Rules and Ethics committee adopts special order letter for March 9 session after public plea for more debate time on House Bill 1,001

The House Rules and Ethics Committee adopted a special order letter scheduling the Legislature's March 9 session and setting negotiated time allocations for questions and debate, the panel decided Thursday.

During the meeting, a public commenter, John Harris Mauer, asked the committee to extend debate time for House Bill 1,001 from the five minutes currently allocated on the special order calendar to 15 minutes, saying the bill produced “multiple hours spent in questions” in the Senate and that municipalities need clearer legislative records to understand the bill's scope. “We would respectfully request 15 minutes,” Mauer said, and offered to provide the committee with at least three letters from different municipalities describing their concerns.

The chair placed the special order letter for the Monday, March 9 session on members' desks and noted that negotiated time allocations are included for all bills on special order. The committee approved the special order letter by voice vote after the chair asked whether there was any debate; members responded "Yay" and no opposition was recorded on the transcript.

Committee staff announced amendment filing deadlines for the March 9 session: main amendments must be submitted to House Bill drafting by 7:00 a.m. and be approved for filing by 8:00 a.m.; adhering amendments must be submitted to House Bill drafting and approved for filing by 9:00 a.m. on Monday morning. The chair reminded members of these deadlines as the committee concluded its business.

The special order letter placed House Bill 1,001 and a Senate bill listed in the record (noted in the transcript as "Senate Bill 11 34") on the special order calendar, per the committee's routine scheduling practice. The committee record on the transcript does not show any formal change to the individual bill schedules beyond the adoption of the special order letter, and no roll-call vote tallies were provided in the record.

Next procedural steps: the House will proceed with the March 9 session under the adopted special order schedule; amendment filers must meet the announced Monday-morning deadlines. Public testimony during this committee meeting concluded after Mauer's remarks and the committee returned to its agenda without further debate recorded on the transcript.