Senate Institutions chair signs onto draft S.193 (5.1); colleague declines to sign now but plans to vote later

The Senate Institutions Committee met Thursday, March 19, 2026, to decide who would sign on to draft 5.1 of S.193; the committee chair said they would add their name and identified Center Alliance as the bill’s first sponsor.

The chair told colleagues, "I'm going to sign on to it," indicating formal support as a signatory ahead of floor action. The chair also said five members of the Senate Health and Welfare committee had signed on already, signaling existing cross-committee backing for the draft.

A committee member responded that they would not sign on at this time. "I'm not going to," the member said, adding, "I'm gonna vote for it when it comes up, though," signaling intent to support the measure during a formal vote despite withholding a pre-vote signatory endorsement. The member told colleagues the commissioner had "decided not to" sign on and that that decision helped sway their choice.

Members briefly discussed the commissioner’s reported concerns and clarified that the commissioner was not present to sign. One member asked to pull up a video to clarify details related to the discussion, and participants raised a minor procedural question about how names would appear on the sign-on list (including whether a name could appear twice and the use of a middle initial to distinguish signatures).

No formal motion or recorded vote was taken during this exchange; the chair closed the item by thanking participants and ending the discussion. The committee did not record a formal tally of signatures during the segment covered by the transcript.