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Thursday: Confer or Concur?
posted at 2007-05-31 14:44 | Last modified 2007-11-14 10:38
Interesting rumors afoot this afternoon regarding the next step for the budget. It passed the Senate with no fanfare this morning and has been read back in over on the House side.
Ordinarily, the chamber that originated the budget (that'd be the House this time) doesn't like some or all of the changes the other chamber made to their measure. So they vote not to concur with it when the bill comes back. Then both chambers send their A-teams into a small room for conference committee , usually for weeks on end, until they come up with a compromise everyone can accept.
This year, there's a chance that might not happen. You can thank (or blame) the GOP. Senate Republicans voted overwhelmingly FOR the budget bill - highly unusual, to say the least. And it's about to happen again. House GOP leader Skip Stam says his caucus will vote to concur with the Senate measure. That's 52 votes right there. All Stam needs is 9 Democrats willing to play along, and he's pretty sure he can find them.
House Speaker Joe Hackney doesn't plan to concur. He and House budget chairs say the Senate bill has some real problems that need to be addressed. But some of the chairs are a little worried.
If Stam and the GOP can pick up enough Dems to win concurrence - something no one around here remembers ever happening before - it would put an end to the budget battle Monday night. The Governor might even sign it. And session might just be over in June.
Monday night should be interesting. Stay tuned.
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