Crossover Marks the Halfway Point

Today was the most important day during the General Assembly session: crossover. That’s the day by which bills in either chamber have to make it over to the opposite chamber, which falls at the midway point of the session each year. Any House bill that didn’t make it to the Senate (or vice versa) today cannot become law, and that was the fate of a lot of legislation. Kimball Payne reviews the status of some of the more attention-getting legislation for The Daily Press.

It’s worth noting that crossover provides a popular method of dispatching bills. When a committee wants to kill a bill, but doesn’t want to be blamed for doing so, they’ll simply fail to take action on it by the time crossover comes around. If they’re feeling extra sneaky, just a few days before crossover they’ll assign the bill to another committee…one that doesn’t meet before crossover.

In the few weeks left in the session, each chamber will consider the bills already passed by the opposite chamber. Often they’ll be amended somewhat, and so a team will have to match the two up and reconcile them, and then they get passed along to the governor for his signature. That’s all coming up later in February.