After some bitter and nit-picking debate, plus the usual "battle of the amendments", the full House Health and Human Services-Policy committee passed the Freedom of Access bill, HF537 in their evening session. The bill is now refered to the Health and Human Services-Finance committee (a smaller group within the full Policy committee) for budgeting considerations.
After the protracted battle in the Civil Law committee recently, tonight felt like we were just revisiting old issues over and over again. The bill's critics in HHS (notably Mulder, Huntley, Greenfield, McCollum) were trying to exploit every little loophole they could find to weaken or cripple the bill, including a number of amendments. Most of these objections centered around how Freedom of Access affects doctors and the Medical Practices Board (MPB).
Tonight's amendments included:
The Medical Practices Board sent a representative to read a letter into the official record stating their opposition to HF537. Big deal, replied Boudreau, since the MPB has always hated this bill; besides, it's a consumer protection bill, not a doctor protection bill.
Rep. Luther wanted to reopen the discussion from Civil Law about whether a licensed doctor whose license was revoked could practice as an alternative practitioner. No action came from this discussion.
With that, HF537 passed on a voice vote (though Chairman Bradley seemed to give the bill the benefit of the doubt). It moves to HHS-Finance, which must pass the bill by March 17. GIven that HHS-Finance is packed with all the critics and few friends of the bill, it could be a bloody fight there. We need to get the companion bill (SF689) through the Senate Health and Family Security committee by March 10, also.
I hesitated putting out this item until it could be definitely confirmed (after being burnt once this week), but the Massage Registration bill, SF1042, is a dead issue for 2000! According to the Senate Government Operations committee, the bill's author, Sen. Pat Piper, removed the bill from that committee's agenda just hours before the hearing. When we tried to contact Piper's office for clarification of the bill's status yesterday afternoon, her staff members hadn't even heard of the withdrawal. It wasn't until late this morning that Piper's office got back to me. Their statement said SF1042 was withdrawn, due to a lack of time to pass both Gov Ops and Senate Judiciary by the "first deadline" (midnight tonight, 3-3), and will no longer be pursued in 2000. Congratulations!
The next step for HF537 is the House Health and Human Services-Finance committee, which must allocate the money to the Dept. of Health for investigating consumer complaints of alternative practitioners when HF537 becomes law. This is apt to be an extremely hostile meeting. Many of the members (Vice-chair Mulder, Huntley, Greenfield) are rabid Medical Board supporters and their performance in the HHS hearing of March 1 leaves no doubt that they are highly prejudiced against the bill. It promises to be a "hard ball" meeting and we may not make it through, so we need to lobby the committee hard (especially the fence-sitters) heavily this weekend. Meeting is at 7:30 AM (groan!) on Mar. 6 in SOB-10.
Freedom of Access (SF689 in the Senate) is also scheduled for the Senate Health and Family Security committee on Mar. 7, either at 10:00 AM or 6:00 PM, in CAP-15. This is the first appearance of SF689 in the Senate, so we're in unknown territory now. Plus these people haven't been lobbied much yet, so they probably aren't up on the issues -- we need to contact these Senators and educate them immediately! Remember SF689 is still the original version of the bill without all the amendments -- it has little in common with the House version anymore. More details as they show up.
In the midst of all this discussion about how all us "unscrupulous practitioners" of alternative care need to be policed to prevent harm to the consumer, the following story hit the mainstream press yesterday. The vice-chair of House Government Operations was arrested outside the House Chambers at the Capitol yesterday afternoon and charged with 3 felony counts of criminal sexual conduct, allegedly involving a young teenage girl. He is currently free after one night in jail because of a constitutional balance of power issue: a sitting legislator can't be held during the legislative session, because the courts would be depriving the voters of their representation. What a weird world!
Here's the results of this morning's meeting, from what I've been able to gather so far. House HHS-Finance quickly voted to roll HF537 into an "omnibus finance bill" for presenation to the full House. That's essentially a big grab-bag of bills that can be voted on as a group (although our bill could be pulled out of the bag and tortured separately, if representatives desire). There were some technical amendments that were tacked on today -- I'm trying to get the details on these. But for now, we have no more House committees to deal with -- on to the House floor!
Turn your attention immediately to the Senate. We have until Friday, Mar. 10 (this week!) to pass all the Senate committees.
Health and Family Security (HFS) is the first hurdle. It meets Tues, March 7, 10:00 am in CAP-15. Very important to make a good showing here!! Chairman John Hottinger is currently unfriendly to SF689 (Freedom of Access), so contact him (FAX 651-296-4135, phone 651-296-6153). Sen. Sheila Kiscaden (296-4848) is a real key vote. She wants the consumer protection parts of the bill strengthened (along the lines of the House bill), but is otherwise somewhat favorable to us. If we can sway her, there are a number of other senators that will follow suit. Sen. Don Betzold (296-2556) is looking like an obstructionist. It's important to show up for this hearing if you can make it tommorrow!! Write, call and fax!!
