Last Week at the Capitol
- By David Baria
- Published 01/31/2010
This past week at the Capitol was very interesting. The governor ordered additional budget cuts, the House passed a bill to restore most of them through use of a portion several reserve funds, and the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled that the Judicial branch is a co-equal branch of government that cannot be cut further by the governor. The basis of the court's ruling is that the Mississippi Constitution mandates that the Courts remain open and perform certain constitutionally mandated functions. The members of the Supreme Court felt that if the governor is allowed to make further cuts to the Judicial branch, the Judicial branch would not be able to meet its constitutional mandate. Watch this issue closely as it will dictate how the rest of the budget falls into place.
Last week was also productive in that several important bills were passed out of committee and are now on the Senate calendar awaiting floor debate. My bill to conform the blood alcohol content for boating under the influence to that required for driving under the influence (.08) passed Judiciary A unanimously. The Open Meetings reform bill has passed both committees to which it was assigned and will get a floor vote soon. There were also two bills passed out of Judiciary B that saw supporters and opponents square off at the Capitol. The animal cruelty bill was passed making it a felony to torture a dog or cat, and a bill to require a prescription for pseudoephedrine products passed as well. Opponents of the animal cruelty bill voiced concerns that the law may be interpreted broadly to include chickens, hogs or cattle killed by slaughterhouses. However, the language of the bill specifically exempts these processes as well as many others. The opponents of the pseudoephedrine bill are basically the drug companies that manufacture products with pseudoephedrine and those chain pharmacies that sell them. Their argument against the bill is that it will be more difficult to obtain these products. Pseudoephedrine is a necessary component of crystal methamphetimine production. While it will become more difficult to obtain products with pseudoephedrine, the benefit gained by the new law in terms of decreasing the production of crystal meth greatly outweighs the inconvenience on legitimate pseudoephedrine users. Both of these bills will be debated on the Senate floor soon.
I have once again filed several bills seeking to provide some much needed insurance reforms, and they have all been assigned to the Senate Insurance Committee. I am not optimistic that any will be taken up by the committee prior to Tuesday's deadline for action. The Sun-Herald ran an article on this issue in today's edition in which I was quoted as saying “People should be outraged that we can’t get simple, pro-consumer reforms done in our state Capitol, especially after what we went through following Katrina. People should be up in arms. They should be filling up the e-mail boxes and mailboxes of their senators and representatives. They should be calling, e-mailing and writing the Insurance Commissioner. They should be raising hell about this.”
You can read the entire Sun-Herald article discussing the problem here:
http://www.sunherald.com/pageone/story/1910485.html
There are truly some interesting things happening at your Capitol that bear watching. You can tune in and watch the live debate by going to the legislative website and clicking on the link. You can also call or email me at 228.270.0001 or dbaria@senate.ms.gov if you have questions or comments. I continue to proudly serve as your State Senator.
Last week was also productive in that several important bills were passed out of committee and are now on the Senate calendar awaiting floor debate. My bill to conform the blood alcohol content for boating under the influence to that required for driving under the influence (.08) passed Judiciary A unanimously. The Open Meetings reform bill has passed both committees to which it was assigned and will get a floor vote soon. There were also two bills passed out of Judiciary B that saw supporters and opponents square off at the Capitol. The animal cruelty bill was passed making it a felony to torture a dog or cat, and a bill to require a prescription for pseudoephedrine products passed as well. Opponents of the animal cruelty bill voiced concerns that the law may be interpreted broadly to include chickens, hogs or cattle killed by slaughterhouses. However, the language of the bill specifically exempts these processes as well as many others. The opponents of the pseudoephedrine bill are basically the drug companies that manufacture products with pseudoephedrine and those chain pharmacies that sell them. Their argument against the bill is that it will be more difficult to obtain these products. Pseudoephedrine is a necessary component of crystal methamphetimine production. While it will become more difficult to obtain products with pseudoephedrine, the benefit gained by the new law in terms of decreasing the production of crystal meth greatly outweighs the inconvenience on legitimate pseudoephedrine users. Both of these bills will be debated on the Senate floor soon.
I have once again filed several bills seeking to provide some much needed insurance reforms, and they have all been assigned to the Senate Insurance Committee. I am not optimistic that any will be taken up by the committee prior to Tuesday's deadline for action. The Sun-Herald ran an article on this issue in today's edition in which I was quoted as saying “People should be outraged that we can’t get simple, pro-consumer reforms done in our state Capitol, especially after what we went through following Katrina. People should be up in arms. They should be filling up the e-mail boxes and mailboxes of their senators and representatives. They should be calling, e-mailing and writing the Insurance Commissioner. They should be raising hell about this.”
You can read the entire Sun-Herald article discussing the problem here:
http://www.sunherald.com/pageone/story/1910485.html
There are truly some interesting things happening at your Capitol that bear watching. You can tune in and watch the live debate by going to the legislative website and clicking on the link. You can also call or email me at 228.270.0001 or dbaria@senate.ms.gov if you have questions or comments. I continue to proudly serve as your State Senator.
