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House Appropriations lays out bill schedule, flags family-support pilot and $15M ADS school billing
Summary
At a March 13 check-in, the House Appropriations Committee reviewed its FY26 workflow, scheduled hearings for Bill 219 (family support pilot) and a $15 million ADS billing issue with Joint School representatives, and discussed budgeting priorities and late-night work expectations.
The House Appropriations Committee used a March 13, 2025, check-in to preview upcoming items for FY26 work and to remind members of procedural expectations as bills begin crossing over.
Committee Chair (Chair, House Appropriations Committee) told members the committee would hear Bill 219, “an act relating to creating a family support pilot program for incarcerated parents and guardians,” at 1:00 p.m., and that Emily Byrne and James Duffy from Joint School would appear at 1:30 p.m. to discuss the ADS billing matter tied to roughly $15,000,000 in school-related funds.
Why this matters: those items represent discrete funding questions that the appropriations committee will evaluate by considering money attached to the proposals rather than re-litigating policy in full. Chair emphasized the committee’s financial role: “When we vote in here, we're really not voting on the policy and whether we like the bill or not. We are voting on the money.”
Members discussed workflow and how the clerk, Betsy Ann Ras, provides a crossover-tracking spreadsheet each year to help the appropriations and ways-and-means chairs track bills. The chair said the tracking spreadsheet this year appears much shorter than last year and that many incoming bills are per diems that the committee expects to act on quickly. “So the ones that are per diems, I think were pretty easy,” the chair said.
The committee flagged larger-money bills for possible holds or combined hearings: members may hear background material and delay a vote until they can reconcile budget effects. The chair and other members said committees should expect a busy period with potentially 10–20 bills in the coming days and possible late-night sessions to reach a straw vote on the budget, likely next Friday.
Committee members raised operational ideas for keeping members informed, including a potential webpage to post rapid updates when new federal or program information arrives. Members were reminded to follow up with agency contacts if they see breaking news that could affect agency budgets.
Other scheduling notes included an opioid-related bill the next morning (identified in discussion as Bill 218 or a related opioid settlement investment bill) that will be discussed by human services and that the committee planned to wait to vote until remaining prevention and treatment questions were resolved.
No formal committee votes occurred during the March 13 check-in; staff said they will continue to circulate calendar updates and bill materials as they are available.
