Senate panel concurs with House Bill 1 after amendment to equalize partisan staff funding

The Senate Finance and Claims Committee on (date not specified) opened and closed a hearing on House Bill 1, the legislative "feed" bill, heard informational testimony on the bill's staffing and operating costs, approved an amendment that reallocates partisan staff funding on a per-member basis, and then voted to concur in the bill as amended.

Representative Lou Jones, the bill sponsor, told the committee the feed bill covers the remainder of this session and the opening weeks of the next session because the legislature is operating on last year’s feed bill and is running short on the salary and per diem accounts. “Last year’s feed bill effectively covers the first 5 days of salary and 17 days of per diem,” Jones said. He described the bill as the vehicle to keep legislative operations funded through the session.

The committee’s informational witness, Angie Carter of Legislative Services, walked members through budget line items and increases in the 2025 request. “The total requested budget for the 2025 fee bill is about $2,400,000,” Carter said, and described a roughly 23% increase in the Legislative Services portion from the 2023 feed bill. Carter said the proposed increase reflects higher staffing costs, contracted AV support or an additional AV engineer, and an outside legal-services line of about $125,000 tied to ongoing litigation.

Senate Executive Director Howe explained the legal-services line. He said the Legislature is defending a lawsuit related to certain privacy and records actions; the litigation is active and may be appealed, and the contracted attorneys are already under retainer.

The committee debated a single substantive amendment offered by President Regier that changes how partisan staff funding is allocated. Under the amendment, partisan funds are converted to a per-member bucket so each caucus receives funding based on membership counts rather than the prior lump-sum structure. Regier described the change as an effort to achieve per-member parity: “To me this is a lot more fair and equitable than the way we’re doing it now,” he said, arguing the amendment corrects differences in per-head funding between minority and majority caucuses.

Committee staff and witnesses provided numbers used in the amendment discussion: the Senate minority’s existing partisan allocation of $320,849 was divided by 18 members to reach about $17,823 per member; multiplying that per-member amount by a 32-member majority yields a proposed Senate majority total of $570,336 under the amendment. Carter confirmed other baseline totals discussed in the hearing, including Legislative Services line items of roughly $2,379,000, a Senate request in the $6.28 million range, and a House request in the $10.4 million range. Carter also confirmed that unused funds in the feed bill may be reverted at leadership’s direction either to the general fund or to the IT reserve (identified in discussion as Title 5, Section 11).

After debate, the committee approved the amendment on a roll-call vote, 12–10. Members then took executive action and concurred in House Bill 1 as amended by roll call, 19–3. The committee closed the hearing and reported the bill to the floor.

Votes at a glance: - Amendment HB0001.001.003 (convert partisan staff funding to per-member buckets): Passed, roll-call 12 yes, 10 no. Sponsor: President Regier. (Amendment text: change partisan funding to per-member allocations; increases the overall feed-bill partisan bucket by approximately $380,000 split between chambers per testimony.) - Concurrence in House Bill 1 (as amended): Passed, roll-call 19 yes, 3 no. Initial motion to concur made at executive action.

Why it matters: House Bill 1 is the annual operational funding bill for the Legislature; approving it allows staff salaries, chamber operations, printing and IT, and other session functions to continue. The amendment changes how partisan staff dollars are distributed between majority and minority caucuses, a recurring procedural and budgetary issue in session operations.

Committee members also discussed time-sensitive transmittal deadlines: general bills must transmit to the House by the 45th day of session, and revenue bills by the 69th day, and Legislative Fiscal Division staff said they will coordinate with the chair as deadlines approach.

The committee recorded the amendment and concurrence votes and will carry the amended House Bill 1 to the floor for further action.