RandySF
RandySF's JournalOR: Gov. Kotek calls Senate Republicans 'disrespectful' after closed-door meetings
Gov. Tina Kotek spent about two hours listening to Republican and Democratic senators in separate closed-door meetings in the Capitol building on Monday as the GOP-led walkout that started May 3 continued to stall the Senate.
Kotek entered the Senate majority office to visit with Democrats at noon, on the heels of a meeting she had with Senate Republicans shortly after 11 a.m. Applause rang out from inside the room.
But Republican senators were less enthusiastic about meeting the Democratic governor. Just one, Dick Anderson of Lincoln City, turned up in person while the others joined through Zoom, a choice that clearly rankled Kotek.
“I think that says a lot about who’s interested in resolving the crisis,” Kotek later told the Capital Chronicle and another reporter. “It’s very difficult when the Senate Republicans don’t show up in a room.”
She called their refusal to attend the meeting in person “very disrespectful.”
She said she didn’t talk to the Republicans about whether they’d return on Tuesday, and didn’t indicate whether she was trying to strike a deal.
“We were just listening today,” Kotek said. “We were not negotiating.”
https://oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2023/05/22/gov-kotek-calls-senate-republicans-disrespectful-after-closed-door-meetings/
MT: Gianforte vetoes bill that would provide funding for law enforcement on Flathead reservation
Rep. Joe Read described what he thinks will happen next on the Flathead Indian Reservation when it comes to law enforcement.
“The governor has walked into a buzzsaw by vetoing this,” Read said.
Last week, Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte vetoed House Bill 479 which would have provided funding for law enforcement on the the Flathead Reservation and given a coalition of stakeholders from the state, Lake County and Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes a chance to come up with a long-term solution.
Now, with a veto, a pending lawsuit and a notice by Lake County Commissioners that they’re no longer going to be providing law enforcement for state criminal matters, what happens next when it comes to law enforcement isn’t clear.
A veto letter by Gov. Greg Gianforte claims it’s “inexplicable” why it should be the state’s responsibility to fund part of local law enforcement on the reservation.
That mystery would be solved, Read said, by taking a glance at Lake County’s budget.
https://dailymontanan.com/2023/05/22/gianforte-vetoes-bill-that-would-provide-funding-for-law-enforcement-on-flathead-reservation/
Texas Senate again advances proposed restrictions on lessons about gender identity and sexual orient
The Texas Senate has once again advanced legislation that would severely limit classroom lessons, teacher guidance and school programming about sexual orientation and gender identity through 12th grade in Texas schools.
The upper chamber voted 19-12 Monday to preliminarily approve House Bill 890 after the Senate education committee added the proposed restrictions to the legislation. This marks the third time the GOP-controlled body has passed what critics dub the “Don’t Say Gay” provision, which they say is both unconstitutional and harmful to LGBTQ Texans. Supporters of the proposal, however, say it is needed to expand parental rights — a key focus for Republicans, including Gov. Greg Abbott, this session.
“This bill takes a stand by enshrining parental rights and ensuring that Texas parents are the chief decision makers in their child’s education,” said Sen. Brandon Creighton, the Conroe Republican who is sponsoring the bill in the upper chamber.
Authored by state Rep. Keith Bell, R-Forney, HB 890 initially focused on the processes school districts must adopt to receive and resolve complaints. It passed unanimously out of the House in late April.
On Thursday, almost a month later, Republicans drastically changed HB 890 to add language that would severely limit classroom lessons, campus activities and educator guidance regarding gender and sexual orientation in all public and charter schools. The Senate version also has several other proposals that its backers said would similarly broaden parental rights, such as requiring schools to notify parents of any changes to their children’s “mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being.”
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/05/22/texas-dont-say-gay-legislature/
Ultra-conservative groups craft parental rights legislation for Louisiana lawmaker
A change to the Louisiana Constitution that says “parents have the paramount right to raise their children” — and not co-parent with the government — will likely get a second chance at life this week, even though the proposal fell short of passage in the House of Representatives last week.
Conservative groups, some with leaders deemed extremist, are credited with crafting House Bill 152 for Rep. Beryl Amedee, R-Schriever. Comparable laws have been approved in 15 other states — and one in Iowa awaits the governor’s signature — but Louisiana would be the first to enshrine the language in its constitution.
Many of the states where parental rights proposals have been offered have also seen battles over directing public money to private education, parental approval of school curricula and conservative control over library content — debates that have also taken place in the Louisiana Legislature.
When Amedee brought her bill before the House Committee on Civil Law and Procedure on May 8, her first reference was not to education or government but to the Book of Genesis from the Bible.
