Senate Appropriations reviews House ‘web report’ as committee prepares FY26 markup

Amy Pope, a Joint Fiscal Office staff member, briefed the Senate Appropriations Committee on March 20 about the House’s proposed appropriations “web report” and the committee’s schedule for marking up the fiscal 2026 budget.

The web report, Pope said, shows the House appropriations proposal and will be updated with any floor amendments and later with a Senate column as the committee makes decisions. “So this is the web report is the house proposed house appropriations proposal, for the budget for fiscal year 26,” Pope said.

The committee was urged to use the web report as a working document: keep a copy for section-by-section review, mark items that need follow-up or testimony, and track when items are “open” or resolved. Pope and staff described the bill layout the committee will use: B sections (roughly the B100–B900 range) contain base budgets, B1100 and similar sections hold one-time requests, and the C section contains current-year adjustments. Members were reminded that the web report shows an FY25 column for comparison and that separate Vantage roll-up reports and department-specific spreadsheets provide additional detail.

Members discussed how the committee will reconcile house-passed bills and appropriations with the Senate’s work. Pope said some as-passed bills from the previous session (Act 113) are already reflected in FY25 figures. The committee noted two house-passed bills that included appropriations the House had called out; committee members requested clearer crosswalks showing gaps between administration recommendations, the House, and items that the Senate will need to accommodate.

Committee members also discussed one-time funding as the usual source for accommodating new bills or expanding base appropriations. Pope flagged that the governor’s “bottom line” in her review included about $133,000,000 in one-time funds remaining (described in the briefing as one-time resources), and members discussed whether to convert some needs to ongoing base funding or to use one-time allocations.

Several operational points were raised: the committee’s timeline allows roughly three weeks before floor action to prepare markup; conference committee considerations and negotiations will follow floor weeks; positions sometimes are included without immediate funding (half-year or no-money positions) and can be funded later; and language in smaller bills can be folded into the large budget bill where appropriate. Staff will prepare a master spreadsheet comparing passed senate bills, the House proposal, and the governor’s recommendations so members can see gaps in base versus one-time funding.

No formal motions or votes were recorded in the transcript. Committee staff and members identified follow-up tasks: adding a Senate column to the web report as decisions are made, producing a bill-by-bill comparison that separates base and one-time impacts, and coordinating with House staff (Emily and Representative Shai were named) on bills that are still in flux.

The meeting closed with scheduling and process reminders for markup and for the committee’s public hearings and follow-up sessions.