Legislative Update
Committees have been busy this week, with numerous bills, presentations, and discussions. In my committees, while some of the bills have been fairly noncontroversial, many bills have been push policies and proposals that are amongst the most extreme and controversial in the nation, with the majority not considering amendments or improvements.
On the House Floor this week, we had a few very long debates. On Monday, the House passed an additional $4 million in funding for the Attorney General's office to hire more attorneys. Democrats proposed and adopted an amendment that deleted language "to provide needed legal services to prosecute violent crime and crimes that financially harm consumers and businesses", and "to assist counties in combating waste, fraud, and abuse in government". This language was already in the bill, and yet House Democrats felt the need to remove it after the bill had been through every relevant committee with the language included.
Republicans also proposed a number of amendments that would have made this bill better, including provisions for reporting to make sure the goals behind this additional funding are being accomplished, adding requirements to prosecute waste, fraud and abuse, support counties, and continue efforts to prosecute more violent crime.
During Thursday's debate, we heard a bill to expand the free school lunch program to free lunch for all, as opposed to focusing the funding on the students who truly need food assistance. This bill is a costly solution that does not fully address the problem of students going hungry, and includes unfunded mandates. Republicans offered an amendment to raise the current eligibility standard for the program to catch more families who are falling through the cracks, rather than spending money to subsidize wealthy families who do not need it, however House Democrats voted it and other amendments down.
|
