The Freedom of Access bills will both be voted on Monday, Mar. 20. The Senate meets from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM (with a noon lunch break) while the House is in session 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM. The chambers for both bodies are in the Capitol Building. No indication how quickly we'll get to our bills in each meeting yet. Contact the Representative and Senator from your home district, especially if they are positive or undecided about the bill (don't worry much about the negative people at this point). If you can be at the Capitol for part or all of the proceedings, please come and help pack the gallery for our bills!
The Senate was the first body to vote on the Freedom of Access bills on Monday, Mar. 20. After some surreal debate, in which critics of the bill (including Senators Allan Spear, Dan Stevens and Don Betzold) displayed an appalling lack of understanding of alternative care, and a few small amendments, SF689 passed on a roll call vote 48 to 13.
Although the Senate gallery was filled with supporters of the bill when the Senate opened for business at 9:00 AM, it wasn't until 3 in the afternoon that SF689 came to the floor. We were stuck behind a giant transportation funding bill, which provided some comic relief in the form of one senator imitating the slow meter-lights at a freeway entrance ramp (you had to have been there...). After bill sponsor Sen. Twyla Ring introduced Freedom of Access, several of the bill's critics rose to condemn the bill. Allan Spear praised the glories of "modern medicine" and warned how alternative therapies were threatening to take the state backwards to the level of "witch doctors and folk practitioners" [a quote]. Yes, our critics think like this about us -- on the public record. Dan Stevens objected to the bill stating alternative care providers had a "right to practice" instead of the "privilege to practice" (from the state), as all licensed practitioners have. He proposed an amendment to change this wording in the bill, which passed and was adopted. He also proposed a second amendment allowing the Dept. of Health to set minimal education and training standards for unlicensed alternative practitioners (the bill currently prohibits this, I believe). This amendment was defeated. (A third amendment that fixed up some technical language to improve clarity of meaning was accepted as a "friendly amendment" by Sen. Ring.) Interestingly, John Hottinger (who was rather negative in the committee hearings) stood up to support the bill as a fine piece of "consumer protection" -- go figure! The roll call vote in favor was 48 to 13 against at 4:04 PM.
As the electronic vote counter started tallying the votes and it was clear we had passed, Twyla Ring grinned broadly and started waving her hands over her head in a V-for-victory sign towards the gallery. We were doing everything but high-fives back towards her. We then packed up and moved to the House gallery.
HF537 was "rolled into" a giant omnibus bill before the House, called HF2699. By "giant", I mean 316 pages, containing dozens of mostly unrelated bills that were being consolidated into one. They started consideration of HF2699 around 1:00 PM (before the Senate was done), beginning with 60+ amendments -- that alone took until 1:30 in the morning!
Two of the amendments pertained to Freedom of Access. The first one by Rep. Dick Mulder (a big critic on Health and Human Services) was an attempt to seriously damage HF537 by deleting it from the omnibus bill. His speech on the floor was widely considered to be full of falsehoods and distortions. He complained that alternative practitioners weren't paying the MN health care provider tax (which his party wants to eliminate anyway). He claimed the long list of alternative therapies in the bill were a burdensome number of professions to license (even though this bill is neither licensure or registration). He was bothered by the lack of standards of care or training in HF537 and by the possibility of "death or injury" by alternative practitioners without having any ability to prosecute them (have you read the bill?). He also didn't like that the office in the Health Dept. to oversee alternative therapists was being funded (about $90000 per year) out of general tax funds instead of license fees.
Boudreau countered that this was a consumer protection bill, not a licensure/registration bill. She also mentioned that the Medical Practices Board (which license and oversees doctors) had officially dropped its opposition to the Senate version of the bill. Rep. Kris Hasskamp reminded the body that this is "complementary and alternative medicine", that it supplements traditional care without seeking to replace it. Phil Carruthers (of Civil Law fame) spoke up to praise the bill as good consumer protection -- of all people! Dave Bishop and Matt Entenza also spoke up for the bill. The roll call vote on the Mulder amendment was 18 yes, 111 no -- resounding defeat.
