HB 1292 – Reps. Brown and Snelling have offered this bill amending Chapter 12 of Title 31 relating to the control of hazardous conditions, preventable diseases, and metabolic disorders in an effort to provide for a patient to purchase contact lenses from a retailer of his or her choice, including through the mail, and to prohibit the prescription of private label or store brand contact lenses. Specifically, the bill states:

"No person licensed and regulated by Chapter 30 or 34 of Title 43 who provides written prescriptions for contact lenses to patients shall condition the availability of an eye examination to any person on a requirement that the patient agree to purchase any ophthalmic goods from the prescriber, or limit the prescription of contact lenses to private label or store brand contact lenses."

Additionally, the bill requires that the optometrist or ophthalmologist (or person licensed and regulated by Chapter 30 or 34 of Title 43) "immediately" provide the patient with a prescription as soon as he or she has conducted an eye examination. This bill has been sent to the House Health and Ecology Committee for review.

HB 1295 – Reps. Morris and others have proposed an amendment to Article 3 of Chapter 2 of Title 40 in an effort to provide for a special prestige license plate for the National Rifle Association. The license plate would display the phrase, "The Right to Keep and Bear Arms" followed by an italicized phrase, "Shall Not be Infringed."

HB 1297 – Believe it or not – another bill relating to Grits! By the same author who introduced HB 993, Rep. Everett, this bill proposes that grits be designated as the official prepared food of the State of Georgia. HB 993 would declare grits as the official ‘processed’ food for the State.

HB 1311 – Maybe you wish to teach – an incentive: this will amend Article 2 of Chapter 7 of Title 48 relating to income taxes so as to provide that income received by educators, who contract to work at low-performing schools in Georgia, shall not be subject to the State’s income tax. A "low-performing" school is one in which "at least 70% of the students did not meet the most recent criterion-referenced competency test standard in reading, language, arts, or mathematics or a school identified as low performing based on the indicators adopted under Code Section 20-14-33."

HB 1312 – Reps. Borders, Buck and Smith have proposed this amendment to O.C.G.A. § 48-8-3 concerning the exemptions for state sales and use tax in an effort to provide for an exemption with respect to the sale of certain school supplies, clothing, footwear, computers, and computer related accessories for a limited time period: 12:01 a.m. on March 29, 2002 through 12:00 midnight on March 30, 2002 and 12:01 a.m. August 2, 2002 through 12:00 midnight on August 3, 2002. This would apply to clothing and footwear with a sales price of $100 or less per article and the first $1,500 of the sales price for a single purchase of a personal computer or related accessories.

HR 1068 – This Resolution by Rep. Channell and others proposes to recognize February 14, 2002 as "Rural Health Day."

SB 402 – Another bill dealing with schools’ use of a brief period of quiet reflection, amending O.C.G.A. § 20-2-1050, will provide that during such "silent reflection students may reflect on an inspirational poem or reading or engage in silent prayer, meditation, or other contemplative activity." SB 402 was introduced by Sen. Guhl and mirrors Rep. Randall Mangham’s bill, HB 1171.

SB 406 – Sens. Polak and Lamutt have authored this proposal which would amend O.C.G.A. § 50-29-2 relating to the authority of public agencies that maintain geographic information systems so that the State could sell the information maintained in such systems. Current law allows a "county or municipality of Georgia, a regional development center, or a local authority created by local or general law that has created or maintains a geographic information system in an electronic form may contract to distribute, sell, provide access to, or otherwise market records or information maintained in such system and may license or establish fees for providing such records or information or providing access to such system." This appears to be similar to another proposal that these Senators have in the pipeline, SB 214.

SB 408 – Sen. Nadine Thomas has authored this proposal amending Article 2 of Chapter 18 of Title 45 of the Code relating to the Employee Benefit Plan Council so as to allow employees of the Federal-State Shipping Point Inspection Service and the Georgia Firefighters’ Pension fund to participate in the State’s flexible employee benefit plan. These amendments would be made in the definitions and authorization of deductions’ sections of the Code.

