• Start date: 01/15/19
• End date:  04/14/19 (extended to 05/15/19)

• Start date: 01/14/20
• End date: 05/16/20

During the legislative recess, there are not official committee meetings. There may be occasional informal meetings and advocates can also reach out to their legislators directly during this time.

Bills may be pre-filed with the Legislative Affairs Agency up until January 1st. A legislator may pre-file no more than 10 bills. Pre-filed bills are formally introduced on the first day of the session, and are read and referred to committees before other bills. 

Legislators can introduce bills at anytime during the first regular session, but must introduce bills within the first 35 days of the second regular session of the legislature.

• Start date: 12/03/18
• End date: 09/13/19

• Start date: 01/06/20
• End date: 11/30/20

During the legislative recess, legislative staff actually do a lot of the bill-writing work. It is a good time for constituents to get in touch with their legislators, since the legislators typically go back to their districts in the September through November recess. 

The deadline for the Governor to sign or veto bills is during the recess (this year: 10/13/19).

Bills can be introduced starting in December. This year, the deadline to submit bill requests to the Office of the Legislative Council was January 25th. The last day for bills to be introduced was February 22nd. 

There are workarounds to these bill deadlines. Emergency bills are exempted from these rules, though this is rare. A more common workaround is gutting an existing bill and amending the contents to something entirely different that you want passed, and just leaving the bill number it was filed under.

Legislators can introduce bills at anytime during the first regular session, but must introduce bills within the first 35 days of the second regular session of the legislature.

• Start date: 01/04/19
• End date: 05/03/19

• Start date: 01/08/20
• End date: 05/05/20 (118th day, unless otherwise determined)

Colorado has an interim schedule during the legislative recess from May through December. Their schedule can be found here.

The deadline for the Governor to sign or veto bills is during the recess (this year: 10/13/19).

Bills must be introduced early in the session and there are strict deadlines for each step of the legislative process. The bill deadlines differ by bill type, but most Senate bills have to be introduced by the 19th day of the session and most House bills by the 22nd day of the session.

Any tax increases in Colorado must be approved by the voters, which is seen as an obstacle to enacting a carbon tax in the state. In other states such as California, a cap and trade system has been ruled as not qualifying as a tax, making that a possible avenue for action. 

Legislators are limited to proposing five bills each year. Three of these bills may be pre-filed (with a deadline of 5 days prior to the start of the session) and the other two are filed during the session. Most legislators decide on their bills prior to the start of the session, so constituents need to be aware that they need to propose their desired legislation to their representatives before the session begins.

• Start date: 01/09/19 
• End date: 06/05/19

• Start date: 02/05/20
• End date: 05/06/20

There is not much in the way of formal activity during the legislative recess. There are not regular interim committee meetings.

There is a deadline to introduce the concept of a bill in the first week of the session, and a later deadline to have the legislative language finalized. This last deadline is typically within the first 4-5 weeks of the long session. Bills are not pre-filed before the legislative session.

• Start date: 01/08/19
• End date: 06/30/19

• Start date: 01/07/20
• End date: 06/30/20

During the legislative recess, the legislators go back to their districts. If they are working on getting a bill they are sponsoring passed, they may hold public hearings during this time. It is also common for local meetings to be called by organizations interested in a particular bill—in the environmental sphere, Citizens Climate Lobby, Sierra Club, Power and Light, and the Merr Institute have done this.

Bills can be introduced by legislators at any point in session.

• Start date: 01/16/19
• End date: 05/02/19

• Start date: 01/15/20
• End date: 05/03/20

This year, the bill introduction cutoff was 01/24 and the first crossover deadline was 03/07.

There are internal lateral deadlines where a bill must move from its lead committee/any subsequent committees to its final committee (traditionally Finance, Judiciary, and Consumer Protection and Commerce). There is a second lateral deadline if a bill needs to move from its originating chamber to the other chamber of the legislature. 

This year, the bill introduction cutoff was 01/24 and the first crossover deadline was 03/07.

• Start date: 01/09/19 
• End date: 05/31/19

• Start date: 01/08/20
• End date: 5/31/20

During the legislative recess, there are committee meetings held throughout the state. Legislators typically return to their districts.

This year, the deadline for the introduction of House bills was February 15th. The deadline for the introduction of Senate bills was May 10th.

• Start date: 01/02/19
• End date: 06/19/19

• Start date: 01/03/20
• End date: 04/15/20

During the legislative recess, commission meetings and public meetings can be found according to this schedule.

A member-elect of the legislature may pre-file bills for introduction with a submission deadline of 4:00 PM on the third Friday in December. 

Bills requested after the cloture date are sent to the Legislative Council, which requires a majority vote of approval from the council to be eligible for introduction.

• Start date: 01/09/19 
• End date: 04/08/19 (extended to 05/08/19)
• Read More

• Start date: 01/08/20
• End date: To be determined (no longer than 90 days)

There is limited formal activity during the legislative recess, but studies may be commissioned during this time to investigate particular policy issues.

There is no pre-filing of bills prior to the session. During the session, there is a time cutoff to add sponsors to the bill, but no cutoff for bill introduction.

