During act three of the annual state budget drama, the Massachusetts Senate next week will dispense with 942 amendments to its $38 billion fiscal 2016 budget before handing the bill to a House-Senate conference committee for resolution before the July 1 start of the new fiscal year. Senate budget deliberations in recent years have often required two or three long days of deliberations to complete, with senators holding more debate on amendments than the House while also deploying a process in order to quickly dispense with batches of amendments. While the House consolidates amendments by category, the Senate has favored a process known as “bundling” batches of amendments for bulk approval or rejection.

Like the House budget and the spending plan recommended by Gov. Charlie Baker, the Senate bill looks to hold spending growth to roughly 3 percent, a slowdown from recent rates. In that environment, and with a fiscally conservative governor waiting at the end of the line with a veto pen, amendments adding significant amounts of new spending face an uphill climb next week. The full list of amendments is available on the Legislature’s website and budget sessions are expected to begin at 10 a.m. each day, beginning on Tuesday. Given that half the Legislature will be consumed with the budget, legislative committees have little planned this week.

For Henry Epp’s conversation with Matt Murphy about the week ahead on Beacon Hill, click the audio player above.