A second amendment by Mulder and Bishop a few hours later tried to tighten up the conditions for when licensed practitioners like doctors can use alternative therapies. They proposed to allow doctors, etc. to use alternative treatments, but only when practicing "off license"; they would remain under the licensing body (such as the Medical Practices Board) instead of the Dept. of Health. It wasn't certain how "off license" was supposed to work, so Tom Huntley (a critic on HHS) suggested an amendment to the amendment that would be more restrictive -- his proposal was voted down. The original amendment was then passed.
After that, a few die-hards waited through an endless stack of unrelated amendments ("everything from acupuncture to Zen" according to one member). At 1:33 AM -- over 12 hours later -- the amendments were done and HF2699 was given its "third reading", meaning it's time to actually vote on the bill.
Well almost. Rep. Mark Olson raised a parliamentary objection to the entire bill, namely that such a "grab bag" of unrelated bills was unconstitutional under House rules and the MN constitution. In fact, he's a critic of the "omnibus bill" concept completely. This seemed to stop the House proceedings completely for 20 minutes, until Speaker of the House Steve Sviggum ruled the objection "out of order". His ruling was immediately appealed and put to a roll call vote. In the ensuing debate, Phyllis Kahn blasted HF2699 as a "garbage bill" while Bishop defended the "omnibus" concept. The Speaker's ruling was allowed to stand by a 70 to 58 vote, meaning they could now vote on the bill.
They tried to round up a few members that had probably already gone home, then had a roll call vote at 2:30 AM. The omnibus bill, and hence Freedom of Access, passed the House by 85 to 42.
So, it's on to a joint Conference Committee of 6 to 10 Representatives and Senators in the near future to work out the differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill. We're not sure of what's going to happen at this stage yet or when, so stay tuned for details. Following the Conference Committee, the compromise bill will have to go back to the House and Senate floors for a final vote, no amendments allowed. If successful, it's on to Gov. Jesse Ventura, who is rumored to be positive towards Freedom of Access. If he signs, it's a law and would go into effect on July 1, 2001.
After two weeks of little news, it's time to get busy again. The Joint Conference Committee of 10 House and Senate members has been working on the House Omnibus Bill that passed Mar. 20, trying to resolve the differences in the House and Senate versions of the bills. Apparently, the Freedom of Access bill (HF537/SF689) went mostly along the lines of the Senate version. Negotiations with various professional licensing boards continued behind the scenes. Then we got snagged by unrelated political issues.
The huge omnibus bill has raised a lot of controversy and its legal and constitutional status is being challenged. In a effort to salvage some of the more important bills, they are being "broken out" of the omnibus bill and sent back to the House as stand alone bills. One of these is Freedom of Access. This means HF537 must pass through at least 3 more House committees and probably go through another House floor vote before the legislature adjourns in the next week or two.
The House Health and Human Services-Finance committee is hearing HF537 on Thursday, Apr. 6, at 8:00 AM in SOB-10 (yes, we only got 16 hours notice of this meeting!). Contact these members immediately, if possible, and bring your body to the hearing.
The other committees we know about so far are the House Rules and House Ways and Means committees, meeting times to be announced. I'll be posting contact information on these members shortly. We need to lobby these people right away, since we haven't dealt with them before.
It's not over yet! Please put in the effort to get Freedom of Access through the last few hurdles!
The House Health and Human Services-Finance Committee meeting was postponed until 10:00 AM today (the legislators are getting tired from all the late night sessions). Chairmain Kevin Goodno let it be known we were there for business and not theatrics, and kept a fairly tight rein on the meeting.
Rep. Dick ("Doc") Mulder brought in two witnesses to testify and then offered 6 amendments.
His first witness was Bob McCoy, the director of the "Museum of Questionable Medical Devices" (apparently financed by the traditional medicine and pharmaceutical people, according to some of the literature available at the museum). McCoy achieved his 15 minutes of fame last week when the Star and Tribune article on 3-30 quoted him with such memorable statements as "this bill will unleash a tide of quackery in the state", etc. (There's an online version of this article, if you haven't read it yet.) In his testimony today, he claimed that Freedom of Access legitimizes "unscientific treatments" which lulls consumers into a "false feeling that they are cured" when they may still have a serious disease (causing them to forego traditional medical care). As part of his statement, he presented 3 devices from his museum for show-and-tell as dangerous and fraudelent instruments with no scientific backing. Based on his descriptions, they were some kind of acupressure device to curb the appetite (which he claimed the FDA banned), something called a "stimulator" (I don't know what that was supposed to do), and some kind of radionics device. He claimed that the bill legalizes devices that the FDA banned. Rep. Tim Wilkin challenged him on that point, since the bill does NOT supercede FDA rulings.
