Noted. We'll go ahead and call the staff, open meeting to order. And, vice chair Walden, would you go ahead and move item one? Yes. I move item one for discussion. Alright. Mister DeBena, please provide the legislative update. Thank you, mister chairman. Mister chair, madam vice chair, and commissioners, I have for you this morning, really, just kind of a high level update as to, where we are in the legislative session. Today is the, sixty eighth day of the legislative session. To date, there have been 1,966
bills introduced, between both chambers, a total of 155 memorials and resolutions for a grand total of 2,121, proposals introduced this session. To, put that into perspective, we've been tracking this as far back as 1977, and the average last, you know, forty, fifty years or so. The house introduced 1,136 bills, while the senate introduced 830.
And, to date, 20 bills have been transmitted to the governor. She has signed five of those and vetoed 15. And going back to an earlier, stat that I shared, so sixty eighth day of session, but again, tracking this since 1977, the average number of days that we've been in session since 1977 is a hundred and twenty nine days. So if the average holds true, we're about half way through the legislative session. But I can tell you, we have made no vacation plans prior to July 1. Mhmm. We are tracking the Men of Public Affairs on behalf of the commission after the
bill introduction deadline had passed for both chambers, meaning all bills in the house and senate have been introduced, we, flagged and are tracking for the commission 181 bills. After the deadline to hear bills in committee, in their chamber of origin had passed, that list of bills that are considered still alive in the process, was cut roughly in half. To date, roughly 95 bills that we are tracking on behalf of the commission are still considered alive. But as you all know,
legislation, can make its return in the form of a strike everything amendment, of an amendment, of a floor amendment. So, again, always keeping a close eye out for, proposed amendments. We have also been tracking, after the bill introduction deadline, a 111 water related bills on behalf of the commission. And again, after the deadline to hear bills in committee, in their chamber of origin, that number was also cut roughly in half. And about 53 of those water related pieces of legislation are still considered alive.
The next, major deadline for the twenty twenty six legislative session falls next Friday, March 27, which is the deadline to hear bills in committee in the opposite chamber. So once again, we would expect that list of bills that we're tracking to, shrink even further, because bills that made it out of their chamber of origin, but did not make it onto a committee agenda in the opposite chamber would be considered dead. But, again, as I noted earlier, we're always looking for things to return in the form,
of an amendment. With that, mister chair, madam vice chair, and commissioners, that is, where we are with the session. Great. Thank you. Any questions from commissioners? Commissioner Marcus Peterson. No questions. Thank you for your due diligence, Ryan, and your team. I don't have any particular bills, so I wanted to discuss at this time. K. Commissioner Thompson? Nothing at this time. Vice chair Walden. Same. Don't have any don't have any bills of of discussion, but I appreciate the updates that we get from your office on on where we are and the bills that you're tracking. K. Commissioner Lopez?
Yep. Nothing nothing to add either. I'm good. Thank you. Well, that was pretty easy. Thank you, mister Dimena. And as always, we'll we'll keep in touch. Absolutely. Appreciate y'all. Thank you. Alright. Vice chair Walden, you go ahead and move item two. Yes. I move item two for discussion. Okay. And, commissioner Marquez Peterson, this is your letter, so I guess we get to let you introduce it. Oh, certainly. And and my fellow commissioners, this is following the nuclear workshop that our chairman and and commissioner Lopez put together.
We had a preliminary discussion about the expertise we could utilize to to help our utility staff and how could we possibly fund that. So the idea was to request an unsolicited request to the Department of Energy. Our staff took on, the task of putting a letter together, and that's, attached to this agenda. Wanted to seek your approval to submit this to our, secretary of energy, Chris Wright, as well as copy our federal delegation to see if there's potentially any support for
funding expertise on our our staff as a consultant. Okay. Commissioner questions? Commissioner Thompson? No questions, chair. Vice chair Walden? No questions. Commissioner Lopez? No questions. Just a thank you, Leah, for taking that initiative and pushing this forward quickly. Thank you. Alright. And I agree. I appreciate your office spearheading this effort. Vice chair Walden, would you go ahead and please make the motion? I move item two for a vote. Alright. Carolyn, please call the roll. Commissioner Lopez. Aye. Commissioner Thompson. Aye. Commissioner Marcus Peterson?
Aye. Vice chair Walden? Aye. And chair Myers? Aye. And with a vote of five ayes, that item passes. So that means, do we send it to staff or who to to get that sent on, or does your office do that, mister Marcus Peterson? I think what we've done is the letter sits with Valerie, I believe, and she has her electronic signatures. Unless you're in the office with your approval, we'll use electronic signatures and get this snail mailed out, and we're also gonna email it to their their key staff members to make sure they get it more quickly. Great. Sounds like a plan.
Alright. Well, thank you everybody. That, wraps up this meeting. I appreciate you guys taking the appreciate you guys taking the time to to do a couple of quick meetings today. So with that, we are adjourned.