Joint Budget Committee adopts a slate of conference committee reports and bill drafts

The Joint Budget Committee spent the session advancing a series of first conference committee reports and bill drafts, hearing summaries from Legislative Legal Services staff and voting to adopt the committee reports in sequence.

Jake Baus, Legislative Legal Services, described the conference committee report for House Bill 13‑57 (TRAP program), which largely adopts the Senate revisions with adjusted dates and a repeal date of July 1, 2027; the committee adopted that report and recorded a vote that passed (5‑0, with one member excused). Chelsea Princell, Stephanie Schrab and other LLS attorneys presented additional conference reports—on bills including House Bill 13‑80, House Bill 13‑99 and several others—that the committee likewise adopted, typically by unanimous or unanimous‑with‑excused recorded polls.

The committee also approved a bill draft (LLS 929) concerning residential treatment for youth in Department of Human Services custody; sponsors were named for both chambers and the draft will begin in the Senate. Several other conference committee reports adjusted transfer amounts, technical drafting and repeal dates across a range of bills (e.g., transfers from certain cash funds and a temporary pause in transfers tied to multimodal funding).

Most conference reports were adopted without substantive policy changes beyond those already negotiated between the chambers; recorded tallies were noted in the transcript and several passed on unanimous recorded polls (for example, HB13‑57 passed 5‑0 with Kirkmayer excused; multiple others passed 5‑0 or 6‑0 as recorded). Legal staff remained on hand to walk the committee through drafting choices and to note where language included repeal dates and footnotes intended to clarify legislative intent.

What happens next: legislative counsel will prepare the written conference committee reports for transmission to the chambers; staff also flagged that drafting the full conference committee report for the long bill may require additional time and could require a procedural extension of the deadline for consideration.