Ways and Means committee adopts rules, revenue base and multiple proviso packages; several provisos pulled for later consideration

The House Ways and Means Committee adopted its committee rules, approved the revenue base statement labeled Serial 1, and adopted multiple proviso packages covering public education, higher education, health care, economic development, criminal justice, transportation and regulatory, and constitutional subcommittee items during the meeting.

Chair comments opened the session by noting the subcommittees’ work preparing proviso packets and outlined the committee’s plan to take up non‑money proviso amendments today and money‑related provisos tomorrow. The committee first adopted its rules as presented (motion and voice vote recorded in the transcript). The clerk and members then proceeded through subcommittee proviso packets.

Key votes and procedural actions recorded in the transcript include:

- Committee rules: Adopted on a motion from the floor; the transcript records a voice vote (“Aye. Opposed?”) and the chair announcing “The ayes have it.”

- Serial 1 (revenue base): The transcript states the Budget Analyst projected approximately 14,100,000,000 in recurring general fund revenue, with $666,000,000 described as new recurring revenue; the transcript lists $369,000,000 for the capital reserve fund, “3 32000000” for the contingency reserve fund (the figure is unclear in the audio transcript), and $552,000,000 for undesignated, unreserved FY 2024‑25 funds, and summarizes nonrecurring dollars as 1,250,000,000. The committee adopted Serial 1 by voice vote.

- Proviso packets: The transcript records adoption by voice votes of the public education packet (Representative Whitmire moved to pull proviso 1A.69 and otherwise adopt), higher education (Representative Ballantyne moved for adoption), health care (Representative Hewitt moved for adoption), economic development (Representative Stavrinakis moved to pull 55BPF and adopt the remainder), criminal justice (Representative Lowe moved for adoption), transportation and regulatory (Representative Crawford moved for adoption), and the constitutional subcommittee (Representative Murphy moved to pull proviso 117.Afd and adopt the remainder). The transcript specifically notes that pulled provisos will be addressed after lunch and that provisos conforming to funding will carry over until tomorrow.

The transcript records multiple instances of the chair instructing members how to request that individual provisos be pulled: members were asked to state section, proviso number, title and page when requesting a pull so the committee could consider amendments after the remaining packages were adopted.

No substantive floor debate of the individual provisos is recorded in the provided transcript excerpt; the meeting proceeded largely by packet adoption and procedural announcements. Several provisos were pulled (1A.69; 55BPF; 117.Afd) for later consideration.

The meeting adjourned to the call of the chair with plans in the transcript to return after lunch to consider pulled provisos and to take up money‑related provisos the following day.