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House Insists on Court-Security Fee Change, Seeks Conference Committee
Summary
The House declined to concur with Senate amendments to the court-security-fee bill (third substitute House Bill 371), citing unresolved questions about fee levels and allocation; members moved to ask the Senate to recede and pursue a conference committee to resolve differences.
The House moved on March 2 to refuse to concur with Senate amendments to the third substitute of House Bill 371, a measure addressing court security fees, and asked the Senate to recede. House members expressed concern about where security fees should be allocated and whether a previously proposed $25 fee should be preserved rather than increasing to $30. After discussion, members approved the motion to not concur by recorded 'aye' votes across the chamber and signaled that a conference committee would be necessary to hammer out remaining differences.
A member summarized the situation: "There's still some question... this is the court's security fees on where the security fees should be. And the senate, when they receive it back from us, will refuse to recede. And then we'll have a conference committee that will work it out and make sure that everybody's in agreement." The House noted the Senate had already appointed a conference committee (Senators Hickman, Hilliard, and Allen), and the communication was entered into the record.
Members raised a specific budget detail: an earlier motion sought to reduce a fee from $30 to $25, an adjustment that a sponsor said could be offset elsewhere in the bill. The House’s non-concurrence preserves its position and paves the way for House and Senate negotiators to reconcile the difference.
Next steps: a conference committee will be formed to negotiate the points of disagreement before the bill can be finalized.
