RichmondLiberty.org

GA310107.odt – General Assembly Wed 31 Jan 07

Morning meeting was skipped.

Senate Courts of Justice Committee scheduled to
meet at 1:49, but subcommittee on Involuntary
Commitment did not finish until after 2. The
Committee met shortly thereafter, but before they
got down to business I needed to be down the hall
at House Courts. I have no idea what they did; sorry.

Criminal Law Subcommittee of House Courts of
Justice Committee scheduled to meet ½ hour after
House adjourns, but this has not yet happened –
sorry, in fact it DID just happen. They should
meet about 2:35. Numerous interesting bills, a
few of them vital. This promises to be a very
long night; there are some 65 bills that must be
considered. Papa John's has a nearby location, however . . .
Later in the meeting, we were reminded that at
Friday's meeting, we will have well over a
hundred bills from this subcommittee alone that will need attention.
Even later (8 pm), they're been working on DUI
bills for over an hour, which I'm not attempting
to follow. Thirty-seven more bills to go.

HB1772 (Cosgrove) would remove the requirement
that a police officer be in uniform when pulling
over a car for speeding, leaving only the requirement that he display a badge.
I pointed out that badges are available in
cereal boxes, and that at night, from another
car, one cannot determine whether or not one is
genuine. We've had repeated murders in Virginia
committed by people impersonating police officers.
Bill was laid upon the table (killed).

HB2456 (Cline) would require a physician to offer
to anesthetize the fetus before terminating a
pregnancy, and to inform the pregnant woman of
certain things that are alleged to be facts.
We've seen similar bills repeatedly, in the
past. They've generated great controversy. This
bill was not on the docket for today's meeting,
and no advocates are present on either side. The
decision was to send the bill to the full
Committee with no recommendation, and to plan on
giving proponents and opponents five minutes each.

HB2520 (Iaquinto) gives much greater power to the
State Police to obtain health records. The
patron said that hospitals were refusing to
verify that people required to register as sex
offenders were patients, which meant that police
were unable to perform state-mandated checks. The
bill as written went well beyond what was needed
to solve the stated problem, and the patron added
several amendments to make it even broader.
I spoke against the bill, to no avail. There
was one minor good amendment, but then the bill
was approved by the subcommittee.

HB2790 (Gilbert) would seem to improve the rights of defendants.
Recommendation was to report.

HB2808 (Byron) would require that a woman be
given the opportunity to view an ultrasound image
of her unborn child before giving informed
consent for an abortion. Not mentioned in the
official summary of the bill is the fact that the
bill also requires every place where abortions
are performed to have an ultrasound machine
available, and to actually perform a scan on the
patient. Some suspicious people think that this
is a ploy to increase the cost and inconvenience
of an abortion (the cost ranges from $40 to $100).
The bill was opposed by Mira Signor and her
colleague, the advocates from Planned Parenthood.
Delegate Waddell had several questions about the
purpose of the bill, and Delegate Watts proposed
a number of amendments. I'm sure that it is
merely a coincidence that these are the only two
female members of the subcommittee who were present.
The bill is set aside to deal while most of the
subcommittee deals with other bills. An hour
later, we're back on it. Vote was 5-4 to reject
the Wadell amendments. [NO, NOT SURE THAT THAT'S
RIGHT! REREADING THIS JUST BEFORE SENDING IT, MY
MEMORY IS THAT THEY WERE ACCEPTED, BUT WHAT I
WROTE AT THE TIME IS THAT THEY WERE
REJECTED. WE'LL SEE THE CURRENT VERSION FRIDAY, IN ANY EVENT.]
Bill was then further amended to remove the
requirement that women be given ultrasounds, and
then again to remove the requirement that the
equipment be available at the facility. Another
amendment simplified the signature requirement,
and a final one replaced every instance of
“unborn child” with “fetus”. The vote was 6-5 to
recommend the bill to be reported. Friday's
hearing before the full Committee should be interesting.

HB2895 (Phillips) would allow county conservators
of the peace assigned to litter control to have
access to criminal-history information. The
example given by the patron is that, in at least
one rural area, a litter-control employee nearly
got himself in the middle of a drug deal; this
might have been avoided if he had been able to
check the criminal history of the person
registered as owning the license plate that he could see.
I spoke against the bill, as before, but to no
avail. The recommendation was to report the bill.

HB2971 (Bell) would restrict the use of Drug
Treatment Courts to cases involving possession of
drugs or marijuana, and cases involving probation
violations following conviction of drug or
marijuana possession. At present, the Courts can
deal with “drug and drug-related” cases.
Initial sentiment among subcommittee members was
6-4 to keep the broader jurisdiction. The patron
is busily attempting to drum up support . . .
HAH! Almost eleven, and he's conceded
defeat. The bill is laid on the table, 6-5.

HB3023 (Fralin) attempts to deal with the
purported issue of people attempting to defeat
urine analysis. It would make it a crime to use
synthetic urine in an attempt to beat a drug
test, and would also block an offender from
obtaining a Commercial Drivers' License. For a
first attempt, the disqualification would be a
year; for a second offense, the disqualification would be for life.
Discussion among members whittled the bill
down. The specific reference to synthetic urine
was eliminated; this is already covered in the
existing law. Likewise, the life-time disqualification provision was removed.
I spoke, correcting the mistaken impression of
some members of the Subcommittee that there is
some connection between these urine tests and
driving under the influence of alcohol or
drugs. I urged that the bill be defeated for
this reason. However, elections are coming up,
and no one wants to be accused of being in favor
of allowing people to drive tractor-trailers
while they're high. The recommendation was to report the amended bill.

The subcommittee rose ahead of schedule – it's not even one thirty yet!!!

Tomorrow:
The House Committee on Health, Welfare, and
Institutions meets at 8:30 am. I'll try to be
there (but may not make it, depending on when
House Courts ends this evening) for two good bills.
HB2612 (Watts) would amend the law so that
families who are receiving Temporary Aid to Needy
Families would no longer be kicked out of the program for drug possession.
HB2319 (Welch) would make clear that it is not
child abuse to refuse to follow “conventional”
medical wisdom when there is an older child who
agrees with an alternative treatment. This will be known as “Abraham's Law”.

Senate and House meet at noon.

After the House session ends, I'm scheduled for
an interview with [one of the leading papers in
the Commonwealth]. Ah, fame . . .

House Commerce and Labor meets ½ hour after
adjournment. They have one mportant bill of which I'm aware:
HB1632 (Morgan) will reform the unconscionable
prices that are charged to inmates in the State
pens. These prices are so high now because the
institution gets a kickback – sorry, of course I
meant “commission”, and because the service
providers have a monopoly (and, of course, a
“captive audience”. You just knew I'd say that, right?

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DETAILS:
To see the summary, text, status, estimated
cost, votes, or other details on any bill, go to:
. Click on:
“Bills & Resolutions – status of individual bills and related information”.
At the text-entry block, enter the bill and type
just as I have it listed above. (Use “SB921”, not “S.B. 921”, for example.)

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end

- - Roy B. Scherer