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Legislative action involves a lot of work in a very compressed time period (remember, the legislature meets for only 140 days), during which it must attend to numerous important legislative matters.
Filing appropriations bill; biennial revenue estimate--The draft of the appropriations bill is filed in both houses of the legislature, allowing each house to work on the bill simultaneously. The state comptroller is required to provide the legislature with a biennial revenue estimate (BRE) shortly after the regular session begins in January to ensure that the legislature does not violate the constitutional prohibition on appropriating more money than is expected to be collected.
Hearings by both appropriations committees--The Senate Committee on Finance and the House Committee on Appropriations, working separately, begin by hearing testimony from state agencies and others on the budget. Each committee makes changes to the budget document, a process known as "markup." After the bill passes out of these committees, it comes to the floor of each chamber for debate and ultimately approval.
Conference committee and final vote--The bill is then referred to a conference committee composed of members of both houses to resolve differences between the senate and house versions of the bill. After the conference committee has agreed on a version of the appropriations bill, it sends the bill back to both houses for a final up-or-down vote (no amendment allowed).
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