Member Forum

Today was the 60th and supposed to be last, day of the 2019 legislative session.  Due to a mandatory 72 hour cooling off period before which the budget can be voted on, the legislature will reconvene tomorrow for a 61st day for the sole purpose of passing the state budget.  With regard to unclaimed property legislation, as you know the DFS package passed the legislature and will be sent to the Governor for approval.  The final version of the bill does require DFS to enter into rulemaking if they pursue automatic payment of accounts under $2,000.  The bill also does not require rulemaking for electronic document submission, so there is the potential to get that operational without having to go through rulemaking. 

As we enter into the short summer we have between the conclusion of this session and committee weeks for the 2020 session that will begin as early as late August, I believe we need to sit down with DFS to discuss both how they intend to implement this year’s legislative changes, and to try to reach some agreement on legislation for next year.  On the political side, I would suggest we identify a few legislators whom we should support politically in order to have some people to turn to on our issues should we become adverse to the department regarding legislation.