. Authors can request to make their measure a 2-year bill and, in other instances, the committee designates the bill as such.

 

Recall that a bill must reach the fiscal threshold in order to be placed on the Suspense File ($50K in the Senate and $150K in the Assembly). Both fiscal committees pass bills as is, or pass them with amendments, or pass them on consent. In addition, Senate Rule 28.8 allows the Senate fiscal committee chair to send measures directly to the Senate Floor if there are no significant costs or revenue loss attributable to the measure.

Having tracked the actions of the fiscal committees during the past half a dozen years or so, about three-quarters of the bills are released from the Suspense File, either with or without amendments. On September 1, the Senate Appropriations Committee dispensed with 483 Assembly measures on its Suspense File. The following are the statistics from its actions:

·         72% were pass or do pass as amended

·         6% were made 2-year bills

·         22% were held

Of the over 480 measures that were on the Senate Suspense File, just 41 (or 8%) were authored by Republican legislators. About 68% of Republican-authored measures passed off the Suspense File, while about 72% of the Democrat-authored measures passed the fiscal committee.

Also of note is that the number of Assembly measures this year were significantly higher than in recent years. For example, in 2017, the Senate Suspense File contained about 340 Assembly measures and the 2019 hearing had about 440 Assembly measures.

In the Assembly Appropriations Committee, they dispensed with 276 Senate measures on its Suspense File. The following are the statistics from its actions:

·         77.5% were pass or do pass as amended

·         6.5% were made 2-year bills

·         16% were held

Of the over 275 measures that were on the Assembly Suspense File, just 22 (or 8%) were authored by Republican legislators. About 68% of Republican-authored measures passed off the Suspense File, while just over 78% of Democrat-authored measures passed the fiscal committee.

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