Meetings
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[Rep. Anne B. Donahue (Ranking Member)]: Welcome
[Rep. Theresa Wood (Chair, House Human Services Committee)]: back folks to House Human Services this afternoon. We are going to hear from the chair of the House Judiciary Committee on their review of age 45, particularly with regard to the provisions around immunity, which would be under their purview. So we welcome Chair Lalonde here with us and happy to see you sitting across the witness chair today.
[Rep. Martin LaLonde (Chair, House Judiciary Committee)]: It's delightful to be here. Mark Lalonde, representative from South Burlington and chair of the House of Student Chair Committee. So we took testimony throughout the day yesterday on page five forty five looking specifically at section two of the bill. We were looking at draft number 2.1, but my understanding is these people here are looking at That's a change. Substance. United States 18 BSA, section eleven thirty A, and specifically subsection C which is the immunity for immunization, which I messed that up several times when I talked about the fact that it's immunity and immunization. Any event, so we heard from a number of witnesses and we looked at the fact that this really goes to immunity for the professional, you know, the medical professionals who are providing or prescribing the immunization, the vaccines, and that as long as they're following the recommendations, they can only be liable if it's gross negligence, which is really intentional carelessness that there's such a thing, which is different than negligence. We were fine with that, but we also talked about, well what about whether there's any exposure for the state, and we didn't have to get into that, it's not in this bill. The state has a separate sovereign immunity, but we did have a discussion with that, and as far as the manufacturers, and our understanding is that federal law currently preempts any kind of claims against manufacturers. Who knows what's going to happen down the road, but if that protection is lifted from manufacturers, maybe we'll all be back here or maybe that's really a national issue. So bottom line is that we eventually did have a vote of nine eleven essentially approving and not having a problem with that. And I'm happy to answer questions.
[Rep. Theresa Wood (Chair, House Human Services Committee)]: Is he representative Bishop? You know, it is man, boys. Go ahead, Bishop.
[Rep. Martin LaLonde (Chair, House Judiciary Committee)]: We discussed a little bit, sounds like you dove in much deeper in your committee about interplay between the national and the changes on the national level of what's on the recommended schedule, that does not impact the liability protection that occurs from pharmaceutical companies, whether the immunizations are or are not? That I don't know, I mean because they're currently, they are, and if they are no longer on that list, are they going to have immunity to what this bill doesn't give to them and I don't think that that's probably our purview to be very well national manufacturers. I'm sure that they are working hard on friends out in Washington to do so that they don't use that kind of engineering. We didn't really get into that specifically that much, but we heard you know we try to find people who are opposed to this. We reached out to the trial attorneys association, an association of trial attorneys who bring these kinds of cases and they were neutral on this.
[Rep. Doug Bishop (Member)]: So really wasn't a lot of pushback. Okay,
[Rep. Theresa Wood (Chair, House Human Services Committee)]: thank you so much, Cher. Appreciate it very much and I appreciate your diligence in reviewing this
[Rep. Martin LaLonde (Chair, House Judiciary Committee)]: very much. My pleasure, we'll try to find something send your way back. All
[Rep. Theresa Wood (Chair, House Human Services Committee)]: right, take care, you too. Okay. And so just gonna briefly and, Katie, that was my fault. Thank you. I just saw the light the latest drop, and I hadn't opened it. And I should have opened it before I sent you that text because I see it's it's only the reader adjustment. But why don't you just come to the chair? You've run all the way over here.
[Katie (Legislative Counsel)]: Okay.
[Rep. Theresa Wood (Chair, House Human Services Committee)]: So members, we have version what's it called? Number.
[Katie (Legislative Counsel)]: 545Dot4.1.
[Rep. Martin LaLonde (Chair, House Judiciary Committee)]: Yeah. 4.1.
[Katie (Legislative Counsel)]: Getting oh, there it is. Lauren, you're so good. I'm getting my link.
[Rep. Theresa Wood (Chair, House Human Services Committee)]: We haven't seen the sun in here all week, and it's just like it's so nice to hear. Thank you very much Katie, whenever you're ready.
[Katie (Legislative Counsel)]: Just get in the Zoom room. Yep.
[Rep. Martin LaLonde (Chair, House Judiciary Committee)]: More weather discussion. It's going
[Rep. Theresa Wood (Chair, House Human Services Committee)]: to be very cold this weekend. Cold this weekend.
[Rep. Martin LaLonde (Chair, House Judiciary Committee)]: Dreadfully, everyone out there.
[Rep. Theresa Wood (Chair, House Human Services Committee)]: And I learned during the break that emergency personnel were coaxing a person out of the river, a person who appeared to be homeless in a mental health crisis out of the river.
[Rep. Martin LaLonde (Chair, House Judiciary Committee)]: Here in Texas.
[Rep. Theresa Wood (Chair, House Human Services Committee)]: This morning. Yeah. Right out here. So it just adds an exclamation point to the issues that we were talking about this morning. So thank you, Katie.
[Katie (Legislative Counsel)]: You're welcome. We have Jeff, 41 from us. And all that you wanted changed last time we met were the reader assistant settings. So hopefully this does a good job of capturing both the timeframe of when the language is in effect and what the content of the following section worked. So first, we have effective on passage through 07/01/2031, Commissioner Health's Immunization Recommendations. And then scroll down.
