The Alaska State Legislature has appointed its conference committee for the state operating budget. The conference committee is formed when the House and Senate come out with different versions of the state’s budget. It is the job of the committee to attempt a compromise. Both the House and Senate appoint three members of their respective finance committees to the conference committee. In both cases, the respective finance co-chairs and one member of the minority caucus were selected for the committee.
Since the committee has been appointed, the legislature is now under what is called the ‘twenty-four hour rule’. Under the rule, committees may meet to discuss bills with only twenty-four hours’ notice. Normally, committee schedules must be announced by Thursday the week before the hearing will take place. This allows committees to be more flexible in their scheduling, and means bills could begin moving quickly, since a committee can shift from one bill to another multiple times in the course of a single week.
Gavel to Gavel has created a video to help answer questions about the rule. It can be found on the Gavel Facebook Page.
