Christine Palm

Our work was a productive mix of bills for teachers and workers, public health initiatives, consumer protections, environmental advocacy, and more. 

We held two sessions days this week - Tuesday and Wednesday. We are now less than one month before Sine Die - the official end of the session. Here are some of the bills we passed over the last two session days.

The House of Representatives passed HJ 1 on Wednesday, which means you will get to decide if we amend the state Constitution to allow no-excuse absentee voting.

The most important bill we passed on Thursday was HB 5004, An Act Implementing Early Voting. You will recall that after years of trying, the Legislature was able to pass a resolution that put a referendum question on the ballot last November to allow us to change the State Constitution to allow early voting. I'm grateful to all the voting access advocates whose dogged determination really helped move the needle on this bill which includes, among other expansions, a 14-day period in which citizens could vote in general elections. 

We are now convening several times per week to vote on bills on the Floor of the House (and Senators are doing the same).

Thursday, the House was called into session, where we voted on a number of executive and judicial nominations and on a number of bills.

Rep. Palm, one of five honored nationally, received the award for her work to enact a mandate that the science of climate be part of every public school curriculum.

The Legislature is entering its final leg of the 2023 Session.  
 
I find it helpful to think of the legislative session as having three main phases. And as we have concluded the first two phases, we are just about two-thirds of the way to "Sine Die" (pronounced "sin-ay-dee-ay") which is Latin for "without day." This marks the legal moment the legislature must conclude its business for the year. Sine Die for 2023 is midnight on June 7.