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Joint Judiciary

Thursday, January 22, 2026·5h 38m·▶ Watch / Listen

The Joint Judiciary Committee spent the day in budget briefings and SMART Act oversight hearings covering the Department of Corrections, Judicial Department, Office of the Child's Representative, Child Protection Ombudsman, and related agencies — with the dominant tension being DOC's denied supplemental request for 788 additional prison beds, a 98% error rate cited in the parole risk assessment audit, a DOJ investigation notice, and a vetoed medical copay bill whose data-tracking requirements DOC still has not implemented.

Key Actions

·JBC Briefing – Department of Corrections BudgetNo Vote

+ 14 more actions

Controversies

Vetoed medical copay bill — failure to implement legislative data-tracking mandate

Reps. Lorena Garcia and Michael Carter, both described as prime sponsors of the vetoed medical copay bill, pressed DOC on the governor's executive order, which Garcia stated 'came far, far, far, far, far, far short of what the intention of the legislature was.' Carter noted the bill 'was overwhelmingly passed by this legislature and then vetoed' and that data tracking specifically requested in the bill is still unavailable; Clinical Director Lacey Monday acknowledged the reason-for-refusal tracking 'was not in the executive order' and data will not be available for another six to eight months.

+ 3 more controversies

Notable Quotes

“Most of what you will find in this budget book are cuts. We are in a really miserable budget cycle right now. Last year we had to find approximately a billion dollars in savings. HR1. Then we had a balanced budget. HR1 passed and we lost about a billion dollars worth of revenue. And now we are in another position of having to close nearly another billion dollar gap.”

Senator Judy Amabile — Senator Amabile opened the JBC budget briefing by describing three consecutive fiscal crises facing the committee as it reviews the Governor's budget requests for corrections, judicial, and public safety agencies.

+ 4 more quotes

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TranscriptPreview
Welcome to order. Ms. Jensen, please call the roll. Senators and Representatives. Bacon. Excused. Carson. Present. Carter. Clifford. Here. Dougherty. Excused. Espinosa. Here. Garcia. I might just walk. Excused. Henriksen. Here. Kelty. Here. Richardson. Excused. No, he's here. Sorry. Richardson. Roberts. Here. Wallace. Excused. Weinberg. Here. Zamora. Wilson. Person. So. Kai. Here. Weissman. Good morning, Mr. Chair. Here. All right, members, we have a long day ahead of us today. We're starting out with a briefing from the Joint Budget Committee. I see. Representative. I have Representative Sirota signed up, but I heard that Amable might be giving the presentation. Whoever wants to begin, if it pleases the Chair, I might just say a few words and then I will turn it over to Senator Amable. Great. But I just wanted to remind everyone that we are here because of a joint rule. Excuse me. That requires us to come before you. You now have a liaison to connect with. This is. But what we do here is we present the Governor's budget. So it's a little awkward. This is not our budget. This is what has been proposed to us. These are the decisions that we are considering that…
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