Senate Ways & Means advances substitute Senate Bill 5,167 after votes on 58 amendments

The Senate Ways & Means Committee met in executive session Thursday and moved substitute Senate Bill 5,167 — the biennial operating budget — with adopted amendments and a due-pass recommendation to the Rules Committee.

The committee began with staff briefing of 58 proposed amendments to the chair's budget and then caucused before returning to vote. Staff described the package as a mix of technical corrections, funding restorations, one-time grants and program extensions; several items were noted as not included in the House budget.

Why it matters: The substitute package sets the Senate's starting point for floor consideration and reconciliation with the House budget. Several amendments would change capital and operating priorities, add one-time grants, or extend task forces and work groups; a subset of those changes were adopted by the committee and will appear in the substitute bill.

Most consequential items discussed included technical corrections, extensions of task forces and advisory bodies, targeted one-time grants, program rate changes and studies. Examples debated in the committee included:

- A technical packet of nonfiscal corrections adopted early in the session.

- Funding to continue a riparian task force aimed at improving riparian…