• Start date: 01/02/19
• End date: 11/20/19

• Start date: 01/01/20
• End date: 07/31/20 (last day for formal sessions)

During the legislative recess, the legislature is in informal session and can technically still vote, as described above.

The official deadline for submitting bills is the third Friday in January of the first year session. There are a variety of workarounds, including a formal appeal process that allows members to introduce a bill with a vote of the full body, or amending the contents of an emergency bill.

Massachusetts has annual budgets and sometimes external policies are tacked onto the budget. Hypothetically, carbon pricing legislation could be passed as an amendment on a budget.

• Start date: 01/08/19 
• End date: 05/20/19
• Special session on budget: 05/24/19–05/25/19

• Start date: 02/11/20 
• End date: 05/21/20

There is no annual deadline for the introduction of bills, but there are deadlines for when committee action needs to occur for a bill to stay alive. This year, the deadline for committees to act favorably on bills in the chamber of origin was 03/15, and was 03/29 for bills that met the first deadline in the other chamber.

Minnesota has a split legislature — the House is Democratic, and the Senate is Republican.

All seats in each body are up for election in 2020. 

This year a House Energy and Climate Finance and Policy Division was established.

• Start date: 01/07/19
• End date: 04/25/19

• NO SESSION

There are interim legislative committees that meet during the legislative recess from the end of April to the following January to work on legislation for the next session. These meetings are open to public comment and are where a lot of the real policy work gets done, given the relatively short and rushed sessions. Some legislators are calling for an update to the legislative proceedings in Montana to accommodate the higher bill loads these days.

The official deadline to introduce general bills is the halfway point of each session. Revenue bills must be introduced by the two-thirds mark of the session. There are common workarounds in the Montana legislature, such as introducing blank or vague “generally revise” bills in case something comes up that needs a bill.

• Start date: 01/09/19
• End date: 05/31/19

• Start date: 01/08/20
• End date: 04/15/20

There can be interim studies during the legislative recess. The Committee Chair and sponsor of an interim study resolution can decide to hire staff for a study and have a series of hearings, which are generally open to public testimony.

Most bills are introduced in the first ten days of the session.

The Nebraska legislature is unicameral (only one chamber). The Unicameral is supposed to be nonpartisan, but this is not the case in practice. 

Bills introduced in Nebraska are limited to a single subject, in an effort to avoid tagging on unrelated measures to a separate bill that is more likely to pass.

• Start date: 01/02/19
• End date: 06/30/19

• Start date: 01/08/20 
• End date: To be determined

During the legislative recess, bills that are retained are worked on by a sub-committee. A report is filed by the end of the year.

Bills are pre-filed in the fall during two short periods, one in September (this year: 09/04/19-09/20/19) and one in November. In an election year, the second filing period allows newly-elected legislators to file a bill. Senators can file bills for a longer period than Representatives can. 

All bills must be voted on by the deadline in late March. Then they cross over to the other body for a new hearing and vote. 

New Hampshire has two-year terms for all positions—senators, representatives, governors and the executive council—unlike many states, which have four-year senate and gubernatorial terms.  

• Start date: 01/09/19
• End date: Legislature meets throughout the year

• Start date: 01/14/20
• End date: Legislature meets throughout the year

During the legislative recess, legislators spend time working in their districts, and wait for bills to come from the other chamber. Legislative leadership or committees may spend the time further examining bills that are waiting to be voted on.

Legislators may propose bills during routine business, when a quorum or majority of the membership is present.  For a voting session, the quorum is 41 members of the State Assembly and 21 members of the State Senate.

• Start date: 01/15/19
• End date: 03/16/19

• Start date: 01/21/20
• End date: 02/20/20

During the legislative recess, the only formal work done is by interim committees. The committee most relevant to us is the Water and Natural Resources Interim Committee. It is comprised of members of both chambers  and parties, with a rotating chair from either the House Energy Committee or Senate Natural Resources Committee. The group holds 4-5 public meetings each year, and the public is invited to attend and present at those conversations. Legislation can be prefiled in these committees or by any legislator in the last month of the legislative recess (this year: 12/16/19-01/17/20) during the recess, which is important due to New Mexico’s very short sessions. 

Last year, the Water and Natural Resources Interim Committee heard a presentation on carbon pricing. This is a setting where New Mexico climate pricing advocates could promote legislation and push to get it pre-filed.

The deadline for introducing bills is the midpoint day of any given session (this year: 02/14). However, New Mexico has a special workaround to keep in mind. Certain members of the leadership get a number of “dummy bills” which are blank bills with only a title that get prefiled. Committee leadership can take one of these bills past the bill introduction deadline and amend it to introduce the contents.

• Start date: 01/09/19
• End date: 06/19/19
• Read More Here

• Start date: 01/13/20
• End date: To be determined (June 2020)

During the legislative recess, legislators and staff are available to speak with  advocates. They are supposed to be researching and developing new legislation ideas during this time.

Bills can be introduced at any time of year, not only when the legislature is in session. The Climate and Community Investment Act has already been introduced in the Senate this session.

