House Appropriations Committee schedules floor reports, previews cannabis, housing and OER bills

The House Appropriations Committee met Wednesday, March 19, 2025, just after 1 p.m. and set a schedule for floor reports and next-week floor action on multiple bills, including a cannabis measure identified as Bill 321 and an Office of [OER] measure referred to as Bill 472.

Committee leadership told members an amendment from the Ways and Means panel will be presented on the cannabis measure. “We are gonna have a… bill at 01:30. Bill 3 21, it's a cannabis bill that we look through. We're gonna have the amendment, the Ways and Means Amendment is gonna be presented to us, by Kirby from ledge council, who's going to do that, and Mark Higley, Representative Higley from Ways and Means, will come in,” the Committee Chair said. The chair said the committee had already heard the bill the previous day and indicated the panel could vote on it if members were ready.

Members were told the committee expects other measures to reach the floor next week and that some contain funding already discussed during budget deliberations. The chair noted a housing measure was expected (referred to in the meeting as “$84.79, which is the housing bill”) and that Bill 472 is “the OER bill,” and said testimony would be scheduled. The meeting record did not specify the exact funding amounts or the official short titles for those bills.

Committee members received guidance on how to present on the House floor. “You will all have floor reports to give for your areas of the budget,” the Committee Chair said, directing members to keep remarks to highlights (new programs, added positions, or funding changes) rather than base salaries. The chair said the committee will decide the speaking order and indicated members should be prepared to answer detailed questions from the floor and to yield to staff or request a recess if needed. “You're not gonna answer all the questions,” the chair said, explaining that Joint Fiscal staff will be available in the Senate seats to assist and that members could yield to staff or ask for a recess when necessary.

The committee set a tentative schedule for floor activity: the chair said the measures are expected to be on the floor next Thursday and Friday, and that a full conference could be held the following Tuesday if required. Members were reminded to prepare over the coming days and that leadership will decide final time allocations; the chair referenced a prior informal rule that members typically kept reports under about 10 minutes but said actual time would vary by topic.

Committee staff and members discussed practical tips for presenters, including using short prompts (“1, 2, 3” options or a desk note) to signal for a recess or to yield to another person. The chair gave the capital bill as an example of when a member might briefly describe a project in the budget and then yield for technical detail.

No formal motions or votes were taken during the March 19 meeting; the committee broke to reconvene at 1:30 p.m. to review the scheduled bill and resume later discussions.

Looking ahead, the committee directed members to finalize floor reports and to be ready to respond to specific line-item questions during the next week’s floor sessions.