T. Ross Barnhardt

For the first time since the May 13 crossover date, the General Assembly returned to a normal pace, with the Senate holding votes Tuesday through Thursday and the House of Representatives holding votes Wednesday and Thursday. Slowing both chambers’ progress is the continued impasse over the state budget. The leaders of both chambers have yet to reach an agreement on a total spending number, and the Senate believes it is unwise to move forward until a unified number is reached.

The legislature continued the slow pace that it has taken since the May 13 crossover deadline. Much is in limbo as the House and Senate have been unable to reach common ground on a budget spending target. For the last several years, the two chambers have reached an agreement on a spending target before they each wrote their own budget, which makes a compromise budget much easier to attain.

The legislature’s long-awaited crossover deadline has come and gone. The dash to move bills out of their chamber of origin was relatively calm compared to previous years, but crossover week still saw lengthy committee and floor calendars. Legislative leadership made an intentional effort in prior weeks to consider multiple bills to take some of the pressure off of this week.