2020 Legislative Session

Inside the ‘boiler room’ of legislative analysts during the session
|
It was late Tuesday morning, a House committee was set to hear the high-profile “red flag” gun bill in just a couple hours, and a key report — one that was needed for the hearing to begin — wasn’t ready yet. One building over from the Roundhouse, the pressure was on as Cathy Fernandez and her analysts waited for input from a state agency in order to complete the report for Senate Bill 5 and send it over to the House. To make matters even more difficult, it was a snow day and the rest of state government was closed. Now, multiply that experience to the nth degree. That’s about what it’s like to be a Legislative Finance Committee contract analyst tasked with writing the “fiscal impact reports” required for every piece of legislation filed during the session.