Capitol veterans like to point out that the legislative process is designed to kill bills, not pass them. Of the record-breaking 8,898 bills filed in the current 89th Legislature by the March 14 filing deadline, it’s likely only around one thousand will pass, if past sessions are any indication. Some key House deadlines in the next week will spell the end of the road for many bills: 

• Monday, May 12, is the last day for House committees to report House bills (HBs) and House joint resolutions (HJRs). That means the House committee must have already voted on the bill and the committee prepared and submitted its written report. 
• Tuesday, May 13, is the deadline for the House to distribute the last House Daily Calendar with HBs and HJRs. Unlike in the Senate, the House has additional Calendars committees that must meet and decide which bills will be heard by the full House once they are placed onto a calendar. This is yet another hurdle for a bill to make it to the House floor. 
• Wednesday, May 14, is the deadline for the House to distribute the last House Local and Consent Calendar with consent HBs. (Consent bills are those put forward for an expedited floor vote with little to no debate because they lack controversy. This calendar may also contain local bills that are of interest only to a small geographic area and therefore not controversial.) 
• Thursday, May 15, is the last day for the House to consider HBs and HJRs on second reading on the House Daily or Supplemental Calendar. This is where the rubber meets the road for many bills. If a bill has been lucky enough to make it onto the House calendar by this point, the next trick is getting the bill heard on the floor before the clock literally runs out. With a crowded calendar, legislators using stall tactics, and some bills needing amendments that take time to perfect, many bills on the calendar won’t get their turn and will become procedurally dead.  
• Friday, May 16, is the last day for the House to consider consent HBs on second and third reading on the Local and Consent Calendar and all third reading HBs or HJRs on the House Supplemental Calendar. 

What this means: A House bill that doesn’t make it through the House floor by Thursday night is dead, unless it can hop a ride on a Senate bill (and hang on) as an amendment. If there is a bill you particularly want to see pass (or not pass), now is an excellent time to use ATPE’s Advocacy Central to contact your state representative and senator (hopefully for the second, third, or fourth time). 

The next big deadline is Saturday, May 24: the last day House committees may report out Senate bills and Senate joint resolutions. That will be the stopping point for many Senate bills that have made it over to the House side. 

In the final week of the session: 

• Tuesday, May 27, is the last day the House may consider a Senate bill on second reading on the House floor. (Most debate takes place on second reading; the third reading is generally a formality.)  
• Wednesday, May 28, is not only the last day the House may consider Senate bills on third reading, but also the last day the Senate may consider any bills on second or third reading. 
• Friday, May 30, is the last day for the House to act on Senate amendments—in other words, either concur with any Senate amendments to House bills, thus sending the bill on to the governor, or send the bill to conference committee to hash differences out. 
• Sunday, June 1, is the last day for both the House and Senate to either adopt conference committee reports or discharge conferees and concur with the opposite chamber’s amendments. 
• Monday, June 2, is the last day of the session, largely a ceremonial day, when everyone gets to go home for 18 months. We hope! 

Following sine die, the governor has 20 days to sign a bill, veto it, or allow it to become law without a signature. (Prior to the final 10 days of the session, the governor has 10 days in which to act.) Unless otherwise specified, bills become effective 91 days after sine die. Bills with earlier effective dates must be passed by a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each chamber.