This Week at the Statehouse – Week 5

Week 5 continued with legislative committee and subcommittee meetings. New bills continue to be filed.  As of today, the Board of Regents are registered on 304 bills for this legislative session.  This link will provide a complete list of bills we are tracking (in the box marked as lobbyist, type in Mary Braun).

Some bills of interest from this week:

SF 41 prohibiting tenure at public universities. Passed subcommittee 2-1. Eligible for debate in the Senate Education Committee.

HF 496 (formerly HF 49) prohibiting tenure at the institutions of higher learning governed by the state board of regents. Passed House Education Committee 12-9. Eligible for House floor debate.

SF 245 allows paying college student athletes. Passed subcommittee. Eligible for debate in Senate Judiciary Committee. No House companion bill.

HF 222 reduces funding for K-12 schools, community colleges and the Regents institutions who utilized any United States history curriculum that in whole or in part is derived from the New York Times “1619 Project”, or any similarly developed curriculum. Passed subcommittee 2-1. Eligible for debate in House Education Committee. No Senate companion bill.

HSB 199 requires Regents universities to publish on their website all course syllabus. Subcommittee meeting scheduled next Monday. No Senate companion bill.

HF 153 requires Regents universities to appoint a current employee as a director of public policy events, and require this employee to report to the universities’ general counsel office. Subcommittee meeting scheduled next Tuesday. No Senate companion bill.

HF 166 requires faculty or other employees or appointees of a community college or Regents universities who conducted or participated in sponsored research disclose the identity of each sponsor of the research. Passed subcommittee 2-1. Eligible for debate in House Education Committee. No Senate companion bill.

SF 292 requires the Regents universities to conduct a survey of all of the employees to determine the political party affiliations of all such persons, to disaggregate the survey results by job classification but not list the names of individual employees. Introduced in the Senate Education Committee.

SF 342 relates to officer disciplinary actions/ Brady list study. Eligible for Senate floor debate. No House companion bill.

SF 336 relates to the blood, bone marrow, and living organ donation incentive program. Eligible for Senate floor debate. No House companion bill.

HF 388 relates to eliminating two duties of the child development coordinating council. Passed House 94-0; eligible for Senate floor debate.

Although we have not yet seen any free speech bills filed, we do expect to see legislation.

The Legislature’s first funnel date, when Senate policy bills need to come out of a Senate committee and House policy bills need to come out of a House committee to remain eligible for debate this legislative session, is March 5th. This date does not apply to tax, spending and government oversight bills.

If you have any questions, please email me at mary.braun@uni.edu.