LCB staff say short session winding down; some bills will still affect agency operations

The Liquor and Cannabis Board caucus heard a legislative update on March 3, 2026, that the state’s short session is drawing to a close and that only a small subset of bills tracked by the agency appear likely to become law. Mark, the board’s legislative updater, told members: "Session ends a bit more than a week from now."

Mark said many late-filed measures have no realistic path to passage this year and singled out House Bill 2616 — a large agriculture bill that would transfer regulation of cannabis production and processing to the Department of Agriculture — as unlikely to advance because it was heard past cutoff. He also listed measures that are moving and may require agency work: "Ryan's law on the use of cannabis in end of life care in hospitals and hospices is moving," bills adjusting tobacco and alternative-nicotine taxes, a bill to implement the governor's executive order on licensing and permitting timeliness, and a proposal to increase cannabis license fees (without an automatic inflation adjustment).

Agency staff and board members asked whether the bills expected to pass would create a heavy workload for the LCB. Mark said the impact is generally low, with the exception of the licensing and permitting timeliness bill: "By and large, it's low. It's not a huge volume of work. I think the exception is that, licensing and permitting timeliness... the timeline in the bill was really important for giving us that time to do a lot of that work."

Why it matters: a handful of bills could change licensing timelines, fee schedules or enforcement responsibilities for the LCB; the caucus will review specific rule and implementation work at the board meeting the following day. The caucus did not take formal action on legislation; staff will return with implementation details as bills move through the legislature.