NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
TOPEKA — What is now known as House Substitute for Senate Bill 83, an education related mega bill that touches on everything from savings accounts for private school to special education funding, is in conference committee this week at the statehouse.
"We're definitely watching that one and we'll see where that goes," said Hutchinson USD 308 Superintendent Dr. Dawn Johnson. "There's a lot of funding tied to that, a lot of special ed funding tied to that, some other elements that are tied to that, including about any new money you get, how it can be spent. There are some constraints in there and there are some positives in there and there are some challenges in there."
The conference committee process is designed to bring differences between each chamber's version of a given bill that both have passed into alignment so that each body can vote on an identical piece of legislation at the end of the process to get it passed.
When conference committees meet, there can be small or large changes to any bill, depending on what the leadership on each side tells its conferees to offer, so what will be in the final version that gets an up or down vote from each body isn't clear until this process is completed.
Also, conference committees are often announced from the well following sessions in the legislature and their start times may be dependent upon how long those full floor sessions last and so their meetings may happen on relatively short notice and not have time to be posted on the Legislature's website before they happen.
The House and the Senate have to agree on specific language for a bill before it goes to the governor for her signature or veto. However, once a bill becomes part of a conference committee report, it cannot be amended.
CLICK HERE to download the Hutch Post mobile app.
CLICK HERE to sign up for the daily Hutch Post email news update.