Southeast State Legislature Preview January 23-27, 2023
Southeast state legislature meetings, grouped by state, for the week of January 23-27, 2023. There are no meetings scheduled in Alabama and North Carolina (except House and Senate floor sessions). Budget work continues to dominate in most legislatures but the policy committees are beginning to debate and dispose of bills to populate floor calendars in the coming weeks.
Team Advocatus
Florida
It’s another interim committee week in Florida. The subcommittees and committees have begun substantive work on legislation for the upcoming session. For brevity they are not listed below but links to the meeting schedules are posted.
House January 24, 2023 Meeting Schedule
House January 25, 2023 Meeting Schedule
House January 26, 2023 Meeting Schedule
Senate January 23, 2023 Meeting Schedule
Senate January 24, 2023 Meeting Schedule
Senate January 25, 2023 Meeting Schedule
Georgia
Georgia is holding several floor sessions next week; four in the Senate and one in the House. Appropriations work continues but expect policy committees to begin ramping up soon.
Georgia House and Senate Meeting Scheduled January 23-26, 2023
Mississippi
Appropriations matters continue to be the focus. The House calendar has only ten bills on it and the Senate has only two. Alcorn State, the alma mater of the late quarterback Steve McNair, will present its budget request on Monday, January 23 to a Senate Appropriations subcommittee.
South Carolina
Committees are working hard to start the year. The State of the State address by Governor Henry McMaster will take place on Wednesday, January 25. Twelve (12) Ten (10) House Ways and Means subcommittees will hold budget hearings next week; check out the House schedule to view the agendas and many will be live streamed. Three House Medical, Military, Public and Municipal Affairs (known as 3-M) subcommittees will meet as the committee ramps up work under new chairwoman Rep. Sylleste Davis.
Both House and Senate floor sessions saw significant debate. The Senate spent nearly three hours on S.39, a bill to create education scholarship accounts (ESAs). A comprehensive amendment was introduced by Sen. Tom Davis and others creating additional school choice options beyond ESAs. The other big bill, S.164 that repeals most certificate of need (CON) laws, was briefly discussed but then carried over to next week for debate. The House had a spirited debate regarding H.3604, a joint resolution appropriated remaining ARPA funds and unspent state reserve funds. Many amendments were offered by the House Freedom Caucus but in the end only one was adopted, on a voice vote, to prohibit a company owned by a member of the General Assembly from receiving ARPA funds.
A significant and substantive piece of legislation was filed by House Speaker Murrell Smith and several members of the House Ad Hoc Economic Development and Utility Modernization Committee. H.3726 has several moving parts but most importantly creates the Office of Statewide Workforce Development under the Department of Employment and Workforce (DEW). This is a consolidation and streamlining of publicly funded workforce development services in order to deliver greater value to taxpayers and the business community.
Lastly, a note for reader calendars. The FY24 Appropriations bill will be on the House floor the week of March 13 and the Senate floor the week of April 18, assuming no changes by the respective committees. May 11 is the scheduled adjournment date for the 2023 session.
Senate Education Subcommittee
Wednesday, January 25, 2023 at 10amET
Senate Medical Affairs Subcommittee
Wednesday, January 25, 2023 at 11amET
Senate Family & Veterans’ Services Subcommittee
Thursday, January 26, 2023 at 9amET
Senate Fish, Game and Forestry Subcommittee
Thursday, January 26, 2023 at 10amET
House Ways and Means Budget Schedule 2023
House Ways and Means Budget Subcommittee Assignments 2023
Senate Finance Budget Schedule 2023
Tennessee
Committees and subcommittees in Tennessee get to work next Tuesday in nearly every policy area. Too many to list here but the schedule below is constantly updated as new meeting notices and agendas are published.
Virginia
Another packed week of committee and subcommittee meetings in Virginia: seventy-four (74), which is a decrease from the previous week of seventy-nine (79). There are dozens of House and Senate Appropriations subcommittee meetings, the House Courts of Justice Committee has several hearings next week (similar to a Judiciary Committee in other chambers), and policy committees with jurisdiction over education, agriculture, and transportation all have scheduled hearings.