The next witness was James Rahto, a regional FDA official, although he announced he was speaking only as a private consumer and not representing the FDA position (curiously enough). He talked about how this bill would give legal protection to "unscrupulous people" and promote "quackery", although he did admit that "some" alternative modalities seem to have merit. He didn't feel the consumer protection aspects of the bill were strong enough, favoring a licensure model for regulating alternative practitioners, wanted stiffer penalties, liability insurance requirements, etc.
All of Mulder's amendments, which were clearly just nuisance and harassment proposals, were defeated. They included:
Huntley questioned why nurses are treated differently from other licensed professionals in the bill. Diane Miller explained that nurses are currently allowed to practice "off license" (such as having a massage practice after hours), as long as they don't present themselves as a nurse at the time. The bill would regulate such off-license practices under the Dept of Health.
There was a brief discussion of the fiscal note for the bill. Mulder wanted to know what the "education expenses" for the Dept. were about, concerned the Dept. would be teaching alternative practices. In fact, the education expenses are for telling people about the client Bill of Rights and how to file complaints.
Freedom of Access was then passed by voice vote.
There was a pow-wow after the official meeting to figure out the next moves. Boudreau indicated the House Rules committee was next, possibly 8:45 AM on Friday April 7 (tommorrow). It's not clear yet whether Ways and Means is in the picture. We should be hitting the House floor again on Friday (probably not) or Monday April 10 (likely). At least that's the picture as of 11:00 AM this morning -- it could all change by the next email message I get, however.
So, lobby the House Rules Committtee heavily tonight and tommorrow morning. As a precaution, it wouldn't hurt to talk to House Ways and Means, either. Definitely contact the Representative from your home district Friday or this weekend -- Monday may be too late! We're not sure how the votes look on the House floor, but it may be closer than we'd like. Do what you can to shore up support among members that are on the fence.
As I just said, legislative schedules change on a moments notice -- today is no different. All meetings in the House for Friday, Apr. 7, were cancelled, because members are too pooped. On the up side, this gives us more time to contact members.
The House Rules committee will be meeting Tuesday, Apr. 11, probably 8:45 AM (although the time is a bit unclear). They normally meet in CAP-123, but may be moved to SOB-500S.
Ways and Means will most likely be Thursday, Apr. 13, time to be announced (they haven't published next week's agenda yet). They meet in CAP-123.
That pushes the floor vote on Freedom of Access to Friday, Apr. 14. Details later.
Use this extra time to contact the two committees and your home district Representative. Note that the bill's critics have been stepping up their attacks lately, playing on the "fear of quackery" theme heavily, so please stress the consumer protection parts of the bill and how you value access to alternative care. We need to counter this kind of rhetoric before it sways too many swing votes on the floor. Stay tuned for last minute schedule changes.
Latest word from the House is the Rules Committee may take up Freedom of Access in a Monday-sometime meeting after the regular House floor session -- if the regular session doesn't go too late.
The entire legislature may wrap up its business in the next 1-2 weeks. Dates of April 15 or 19 are floating about, though nothing is cast in concrete.
Regardless, our strategy remains the same: Rules, Ways and Means, your Representative. Ways and Means may be a fight, since Dick Mulder and Lee Greenfield are members. Keep writing!
We needed to go through the House Rules Committee to get an extension on the "first deadline" of March 3 on passing all policy committees in order to keep moving. It was a purely procedural vote -- we passed in 10 seconds.
We will need to go through House Government Operations ("Gov Ops") on Wed., Apr. 12, 8:30 AM. The room is probably SOB-500 (or maybe the Basement Hearing Room of SOB). We weren't expecting this committee, so start contacting them. There is some question whether we need Ways and Means at this point, so stay tuned.
The House floor vote is looking like Thursday or Friday this week. Keep contacting your home district Representatives! Details later as the situation mutates.
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