Hear that?

Hear that? That’s the sound of hundreds of bills begging for their lives. Tuesday, March 1 is the last day for bills to pass the Senate and the last day for the Senate to receive bills from the House. That pretty much lets the Senate dictate to the House when it has to complete 3rd reading of its bills. The House rules state that it has until March 4 to complete 3rd reading.

Thinking about it a bit, I suppose it would be possible for a bill to pass 3rd reading in the House on March 4, have the bill itself die because the Senate refuses it as untimely, and then have the bill’s text get amended into a bill that was still eligible to pass the Senate. If the bill’s subject matter never passed the House at all, then it couldn’t be incorporated into an Engrossed Senate Bill. I don’t know if that kind of thing ever happens though.