Despite the headlines in this morning's papers, the 2008 budget conferees are not in total agreement on the caboose or the 2008-2010 appropriations acts. So, as the saying goes in the halls of the capitol, “the devil is in the details” proved correct in this instance. The media late last evening thought the conferees had reached agreement in principle on the major issues and the budget was completed except for the details.
One of the conferees confided to a reporter who works for a major state newspaper, “You all wrote your stories a bit too early.” This morning the negotiations broke down over the issues of public safety and transportation. The good news, however, is the six senators and the six delegates who make up the conference committee are still meeting. So there is still hope (at least in the minds of the GA's leadership) that the session will end before the end of this week.
All of the elected legislators are due back at 4pm this afternoon for a session. Hopefully, at least two-thirds of them will show up and be willing to vote to extend the session for at least another 2 or maybe three days. It takes the “concurrence of two-thirds of the members elected to each house” to extend the session. While the talk of the few members in the GA this morning was that the session would be extended until Thursday, my bet is on the necessity of extending it to a later date, maybe even the first of the week.
As has been discussed in the GP in the past, just the logistics of compiling all of the amendments and getting them duplicated for distribution to the members takes time. This compilation doesn't even start until all of the disagreeing issues are resolved. I can tell you from direct observation that the people who have to do most of the typing and editing of the “detailed policy decisions made by the conferees” are waiting anxiously for the word “GO.”
As some of them have confided in me, even after they get the information there are a lot of factors that can go wrong. As one stated, “First and foremost will the duplicating equipment; we will be holding our breath and asking will it hold up to the stress we're going to put it under. Then, do we have enough paper on hand to do all of the “half-sheets” that will be necessary. With us working all night, the possibility of errors increases and the proof readers will be back with a lot of corrections, increasing the work load. Then, of course,” the staff person said with a grin, “there is the possibility of a stressed out staff worker jumping off the thirteenth floor of the GAB!” The 13th floor of the GAB, by the way, is the roof!