[Rep. Martin LaLonde (Chair, House Judiciary Committee)]: Really into the weeds here. Is it technically through July 1 or until July? I think it's through the first day.
[Katie (Legislative Counsel)]: Yeah. It's until that's okay.
[Rep. Anne B. Donahue (Ranking Member)]: Okay. Well, we'll have that fill up.
[Rep. Martin LaLonde (Chair, House Judiciary Committee)]: Until the end.
[Katie (Legislative Counsel)]: Okay, page 10, it will say effective on passage until 07/01/2031, insurance coverage for Commissioner of Health's recommended immunizations. Page 11. Effective on passage until 07/01/2031, pharmacist and pharmacy technician authority under the Commissioner of Health's Immunization Recommendations. And then we start with the language that starts restoring the language. So page 14, line 15, effective on 07/01/2031, restoring certain immunization recommendation processes, language.
[Rep. Theresa Wood (Chair, House Human Services Committee)]: This works so much better. I know we were all struggling with this yesterday, but having the date come first and then what it's doing afterwards. Okay, great. I think makes it much clearer. Thank you.
[Rep. Martin LaLonde (Chair, House Judiciary Committee)]: Oh, good.
[Katie (Legislative Counsel)]: Next is 19, page 19. Line six, effective on 07/01/2031, restoring the current insurance coverage for immunizations in effect prior to passage. Page 21, effective on 07/01/2031, restoring current pharmacist and pharmacy technician authority.
[Rep. Theresa Wood (Chair, House Human Services Committee)]: So is there a reason we didn't write in effect prior to passage? I was going to ask, why is it different? Does that mean it's different?
[Rep. Anne B. Donahue (Ranking Member)]: Yeah.
[Katie (Legislative Counsel)]: And I think that was it for changes. The other reader assistance we didn't change. So if you'd like, I could do that now and give you a draft 5.1.
[Rep. Theresa Wood (Chair, House Human Services Committee)]: We're not gonna vote on it Oh,
[Rep. Martin LaLonde (Chair, House Judiciary Committee)]: we're not. Okay.
[Rep. Theresa Wood (Chair, House Human Services Committee)]: Today. We're gonna vote on it on Tuesday.
[Katie (Legislative Counsel)]: Passage.
[Rep. Theresa Wood (Chair, House Human Services Committee)]: So now I'm going to section 14. I'm just picking up on Doug's question. Is it repealed? Yeah. Because it goes through June 30. So it is repealed on 07/01/2031. Okay. Alright. I just have to say that out loud, I guess. Okay. So everybody okay with that? That seemed to address the issues that we were having trouble with yesterday. Okay. Thank you so much, Katie. We appreciate it. We're gonna be voting on this on Tuesday afternoon, right after the governor's budget address. Okay? Rep. Ed Eastes is gonna get a little bit of a reprieve. He gets a little bit longer to work on his floor reports.
[Katie (Legislative Counsel)]: On And
[Rep. Anne B. Donahue (Ranking Member)]: the comments from are we going to be considering those changes?
[Rep. Theresa Wood (Chair, House Human Services Committee)]: I didn't see them, I'm sorry.
[Rep. Anne B. Donahue (Ranking Member)]: I heard something about changes, but I didn't know how old.
[Rep. Theresa Wood (Chair, House Human Services Committee)]: You haven't had a chance to email Today? I don't know. It's on website. It's on our website. It's on
[Rep. Anne B. Donahue (Ranking Member)]: the website. I've heard of that. There was just some additional, I think we misunderstood some of their, oh, right here, intent.
[Rep. Martin LaLonde (Chair, House Judiciary Committee)]: Oh, so I see there. Albert. Yes, I think they're doing that. Okay,
[Rep. Theresa Wood (Chair, House Human Services Committee)]: you know what I'm gonna say? We finished our work on this and they can finish it in the Senate, yeah, if they wanna change Yeah, didn't see that, otherwise we would have had that discussion, but thank you for pointing that out. But I didn't see that. Folks. I just reviewed with you. What's up? Oh, no, maybe I just did that with Laurie. Next week, I think I did sort of before we broke for lunch, next week we're gonna be concentrating on the budget and we'll start off with the Secretary and Agency of Human Services. We will pick up with DCF and the health department, hopefully, if they can get scheduled in. And we will also be picking up witnesses on H594 and having a committee discussion about that as we sort of move through it. So that's what's gonna be up on tap for next week. And you have the rest of the afternoon to oh, yeah. We have kid governor coming in. Yeah.
[Rep. Anne B. Donahue (Ranking Member)]: Oh, what? Yeah. I'm so sorry.
[Rep. Theresa Wood (Chair, House Human Services Committee)]: Well, she's gonna appear on Zoom, I believe. Oh, that's it. Not today. No, no, next week. And we have a joint hearing with energy and technology on Friday afternoon next week. So just letting you know, we'll be here longer than 01:30. And that is on the child welfare information system at DCF. You might have seen some recent news reports about that. But also, we have had testimony about this in this committee with the Office of Child Youth and Family Advocate and with the department previously. And this is an opportunity for us to hear from the agency of digital services whom we don't hear from. And it's an opportunity for our sister committee to hear from DCF, which they don't hear from. So we'll have a joint hearing on that next Friday afternoon. So that's the summary for today. My apologies to the folks who were expecting a vote on 05:45 around the room today, but for sure on Tuesday.
[Rep. Anne B. Donahue (Ranking Member)]: Okay?