A carbon price could be enacted in New York as part of the state budget, which is proposed in late January by the Governor and adopted by the legislature around April 1st each year.

• Start date: 01/22/19
• End date: 06/30/19

• Start date: 02/03/20
• End date: 03/07/20

During the legislative recess, special study groups are formed to investigate issues to be addressed during the next legislative session.

This year, Oregon’s deadline to file bills with the Secretary of the Senate or the Chief Clerk was February 26th. The deadline next year is January 17th. There are a series of subsequent deadlines for scheduling work sessions in the first chamber and for crossing over into the second chamber which can be found on the legislative calendar.

• Start date: 01/01/19
• End date: Legislature meets throughout the year

• Start date: 01/07/20
• End date: 11/30/20

As a full-time legislature, there is no deadline to introduce bills in the session. Introducing bills earlier just leaves more opportunity to move the bill through the entire process in time.

The Pennsylvania Constitution requires each chamber to consider a bill three times, on three separate days, before taking a vote on final passage.

Pennsylvania has a strong single subject rule in bills.

• Start date: 01/01/19 
• End date: 06/30/19

• Start date: 01/07/20
• End date: To be determined

There is limited formal activity during the legislative recess. Legislative commissions may be appointed to meet, but there are generally not formal interim committees that meet and take public comment. 

Advocacy groups in our network have explained that the fall during legislative recess is a good time for public outreach around policies that they want to have introduced as bills in the next session. Any activists that advocate for bills for an organization, not just as themselves, are required to register as state lobbyists. 

The deadline for any legislator to introduce bills is about a month into the session, typically in mid-February. With permission from the House or Senate leadership, bills can be introduced until the end of the session, but an average legislator could not introduce his/her bill independently. It is best to introduce bills early and have their hearings before budget negotiations take over in the spring.

The Rhode Island legislature is part-time, in addition to meeting for half the year. There are no meetings on Monday and Friday, and the legislators come in on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday around 2:00-3:00 PM. The sessions on these days can go as late as 10:00 PM due to these time pressures. 

Democrats in Rhode Island would not necessarily be considered Democrats in other states. Nearly everyone runs as a Democrat in Rhode Island to increase their chances of being elected, so there ends up being conservative legislators elected who are technically in the Democratic Party.

• Start date: 01/08/19
• End date: 05/27/19

• NO SESSION

During the legislative recess, studies on policy issues are frequently conducted by committees. Generally, the Lieutenant Governor assigns interim tasks for Senate committees and the Speaker of the House does so for House committees.

Pre-filing is allowed to begin the first Monday after the general election preceding a regular session, or up to 30 days before a scheduled special session. Legislators can introduce bills on any subject during the first 60 days of the session, after which, only local bills and emergency bills from the Governor can be introduced without the consensus of four-fifths of the members present.

• Start date: 01/28/19
• End date: 03/14/19

• Start date: 01/27/20
• End date: 03/12/20
• Read More

In addition to meeting one day each month during the legislative recess, Utah has interim committee meetings, including a Natural Resources, Agriculture & Environment committee.

For the upcoming year, 02/06/20 will be the last day a legislator can introduce a bill without floor approval. In practice, most legislators will make bill requests before the session begins and finalize language later, so the deadline does not mean much.

• Start date: 01/09/19
• End date: 05/29/19

• Start date: 01/07/20
• End date: 05/12/20

During the legislative recess, there are standing committees that meet intermittently as well as special interim committees for specific pieces of legislation. This legislative session, the Joint Energy Committee was reconstituted and is scheduled to meet a handful of times during the off session.

The House must propose bills by the end of January, while the Senate does not have a deadline for bill introduction. Committee bills also face no limitations on introduction.

Vermont has a joint Climate Solutions Caucus that meets Thursdays at noon during most of the session. Its 82 members come primarily from the House, and currently there are no Republicans. There are members of the Progressive Party as well as the Democratic Party.

The first Tuesday in March is Town Meeting Day, during which legislators generally go back to their districts and constituents, hold a town hall, and give their opinions to their legislators.

• Start date: 01/09/19
• End date: 02/24/19

• Start date: 01/08/20 
• End date:  03/08/20 (60 calendar days, unless extended)

During the legislative recess, Virginia has interim studies and committee meetings, the schedule of which can be found here. A large amount of advocacy work needs to be done between sessions, particularly direct conversations with legislators.

There is a pre-filing period for bills before each regular session. For the 2020 session, this period begins on November 18, 2019 and continues until December 5, 2019. Corrections can be submitted on bills until January 7, 2020—one day before the session begins. Bills could be filed after this deadline by unanimous consent, or with permission from the majority leader. There is a crossover deadline halfway through the legislative session, in which bills need to pass out of their original chamber and move to the other chamber to stay alive.  

• Start date: 01/14/19
• End date: 04/28/19

• Start date: 01/13/20
• End date: 04/22/20

During the legislative recess, Washington has interim committee meetings, following this schedule.

Legislators can pre-file bills in the month leading up to a session. February 22, 2019 was the deadline to pass bills out of committee and read them into the record on the floor in their house of origin.