Lawmakers returned to business on Monday to begin floor debate on priority bills and legislation carried over from the 2023 legislative session. Floor debate will be conducted during the morning sessions, with committee hearings being held in the afternoons through the end of February, at which time full-day legislative debate will begin. While the deadline for designating priority bills has been set for February 14, the body has already advanced six individual senator priority bills, one committee priority bill and three Speaker priority bills to Select File.

The legislature, prior to adjourning last Friday, adopted an additional amendment to the Legislature’s rules, limiting the number of bills that a Senator may introduce each session. Under the amended rule, Senators will only be allowed to introduce 20 bills and committees will be limited to introducing 10 bills each session. Lawmakers ran out of time to take up other more controversial rule changes, including a measure to lower the 33-vote threshold for a motion to invoke cloture and cease debate and a proposed rule change that would’ve barred the news media from observing and reporting on executive sessions of legislative committees.