Controversies die quietly in committee

[AnnInLa]

Controversies die quietly in committee
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
John Maginnis

They were the legislative bills "ripped from the headlines," inspired by controversies that boiled around the state and nation earlier this year. Events putting new twists on the old standbys of life, death and taxes -- cloning, the last days of Terri Schiavo, state income and property-tax sticker shock -- prompted promises from legislators to pass laws to fix all of the above. Those pressing for remedies were determined to, if not get their way, at least force lawmakers to publicly debate and take stands on these burning issues of the day.



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Yeah, well. Those flames have turned to cooling embers in the deep freeze of legislative committees, likely to fade out without further debate or vote by the full bodies.



The effort to ban human cloning inspired the most impassioned and thoughtful debate heard in the House this session. But one house was enough. When a strict anti-cloning bill reached the Senate, with the bang of the gavel it was shunted off to a hostile committee by Senate President Donald Hines, D-Bunkie, who wanted a less restrictive bill, killed in the House, to allow embryonic stem cell research. The full Senate will vote on neither.

The mega-story from Florida of the legal and political circus surrounding the prolonged death of brain-damaged Terri Schiavo motivated Sen. James David Cain, R-Dry Creek, to introduce a bill forbidding the removal of a feeding tube from a patient who did not give previous written or oral consent. Schiavo's brother testified in committee for the bill, which appeared to be on the fast track to the Senate floor -- until Sen. Cleo Fields, D-Baton Rouge, attached an amendment requiring the state to pay for any such patient's life support if the family refused to do so. Under the rules, that required another stop at the Finance Committee to consider its impact on the state budget. Cain will continue to push his bill, but it now carries a price on its head.


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As they say at the Capitol, there are many more ways to kill a bill than to pass one. Of those ends, death by committee is the cleanest, quietest and least accountable.


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