Judiciary is the next committee (if we pass HFS), probably on Wed, March 8, 12:00-1:45 in CAP-15. Chair Jane Ranum is supposedly very favorable to SF689, so contact her office right away, in addition to the rest of the committee. Betzold is the vice-chair. Start working Judiciary!
We may need to go thru Government Operations, too -- no details available yet! get back to you on this one. All this by Friday! It's another busy week!
Looking optimistically to the House floor (and Senate), it looks like we have until the end of April for all House business to be completed. They plan on taking a recess around Easter. Your best bet here is to be contacting your own representative and lobbying them as one of their constituents! (They listen to the people who actually vote for/against them.) If you don't know who your representative is, try the House Public Information Office (296-2146) or try the nifty "interactive map" online.
Let's not lose the incredible momentum we have going for us. Remember that if we don't pass all the roadblocks in 2000, we have to start all over from ground zero in 2001 when the new legislature takes office. Give the last bit of effort needed to pass Freedom of Access now!
After the all too familiar barrage of amendments, the Freedom of Access bill (SF689) was passed by the Senate Health and Family Security Committee onto Senate Judiciary tommorrow. I wasn't able to make the meeting myself, so I'm still trying to get the details of the story second-hand.
Senators Hottinger (the chairman) and Betzold led the opposition today -- it sounds like they are out to kill the bill any way they can. The worst amendment I've heard about so far would prevent any licensed health practitioner (e.g., doctors, nurses, chiropractors, dentists, physical therapists, etc.) from using any alternative treatments. This is a pure "scope of practice" restriction.
Anyway, onward to the Judiciary (Wednesday, March 8) and Gov Ops committees (Thursday, March 9, 12:00, CAP-15). The work isn't done yet!
We had an easier time in the Judiciary Committee today, after being bumped to a later 4:00 PM hearing. There were only a few amendments offered. Chair Jane Ranum made certain our hearing was as friendly as possible and SF689 passed without much difficulty.
As for the amendments, Sen. Betzold (a very vocal critic) wanted to make all complaints to the Health Dept. about alternative practitioners a matter of the public record, whether those complaints actually led to disciplinary actions or not. It was pointed out that this was broader than the unlicensed mental health care model, not to mention Medical Practices Board standards. This harassment amendment was thus rejected. Sen. Kiscaden wanted to have all alternative practitioners register ahead of time with the Health Dept. to make investigations later easier. When a Health Dept. spokesman testified that this had been tried with unlicensed mental health practitioners, but that it was a waste of time and money since most of the complaints were against people who failed to register, Kiscaden withdrew the motion.
On to Government Operations at noon on Thursday, Mar. 9. There are a number of senators who are "unknowns" or sitting on the fence, so you should try to contact them (especially if you are a constituent of theirs). They include Pogemiller, Robertson, Runbeck, Price and Kierlin.
The Freedom of Access bill passed its 4th committee in 4 days when it was approved by the Senate Government Operations Committee in evening session today. The bill has completed all the policy committees in both houses, a major accomplishment! There was some fine-tuning of language in parts of the bill, but no major amendments that would damage it further.
We will need to go through the Senate Human Resources Finance Committee, probably early next week. This is to allocate money to the Dept. of Health for overseeing alternative practitioners. The chairperson is Sen. Linda Berglin, who has been extremely friendly to the bill. Start contacting the members.
The Senate Human Resources Finance Committee just announced its agenda for its next meeting and SF689 is on the list! The meeting is 6:00 PM on Wed., Mar. 15, Room 112 of the Capitol. Sen. Linda Berglin, a tireless ally for the bill, is the committee chairperson, which is always a big help. Please contact the members one last time!
This is the last committee we need to go through -- can you believe it!
Freedom of Access passed its final committee hearing this evening, as the Senate Human Resources Finance Committee overwhelmingly approved the bill by a voice vote with only one dissenting voice. There was little debate and no amendments. The bill will now go to the full Senate in the next few weeks.
The companion bill in the House, HF537, is part of a big omnibus spending bill that will be presented to the full House shortly.
Since we have now moved out of the committee phase of the legislative process, our lobbying focus needs to change. Essentially, we need to lobby the entire House and Senate, educating the members about the bill (many of them probably know nothing about it) and asking for their vote. It is most effective to be contacting the legislators of your own district, instead of targeting specific members. If you know interested people who support our cause in other districts, especially out-state, please get them involved immediately! We need to present a broad based, state wide show of support.
There will undoubtedly be a joint Conference Committee to reconcile the differing versions of the bill after we pass both of the floor votes. We've still got a long ways to go, but it's incredible that we've gotten to this point. Congratulations and keep up the good work! I'll pass on news about the next steps as it becomes available.
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