It’s always difficult to predict how the last weeks and days of a legislative session will go. For example, yesterday the Senate Institutions and the Senate Transportation Committees released their versions of the capital and transportation bills respectively. Normally each would then go to the Appropriations Committee for review and emerge days or weeks later. But yesterday, in a flurry of rules suspensions, the bills were taken up before they appeared on the calendar; were committed to Appropriations; reviewed and came back to the floor; and finally were read the second time, amended and are on track for passage today. Also, the Senate Finance Committee released the health care bill which was also committed to Appropriations. I don’t know if it will move as fast but as soon as it is out, along with the budget bill and the tax bill, the Senate will vote and return them to the House. The House will refuse to concur and all five bills will then go to committees of conference to work out the final versions. If all of that can happen by this Friday, adjournment can and should occur within two weeks, most likely Saturday May 7th. That’s not a prediction though!
Clearly, a lot is going on in the background and in informal conversations. The VBA still has some bills of interest either in transit between chambers or on the calendar. Yesterday, the Senate gave final approval to H. 88, the UCCJEA. A minor amendment was made in the Senate which the House will now react to. Our position is to move the amendment to another section; if the House chooses not to, we can live with the current version and perhaps revisit the bill next year. Passage is the priority this year.
The Senate may take up as early as this morning S. 98, the amendment to the licensed lender law. The amendment would ease the restriction on seller financing of commercial property and expand the definition immediate family members. But another broader fix, meaning seller financing of residential property not within current law, will have to be done at the federal level. See my post of last Friday; our congressional delegation is willing to help if we can get them some suggested language.
H. 56, the energy act has been amended in the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee to include a working study group to address the issues raised during testimony on H. 57, the energy audit bill. As you recall, four members of our Property Law Section testified in opposition to what was contained in H.57. Two weeks ago I had a conversation with a member of House General which has H. 57 and briefed him on how the VBA reacted to the Bianchi decision. Many of you may recall that we put together a committee that included all the parties with an interest in that case and worked out a draft bill for introduction the next January. I suggested that the same approach be used for the subject matter of H. 57. So that is what was added to H. 56. The only problem is that the VBA was left of the working group!. I brought that to the attention of Senate Natural and was asked to draft an amendment and present it today. I don’t think anyone opposes our participation. I know the Chair of the House Committee on General Affairs insists we be included.
The House Commerce Committee still has possession of H. 272, the private roads maintenance bill while it has seen passage of H.21, the limited cooperative associations act. That now sits in a Senate Committee for action in 2012. There are a number of other items of interest to the VBA that are in the pipeline. H. 79, the adult guardianship and protective proceedings act is in Senate Judiciary. The foreclosure “clean up” bill (H. 403) and the uniform principal and income act (H 327) are both in House Judiciary. We are trying to get some time during the final two weeks when conference committees are hard at work to brief the judiciary committee with an overview of both bills if we can. That will set the table for the next session. We also expect to see introduction of a rewrite of our nonprofit corporation statute next January. Again, we hope to brief the Commerce Committee before adjournment. Finally, the uniform collateral consequences of conviction act (S.38) remains on the senate calendar under the status of “ordered to lie”. In a sense it’s been tabled but can be called up by any senator with one day’s notice.
I’ll update you soon; thanks for reading.