SB 411 – Sen. Paul and others have proposed this new Code Section 44-2-30 so as to allow owners of real property the ability to apply for the cancellation of forged or otherwise fraudulent deeds. Some of the bill’s specifics outline procedures for such application:

• owner would file with the clerk of the Superior Court of the county where the property is located
• petition will identify the petitioner and describe the property in question and the particularity of the deed alleged to be forged or otherwise fraudulent and why petitioner contends such, and petition would also identify each grantor and grantee of the deed in question as well as location of such persons (and if good faith effort was made to locate)
• petition would have to have a certified copy of the deed in question attached
• personal service of the petition to each grantor and grantee who then gets 30 days to file an objection of why deed should not be canceled (if grantor or grantee cannot be located, then a notice of publication must be accomplished)
• if no objection is filed within 30 days, then petitioner goes to a judge of that superior court, and if judge is satisfied, then may enter an order to void and cancel the deed and the clerk of the court may then record such

SB 414 – Hanging chads?? Sens. Hill, Thomas, and Ragan have proposed this bill amending Chapter 2 of Title 21 concerning primaries and elections so as to repeal law regarding vote recorders and to provide the Secretary of State the ability to provide by rule and regulation certain instructions for ballots and voting equipment and so that the State shall provide a uniform system of direct recording electronic voting equipment for use by counties in Georgia by the year 2004. This bill has been referred to the Senate’s Ethics Committee.

SB 422 – Sens. Mullis, Dean, Marable, Williams and Cable have authored this bill proposing to amend Chapter 7 of Title 44 relating to landlord and tenant issues so as to provide for the payment of rent to the landowner when transportable housing is foreclosed upon and is not removed within a certain time by the entity conducting the foreclosure. This also provides for the creation of a lien against such housing for the rent along with civil penalties, court costs, and attorney’s fees for such. This bill has been sent to the Senate Finance and Public Utilities Committee for review.

SR 600 – Sen. Haines has proposed this amendment to the State’s Constitution so as to provide that the Supreme Court shall have jurisdiction over questions of law from any state appellate or federal court.

Work has been underway on the 2002 Supplemental Budget. Late Thursday and Friday morning, Subcommittees were still making presentations on their Budget Recommendations. Rumor is that the House would like to take up the Bill concerning the Supplemental Appropriations early next week. Some of the 2002 Supplemental recommendations, from the House Human Development Subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Sinkfield, include some of the following items for the Dept. of Human Resources Budget:

1) Take away proposed funds for the proposed assessment and planning necessary for the conversion of DHR applications to Georgia Technology Authority Portal Architecture (Governor had proposed $250,000)

2) Restore funding for contracts which DHR has for training caregivers of persons diagnosed with dementia (Governor had proposed a reduction of $96,000)

3) Subcommittee also restored Intergenerational Resource Center and Center for the Visually Impaired’s contract funds (this proposes to give back approximately $7,600)

4) Take away proposed additional funding to cover increasing costs of vaccinations for uninsured children, including the cost of a new pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, which protects against bacterial meningitis and ear and blood infections (Governor had proposed $873,354 for this)

5) Restore some of the funding enhancement for FY 2002 for Babies Born Healthy (Governor had proposed a reduction of more than $2.5 million and Subcommittee proposed a reduction of only $1.9 million)

6) Restored funding for various contracts through Division of Public Health including the following which were to be reduced per Governor’s recommendations:

a) Visiting Nurses services (HIV/AIDS) (Governor proposed a $222,805 reduction)

b) Life Flight at Georgia Baptist Hospital (Governor proposed a $100,000 reduction)

c) Savannah Memorial Hospital Trauma Helicopter (Governor proposed a $50,000 reduction)

d) Healthy Mothers/Healthy Babies Powerline (Governor proposed a $16,000 reduction)

e) Purchase of clotting factor by Hemophilia of Georgia (Governor proposed a $131,000 reduction)

f) Scoliosis Screening by Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (Governor proposed a reduction of $43,000)

g) Community Outreach Program for Substance Abuse Education (Governor proposed $25,000 reduction)

7) From eliminated contracted funding, the Subcommittee restored those monies for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Awareness (Governor had proposed elimination of $35,000)

8) Among other miscellaneous reductions to contracts which Governor Barnes had proposed in Public Health, the Subcommittee restored Fulton-DeKalb Hospital: AIDS; Fulton-DeKalb Hospital: Emergency Health; Fulton-DeKalb Hospital: Sickle Cell, Vision, Hearing; Fulton-DeKalb Hospital: Family Planning; Medical College of Georgia: Sickle Cell, Vision, Hearing; Fulton-DeKalb Hospital: TB Control; American Lung Association of GA: TB Control; Fulton-DeKalb Hospital: Pediatrics; Fulton County: TB Control, Child Services & Family Counseling; Adolescent Health; Audio-Verbal Center of Atlanta: Sickle Cell, Vision, Hearing; DeKalb Co. Board of Health: TB Control; University of Georgia: Sickle Cell (restored approximately $180,000 of the proposed $207,269 reduction)

