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Senate higher-education panel advances committee substitute consolidating Dream Scholarship, Narcan access and retirement housekeeping
Summary
A Senate higher-education committee unanimously adopted an amendment and advanced a committee substitute that combines parts of four bills to create a consolidated Dream Scholarship package while excluding two contested sections for further work: a 529 tax-parity change and a medical-scholarship funding detail. The panel also heard testimony urging campus Narcan access and resisted immediate inclusion of tax-parity language.
A state Senate higher-education committee voted unanimously to advance a committee substitute that consolidates four bills into a single Dream Scholarship package and approved an amendment changing lottery-reserve language.
The committee chair said the substitute (LC610500S) bundles elements of HB 1413, HB 419, HB 1113 and HB 962 and will be sent to the Senate floor; the panel adopted an amendment revising how the lottery reserve is calculated to read, as amended, “net proceeds deposited into or base spend from such account for the preceding 3 fiscal years, whichever is greater.” Legislative counsel read the amendment on the floor before the vote. The committee recorded the adoption and the subsequent passage of the substitute by uplifted hands; exact tallies were not provided in the transcript.
Why it matters: the composite bill is intended to create a single implementable Dream Scholarship framework while packaging several related higher-education measures so the Senate can act efficiently. The substitute keeps in place changes to lottery reserve calculations intended to protect pre-K and HOPE spending if lottery revenue declines.
What the substitute includes and excludes - Narcan access on campuses: The consolidated bill includes language from HB 419 that would…
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