Meetings
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[Michael Morgan (Member)]: Alright. Yeah. It'll be Saturday in life.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Alright, everyone. Welcome back. It is 10:30 on the nose. So right now, we are taking a look at an amendment on h nine one seven, an act relating to military affairs. I guess before we shift over to council real quick, reps, I don't know if like wanna speak for a second because we had you just listed.
[Mary-Katherine Stone (Member)]: So the part about Gold Star was in the underlying bill. It was a separate bill as presented. And I would say, after we voted it out, there were conversations that came up from people who had different opinions of how Gold Star family members should be defined, particularly as it relates to service connected, if that should be included or not. And I do think that there's value in continuing that conversation, I really do, because it's an important one to have, but it's also a really sensitive and a delicate one to have that requires more time. And personally, one that I don't think should happen on the floor, just because of the sensitive nature of it. But again, conversation should continue, just not today at 01:00 when we're presenting it on the floor. And for that reason, the amendment proposed has all of our names on it. It's kind of like an opt out right now. So, if don't want your name on it, speak now, is to strike that language and just rip it out of the bill, knowing that that conversation will happen another day. Just not today, and not So in this if you don't want to be part of it, let us know. But as it stands now, it'd be like a committee amendment, but not, it doesn't say committee, says all our names in there.
[Sophie Sedatney (Legislative Counsel)]: Okay, I
[Michael Morgan (Member)]: can live with
[Sophie Sedatney (Legislative Counsel)]: it. Yeah.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: All right, Council.
[Sophie Sedatney (Legislative Counsel)]: Good morning, Sophie Sedatney for the Office of Legislative Council. Go ahead and share this. Representative Stone said this just includes everyone on the committee right now, but again, if folks aren't here or aren't supportive of it, I can take them off. And this simply just removes the two sections that dealt with Gold Star families. That first one was the definition, and the second one was to do with the license plates. And it leaves everything else intact in the bill.
[Unidentified Committee Member]: Rutland? I just a question. By deleting it, it just puts everything back to the way it is currently, not removing it from statute completely.
[Sophie Sedatney (Legislative Counsel)]: Right. So the first section 40 was a brand new section that would have added a definition of gold star family member to Title I as a definition, so the definition just won't be in there. And then the second amendment is to Section 41, which is the current statute that deals with license plates for Gold Star families and next of kin, so we just leave that as is, so individuals can continue to, under the current definitions, which looks at federal definitions, they would still be eligible to get a Gold Star family plate or a next of kin plate.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Rev. Morgan?
[Michael Morgan (Member)]: Just like to acknowledge, you know, because I talked to some of the players that were involved with how we got to where we're talking here this morning, and I think it's important that we have the would be the word I would be looking for, the collegiality to do that, together and to listen to all voices. But I think in the end, this is the right thing to do, whether it's a conversation in the future, is TBD, I would say, you know, depends for a lot of reasons. Mhmm. But I think we did in the end, we've done the right thing.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Any other comment?
[Michael Morgan (Member)]: Yeah, I need to throw a big word like collegial.
[Sophie Sedatney (Legislative Counsel)]: That was excellent. Appreciate that.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: All right. Any other comment from folks? Do we have Hooper on the screen still?
[Mary-Katherine Stone (Member)]: No.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Nope, we're short of Hooper. That's fine.
[Michael Morgan (Member)]: Would you like me to call a vote?
[Mary-Katherine Stone (Member)]: I vote we find this or I move that we find this amendment favorable.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Permit of thumbs?
[Michael Morgan (Member)]: Oh, Trey, thumbs. You're going use a hand.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Just to just to mix it up. Okay. Won't report it that way. Okay. So that is an eight zero
[Mary-Katherine Stone (Member)]: Part of it.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: No. 901. I'm still mapping the math on that one. So you asked 901.
[Sophie Sedatney (Legislative Counsel)]: You'd take representative Hooper's name off. He's not here. Jay? Jay Hooper. Jay. Right? Because he's on the Oh, right. He's on the amendment? He's on the amendment.
[Mary-Katherine Stone (Member)]: So I just heard of localize that he's okay with
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: that. Okay.
[Mary-Katherine Stone (Member)]: Yeah, just take the.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Alright, cool. Anything else, committee?
[Mary-Katherine Stone (Member)]: Sophie, can you send that to Betsy Ann, please? Okay. And CC once it's I'll do that right
[Michael Morgan (Member)]: now. Okay.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: So with that, we will go offline. That is our committee work for the day. As I said before, everybody keeps chasing the bills. And then there is a whale of floor activity beginning at 1PM. So with that
[Michael Morgan (Member)]: house come home.