The Senate had several bills on its calendar which it addressed. It passed out SB 364, a proposal to make revisions to the Brain and Spinal Injury Trust Fund law so that a commission will oversee this fund rather than an authority, by a vote of 48 to zero. It also passed out SB 336 by a vote of 46 to zero. SB 336 amends current law at O.C.G. A. § 20-2-1183 to state in subparagraph (a) that: "No local board of education shall permit any pupil to carry a pocket pager or electronic communication device in school except for health or other reasons, including but not limited to safety of a student or students. Exceptions other than health or safety shall be listed in the written policies of a local board of education. A local board of education may also grant exceptions on a case-by-case basis." Additionally, the Senate passed, with a Floor Amendment, SB 393, by a vote of 47 to zero, which revises the appellate review process and types of judgments etc. which may be reviewed directly.

SB 451 – Sen. Carol Jackson along with others have dropped a new bill in the hopper concerning the hospital lien law. This proposes to amend Part 8 of Article 8 of Chapter 14 of Title 44 in an effort to provide that hospital liens are liens against patient’s causes of action and not patients nor their property or assets and to provide for the effect of such notice and filing. Sen. Jackson, a former Superior Court Clerk, is extremely interested in the separate filing and maintaining of these liens from other records in the courts and the bill addresses such. Also, there is also language included in an effort to provide for the enforcement of such liens against insurers. Releases or covenants not to sue, made before or after the discharge of the patient from the hospital, shall not affect such liens provided that "any person, firm, or corporation which consummates a settlement, release, or covenant not to bring an action with the person to whom hospital service or treatment was furnished and which first procures therefrom an affidavit as prescribed in subsection (c) of this Code section shall not be bound or otherwise affected by the lien as provided in subsection (c) of this Code section, regardless of when the settlement, release, or covenant not to bring an action was consummated."

The House "Green Door" Committee was working this morning on making final recommendations for the FY 2002 Supplemental Budget to be hashed out at the House Appropriations Committee meeting tomorrow morning.

Also, two meetings are scheduled for tomorrow in an effort to start work on the FY 2003 Budget. The House Appropriations Subcommittees on Human Development will meet tomorrow afternoon and the Department of Community Health will meet in the afternoon to hear from Commissioner Gary Redding and Executive Director of the Georgia Cancer Coalition, Russ Toal.

The House Motor Vehicles Committee met today and took up 11 bills. One of those included HB 1178 which proposes to allow charities to sell used cars without having a used car dealer license. Additionally, there was some discussion about the numbers of prestige plates which Georgia has and the possibility of limiting further tags.

The House Insurance Committee met this afternoon and passed out the Governor’s bill on colorectal cancer screening, HB 1100. This will require that health plans cover such screenings. There has been concern raised over which such tests should be required to be covered – recommendations by the American Cancer Society, or by American College of Gastroenterologists, or the National Cancer Institute, etc.. The bill now moves to the House Rules Committee.

The House Judiciary Committee met this afternoon about the standby guardianship bill, HB 917. The bill had a good bit of discussion, but at the end of the day, was held in the Committee for some further work and would be brought back up on the agenda at the Chair’s request. Reps. Willard and Stuckey have worked on this issue so that it can perhaps help those children whose sole parent is either incarcerated or terminally ill. Additionally, the Committee heard from Rep. Ragas on HB 269 concerning the possibility for the Pardon and Parole Board be allowed discretion pertaining to juvenile offenders for the ‘seven sin crimes’ where they are tried as adults. A number of persons testified about HB 269. In the end, it was defeated in a vote of 3 to 8. Some believed that a better remedy of the problem is to change the law so that children cannot be tried as adults.

A number of meetings are scheduled tomorrow. The full House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to meet in the morning to hash out the recommendations for the FY 2002 Supplemental Budget.

Sen. Price’s bill, SB 378, which is an effort to address the situation involving the north Fulton hospitals’ use of exclusive contracting with managed care plans by requiring the plans to obtain written consent concerning the providers included in the network will be in the Insurance and Labor Committee in the afternoon.

Also, the SB 214 dealing with the sales of databases of electronic data will be in the House Judiciary Subcommittee to go over changes on the bill.