Legislature Passed 649 Of 936 Proposed Bills In The First Half

This morning in early sessions the state House and Senate addressed the last few remaining bills in their chambers and then left town for the crossover break.

The crossover deadline was originally scheduled for tomorrow, but they finished their work early. And so far, most of the bills in each chamber have survived.

By my count there were 936 bills introduced total between the two chambers (not counting resolutions). Of those, 257 failed and 4 were withdrawn while 649 were passed and sent to the other chamber.

Two of the bills passed have already been signed into law by Governor Jack Dalrymple (the civics testing bill and the “surge bill” addressing western infrastructure needs).

That’s about a 69 percent pass rate so far.

As the Senate takes up the House’s bills, and vice versa, we’re going to see that number whittled down further. But probably not further. During the 2013 legislative session nearly 60 percent of all bills introduced made it to Governor Dalrymple for signature.

In 2011 61 percent of bills introduced were presented to Dalrymple, and in 2009 almost 62 percent reached then-Governor John Hoeven’s desk.

Most of the bills making it to the Governor’s desk are signed. Dalrymple vetoed 3 bills in 2013 and 2 bills in 2011. Hoeven averaged about a half dozen vetoes every session during his time in office (2000-2010). The most vetoes by a Governor since the 1983 session were issued by Ed Schafer during his first legislative session after taking over from Democrat George Sinner. He rejected no fewer than 20 bills.

Here’s an analysis of bills introduced and passed prepared by lawmakers by Legislative Council before this session: