Week Four February 4,
2018, From Jason Spencer
Adoption Bill Pass
House--Again. Triggers Legislative Standoff
We returned to the Gold
Dome on Monday, January 29 for the fourth week of the 2018 legislative session.
Arguably the biggest news of the week was the House’s unanimous passage of
House Bill 159, legislation that would completely overhaul Georgia’s current
adoption laws. However, the bill has stalled in the state Senate again.
Also, this coming week,
I will have hearings on two bills that I have authored, HB 605 and HR
888. HB 605 is the Hidden Predator Act of 2018 and it updates the
previous Hidden Predator Act that I passed in 2015 with stronger provisions to
flush out child sexual predators as well as organizations who recklessly enable
and hide these pedophiles. HR 888 will be heard this coming
Wednesday. This resolution creates a joint study committee between House
and Senate to study the idea of converting, configure and repurpose closed
rural hospitals into veterans homes.
Adoption Bill Stalls in
Senate
Rep. Bert Reeves
(R-Marietta) presented a compromise version of HB 159 on the House floor this
afternoon, or what was thought to be a compromise. The bill, presented as a
Senate Substitute as Amended by the House, addresses three key provisions that
the Senate amended from the original House version of the bill and includes:
1) A heavily-revised
version of HB 359, the bill relating to private guardianship. Originally passed
by both chambers last year, the bill was vetoed by Governor Deal. The Senate
Judiciary Committee attached the bill to HB 159 when its passed out the bill
earlier this year. Rep. Reeves reported that the compromise bill included many
of the main components of HB 359, but it fully addressed the issues so that
everyone, including Governor Deal, is “satisfied.”
2) An extension of the lockout for a mother to waive her rights to a child to
four days. Currently, a mother has ten days to revoke the choice to put her
child up for adoption. The compromise bill would allow a birth mother to waive
that revocation period four days after birth.
3) Allowance
for the payment of birth mother living expenses in private adoptions.
Currently, living expenses may only be paid in agency adoptions.
The House adopted the compromise
version of the bill by a vote of 168-0 and immediately transmitted the bill to
the Senate for agreement. But no agreement came. Instead, the Senate reconvened
after an hour to discuss the compromise proposal. After senators expressed
concern over the payment of living expenses in private adoptions, including
expression of fears of baby selling, the Senate adjourned for the weekend,
sending the compromise bill home with Senators for reading over the weekend.
BILL WATCH
Distracted Driving
Legislation
The House Judiciary
Non-Civil Committee, chaired by Rep. Rich Golick (R-Smyrna), met today to hear
testimony on HB 673, the distracted driving proposition authored by Rep. John
Carson (R-Marietta).
The bill bans the use of
wireless telecommunication devices while a driver is operating a vehicle unless
the driver uses a hands-free device.
According to Rep.
Carson, his interest in the bill stems back to his inquiry about increased auto insurance rates in Georgia and is an attempt to replace the “unworkable”
texting-while-driving law currently in Georgia Code.
He also presented data
indicating that the 13 states adopting hands-free laws saw a 16% decrease in
automobile accidents within two years of passage and enforcement.
Under the legislation,
drivers would only be allowed to touch their phone once to initiate a call,
once to end a call, and to use GPS functions.
It also increases fines
for distracted driving and points to three for initial violations and four for
subsequent violations. The legislation also states that the funds from these
fines are intended to fund the state’s trauma care system and the direct and
indirect costs of administering the law.
There were several
speakers in support of the bill, including Colonel Mark McDonough of the
Georgia State Patrol. Colonel McDonough agreed that the current
texting-while-driving law is difficult to enforce, and this proposition is an
improvement as it treats everyone equal under the law, improves officers’
ability to ascertain potential violations, and includes penalties (fines and
points) to change behavior.
Rep. Ed Setzler
(R-Acworth) questioned whether the issue is hands on the wheel or eyes on the
road, the former of which is the focus for law enforcement in the legislation.
Harris Blackwood, Director of the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, also
spoke in support of the legislation, and Rep. Setzler echoed his concern that
the legislation is focusing on the wrong issue. The Committee also heard from
three mothers who each had a child killed in a distracted driving collision and
appeared in support of the bill.
As this bill moves
through the committee process, I will continue to evaluate the pros and cons of
the bill. However, I lean towards opposing this bill because of the increasing
impracticality of enforcing such a law.
New Legislation
HB 799, authored by Rep.
Sharon Cooper (R-Marietta), amends Title 33 to require a hospital providing
emergency care to a patient with a health benefit plan that is out of the
hospital’s network to notify the patient’s health benefit plan after the
patient is stabilized to coordinate post-stabilization care. The health benefit
plan must then either authorize post-stabilization care at the hospital and
begin negotiations for reimbursement for such care or arrange for the prompt transfer
of the patient to a network provider. The bill was referred to the Insurance
Committee.
HB 801, authored by Rep.
Scott Hilton (R-Peachtree Corners), is the Georgia Individualized Education
Account Act and amends Title 20 to revise the Georgia Special Needs Scholarship
Program. The program allows a student with one of an enumerated list of disabilities
to take QBE funds allocated to his or her education and apply said funds to
costs associated with alternative education. The bill was referred to the
Education Committee.
HB 749, authored by Rep.
Shaw Blackmon (R-Bonaire), provides an income tax exemption for veterans and
their survivors for military retirement pay. Rep. Blackmon noted that 20 states
fully exempt such income from income tax. The Subcommittee held the bill
pending receipt of a fiscal note.
HB 767, authored by Rep.
Bill Werkheiser (R-Glennville), seeks a change to O.C.G.A. § 50-36-1 regarding
the verification of lawful presence within the United States so as to provide a
method of such verification of lawful presence that may be utilized in
conjunction with the electronic filing of an application for unemployment
insurance with the Department of Labor (providing the number of a verifiable
and unexpired driver’s license or identification card issued in Georgia on or
after July 1, 2012). The bill was referred to the Industry and Labor Committee.
HB 769, authored by Rep.
Rick Jasperse (R-Jasper), proposes to implement the recommendations from the
House Rural Development Council concerning health care issues:
It seeks to amend
Georgia’s current law on “remote order entry” at O.C.G.A. § 26-5-5(37.2) by a
pharmacist allowing a licensed pharmacist in Georgia and located within or
outside of the State from a remote location that the pharmacist has reviewed
the patient specific drug order for a hospital patient, has approved or
disapproved the administration of the drug for such patient, and has entered the
information in the hospital’s patient record system.
It proposes to amend
O.C.G.A. § 26-4-80(c)(7), concerning when hospitals may use remote order
entry. It would require such could be used when the licensed pharmacist
is not physically present in the hospital, the hospital pharmacy is closed, and
a licensed pharmacist will be physically present in the hospital pharmacy
within 48 hours (rather than current law of 24 hours). It deletes the
current requirement that at least one licensed pharmacist is physically present
in the hospital pharmacy.
It seeks to add at
O.C.G.A. § 31-2-15 additional requirements for the state medical plan (e.g.
State Health Benefit Plan, Medicaid, and PeachCare for Kids) in streamlining
and expediting credentialing and billing processes.
It adds a new Code
Section at O.C.G.A. § 31-2-16 to create the Rural Center for Health Care
Innovation and Sustainability within the Office of Rural Health and requires no
later than January 1, 2019 that best practices curriculum is to be developed.
It seeks to establish a
new type of hospital, micro-hospital in O.C.G.A. § 31-6-2 (at least two and not
more than seven beds which provides 24/7 care to stabilize patients in a rural area).
It proposes to add in
O.C.G.A. § 31-6-47(a) exemptions from CON process for (1) the purchase of a
closing health care facility and such facility’s corresponding CON and bed
allowance by a hospital in a contiguous county to repurpose the facility as a
micro-hospital and (2) the relocation of any skilled nursing facility,
intermediate care facility, or micro-hospital within the same county, any other
health care facility in a rural county within the same county, and any other
health care facility in an urban county within a three-mile radius of the
existing facility so long as the facility does not propose to offer any new or
expanded clinical health service at the new location.
It seeks to add a new
Code Section at O.C.G.A. § 31-34-20, regarding the Georgia Board for Physician
Workforce, so as to establish a grant program for increasing the number of
physicians who remain in Georgia to practice in medically underserved rural
areas of the State. It would grant physician’s insurance premium
assistance and outlines the requirements for physicians to receive such grant
(it would require the physician to work in such medically underserved area for
a specific time to be determined by the Board for Physician Workforce).
HB 778 Rep. Terry
England (R-Auburn) authored this initiative to provide for the programmatic
transfer of the career, technical and agricultural education program from the State Board of Education to the State
Board of Technical College System of Georgia in Title 20. Such transfer
would be on and after July 1, 2019. The bill was assigned to the Higher
Education Committee.
Notable Senate Bills Introduced
SB 74, authored by Sen.
Josh McKoon (R-Columbus), amends Title 15 to establish the burden of proof on
an unemancipated minor seeking a waiver of the parental notification
requirement for an abortion. Such minor must prove that she is mature and
informed enough to make an abortion decision without parental support or that
parental notification is not in her best interests by clear and convincing
evidence. Sen. McKoon stated that providing this clarity in the burden of proof
would bring Georgia in alignment with other states, although several senators
expressed concern that the burden could be too high and that they were being
asked to adopt it without enough information. The Committee voted along party
lines to recommend the bill DO PASS and proceed to the Senate Rules Committee.
SB 375, authored by Sen.
William Ligon Jr. (R-Brunswick), proposes the Keep Faith in Adoption and Foster
Care Act and amends Title 49 to allow a child-placing agency to decline to
accept a referral for foster care or adoption services under a contract with
the State based on the child-placing agency’s sincerely held religious beliefs.
The legislation also bars the State from taking an adverse action against such
an agency, including failing to renew a contract or license,
withholding funding, or taking an enforcement action. This bill appears to
attempt to effectuate the intent of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s amendment
to HB 159 last session relating to religious freedom and faith-based providers
of child-placing services. The bill was referred to the Judiciary Committee.
CLICK HERE FOR PAST
EDITIONS OF THE 2018 LEGISLATIVE SESSION UPDATES
We are well into the
2018 session, and on Monday, February 5, the General Assembly will reconvene
for legislative Day 15 and legislative week five. My colleagues and I will be
busier day by day as we get closer to legislative Day 28, or Cross-Over Day, so
we will be hard at work next week reviewing bill proposals in our respective
committees and taking up legislation in the House chamber. As we continue to
progress through the session, I encourage you to contact me to discuss your
thoughts and opinions. I greatly value any feedback I receive from my
constituents, and your input truly helps guide the decisions I make under the
Gold Dome. My Capitol office number is 404-656-0177, and my email address is
jason.spencer@house.ga.gov. Please contact me anytime.
GA State Representative
Jason Spencer
28 Yachtsmen Court
Woodbine Georgia 31569
United States
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