9) In Division of Children and Family Services’ contract eliminations, the Subcommittee proposed to restore the following:

a) Operational funds for the Hope House transitional home for homeless men (Governor had proposed $100,000 elimination)

b) Kids in Discovery of Self (Governor had proposed $20,000 elimination)

10) Subcommittee proposed to restore funding for Center for Children & Young Adults, Inc. (approximately a $2,300 restoration)

11) Subcommittee proposed to restore the proposed elimination of the funds in Mental Health/Mental Retardation/Substance Abuse Division by adding back residential treatment services for adolescents with mental retardation found incompetent to stand trial or deemed inappropriate for the Juvenile Justice System (Governor had proposed a $600,000 elimination for these funds). Subcommittee also proposed to keep the elimination of the two programs for children of women in residential substance abuse treatment that teach academic and life skills (but to use federal dollars for this proposed elimination of $100,000). Also, the Subcommittee restored the specialized training of clinical staff in the treatment of co-occurring mental illness and substance abuse (Governor had proposed an elimination of $585,000)

11) Restore the reduction of the Emory Autism Resource Center contract in the Division of Mental Health, Mental Retardation, Substance of $100,000

12) Restore the reduction of contracts for the Georgia Council for the Hearing Impaired’s contract in the Division of Mental Health, Mental Retardation, Substance of $10,000

13) Subcommittee proposed the following new items:

a) $50,000 for Calgary Refuge Center

b) $50,000 for registry of volunteer registered nurses for statewide disaster relief preparedness called "Georgia Nurse Alert System"

c) $50,000 for Elaine Clarke Center

d) $30,000 for Georgia Child Fatality Review Panel

e) $50,000 for Girls Incorporated of Greater Atlanta

f) $25,000 for vision screening to Georgia Pre-K students

Committee meeting schedules were light today due to the fact that it was Friday and Legislators were interested in getting back to their homes as soon as possible. Both the House and Senate Rules Committees met to set their respective calendars for Monday.

The House Insurance Committee will have a Subcommittee meeting on HB 1100 regarding the insurance mandate for colorectal cancer screening coverage on Monday, February 11, 2002 at 2:30 p.m. in room 514, Legislative Office Building. This bill has been made a part of the Governor’s Administrative Package although brought to his attention by Rep. Mickey Channell.

Additionally, there will be a Senate Health and Human Services Committee meeting on HB 652 in order to review the newest draft of this bill. This hearing is to take place at 1:30 p.m. in room 450 of the Capitol. HB 652 was introduced by Rep. Ron Dodson in the 2001 Session in an effort to help address the nursing and allied healthcare professionals’ shortage by allowing the Secretary of State’s office to collect data each time the professionals were licensed or obtained a renewal of their licenses. Such information would include work places and practice settings as well as specialties. Further, the bill would allow the Healthcare Work Force Policy Advisory Committee, created by HB 470 in 2001, to analyze the information and trends in an effort to determine more about the supply and demand for these persons. The Georgia Hospital Association has been behind this bill.

Other bills scheduled for the Senate Health and Human Services Committee will include HB 498, the rewrite to current law on delivery of mental health, mental retardation, and substance abuse services in the community through the Community Services Boards, will also be on the agenda. On Wednesday of this week, a new draft of this bill was presented by the Dept. of Human Resources. Also, it is believed that SB 145, a bill by Sen. Stokes concerning the use of phlebotomist, laboratory technician, laboratory technologist, employee or agent of a laboratory, will be before the Committee.

Another discussion on the ‘right to prescribe’ medications will be taken up in the House Health and Ecology Committee’s Professional Subcommittee also on Monday. This Subcommittee will hear from optometrists on HB 1156 which proposes a formulary listing of pharmaceuticals from which optometrists can prescribe. Also, the Subcommittee will take up a bill on the licensure requirements for chiropractors, HB 1199. This hearing will be held at 2:00 p.m.

The Senate Insurance and Labor Committee has cancelled its Committee meeting on Monday afternoon.

A couple of events will take place on Monday evening. The Georgia Association of Health Plans will host a dinner for Legislators who serve on the Senate and House Health and Insurance Committees. Also, the Georgia Electric Membership Corporations will host a reception for Legislators and Constitutional Officers of the State at the Freight Room of the Georgia Railroad Depot.