Legislative Report from APRN Lobbyist

The APRN Lobbyist, Julianna McConnell shares the following Legislative Report from the past week. Very busy week ahead at the Capitol as we approach Crossover Day. If you can be at the Captial any day this week, please consider coming and earn some Free CE credits while you are there!

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Highlights as of February 25, 2016:

• The Amended Budget has now been approved and sent to the Governor for signing.

• The 2017/2018 Budget has been approved by the House and is now being reviewed by the Senate.  Once the Senate has made their recommendations, a conference committee will be appointed so that the House and the Senate can reach an agreement on all budget recommendations.

• Please note the bills marked in red – “PASSED HOUSE OR PASSED SENATE” These bills have passed either the Senate or the House …so they will continue in the other Chamber after this week concludes.

• Friday (March 3) is Crossover Day 28 – which means that any bill that has not passed one Chamber (either the House or the Senate) is dead for this session – it can continue on from its current status at the beginning of the 2018 session.

• The following key bills are on the Rules Calendar on Monday, February 27:

o   HB 301 – the preceptorship tax credit bill

o   HB 427 – the cancelable loan program

o   SB 166 – “Nurse Licensure Compact” bill

o   NOTE: Molly Bachtel sent out a Call to Action on Friday

There is  an attachedExcel spread sheet with bills that are being monitored as of February 25, 2017.  These are bills of interest – including bills that are directly related to nursing (noted with a N in the first column) as well as other healthcare and general business related bills. 

In reviewing the spread sheet please note:

• 1st column – notes key bills directly related to nursing – “N”
• 2nd column - shows you the bill number
• 3rd column

• 1st line is the key author of the bill
• 2nd line is a link to the copy of the bill on the state website (PLEASE REVIEW THE CURRENT FULL TEXT OF THE BILL – THE SUMMARY OF EACH BILL IS ONLY THE TEXT FROM  THE FIRST READER AND DOES NOT GIVE DETAILED INFO ON THE BILL)
• 3rd line is a copy of the 1st reader for the bill – giving a brief description of the bill
• 4th line gives you the status of the bill
• Highlighted in green - “Committee” means the bill is still in the assigned committee but has not been called up for a vote in that committee
• Highlighted in green – shows if the bill has passed out of the Senate or House Committee (list the name of the committee)
• Highlighted in Red – bills that have passed either the Senate or the House
• Highlighted in Blue – bills that have passed both Chambers and is on its way to the Governor