“In the beginning, God created Adam and Eve, and he told them to be fruitful and multiply, and they did,” Amedee told committee members. “So from the very beginning, it’s clear that the authority and the responsibility concerning children lies with parents, not governments.”
https://lailluminator.com/2023/05/22/ultra-conservative-groups-craft-parental-rights-legislation-for-louisiana-lawmaker/
Pa. House approves relief for childhood sexual abuse victims as standalone amendment
A standalone constitutional amendment offering a two-year window for survivors to file claims of childhood sexual abuse in civil court saw approval from the Pennsylvania House on Monday, but it’s unlikely to see a necessary vote in the Republican-controlled Senate to reach voters.
Lawmakers in the lower chamber, controlled by a narrow Democratic majority, voted 145-56 to send a gutted version of a three-part constitutional amendment package — now only including the window — back to the Senate, where Republican leadership has said they will not consider the proposal again.
House lawmakers passed the Senate bill without debate.
Senate Republican leadership maintains that the upper chamber fulfilled a promise to pass the proposed window at the beginning of the current legislative session, urging the House to vote on the legislation, designated Senate Bill 1, as originally presented.
In March, Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward, R-Westmoreland, and Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman, R-Indiana, told reporters that the three proposals in the constitutional amendment package reflect top priorities for GOP lawmakers.
“Those constitutional questions were passed by both chambers in previous sessions, and we felt it was important to advance all three of them as quickly as possible,” Pittman said. “And that’s what we did.”
At the time of the chamber vote, Senate Democrats unsuccessfully attempted to divide the proposals into individual bills and table the amendment package.
https://www.penncapital-star.com/government-politics/pa-house-approves-relief-for-childhood-sexual-abuse-victims-as-standalone-amendment/
AZ: GOP leader claims a non-binding resolution bans Arizona election machines
Claiming that a non-binding resolution overrides state law, an Arizona Republican state senator on Monday declared that Arizona counties are barred from using machines to count ballots — an assertion that was quickly shot down by elections officials, the state’s attorney general and county leaders.
Senate Majority Leader Sonny Borrelli penned a letter to all 15 Arizona counties on Monday, telling them that they were barred from using any machines to administer future elections. He claimed that the legislature’s recent approval of Senate Concurrent Resolution 1037 was binding under a radical interpretation of a constitutional provision that would effectively allow state legislatures to do whatever they want with elections.
The core of the so-called “plenary powers” theory is that legislatures can change election rules and administration whenever they want and however they want, with no checks or balances by the judicial or executive branches.
In this case, Borrelli claimed that, even though Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed actual legislation that would have changed state law to ban all election machines used in Arizona, a change in the law isn’t needed to bar those machines because of SCR1037.
The resolution is little more than a statement of the legislature’s belief on the topic and does not carry the weight of law. It declares that voting equipment is critical infrastructure and should be “open source” and made entirely in the United States, that specific machines cannot be used in the state, and outright disallows the use of any electronic equipment to tabulate, vote or record vote totals.
https://www.azmirror.com/2023/05/22/citing-plenary-powers-gop-leader-claims-a-non-binding-resolution-bans-arizona-election-machines/
MI: Whitmer signs 'red flag' gun safety bills
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Monday signed more bills establishing gun safety reforms during a news conference in Royal Oak.
“No Michigander should fear going to school, work, the grocery store, or their own home because of gun violence,” said Whitmer.
“Extreme risk protection orders have been proven to reduce suicides, save lives, and keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers and violent criminals.”
Whitmer, a Democrat, called the measure “common sense action to reduce gun violence and keep families and communities safe.”
She signed Senate Bill 83, sponsored by state Sen. Mallory McMorrow (D-Royal Oak), that creates the Extreme Risk Protection Order Act — otherwise known as a “red flag” law.
House Bill 4146, sponsored by state Rep. Kelly Breen (D-Novi), prohibits someone from purchasing new firearms while under an extreme risk protection order. House Bill 4147, sponsored by state Rep. Julie Brixie (D-Meridian Twp.), provides for service of process for extreme risk protection order actions and waive court fees. House Bill 4148, sponsored by state Rep. Stephanie Young (D-Detroit), places sentencing guidelines for making a false statement in support of an extreme risk protection order.
https://michiganadvance.com/2023/05/22/whitmer-signs-red-flag-gun-safety-bills/
AZ: Hobbs shoots down anti-trans pronoun ban
Arizona Republicans seeking to restrict how trans and nonbinary students are spoken to by their teachers were sharply rebuffed by Gov. Katie Hobbs on Monday, who vetoed a measure forcing teachers to secure parental permission before students could have their pronouns and chosen names respected.
“As politicians across the country continue to pass harmful legislation directed at transgender youth, I have a clear message to the people of Arizona: I will veto every bill that aims to attack and harm children,” Hobbs wrote in her veto letter for Senate Bill 1001.
The bill would have barred teachers and school staff from referring to a student with pronouns or names inconsistent with their biological sex or given name, regardless of the student’s request. Only written parental permission could change that — but even then, a provision allowed for staff with a “religious or moral conviction” to continue to undermine the wishes of students and their parents.
Hobbs criticized the bill as a discriminatory attack and called on lawmakers to craft proposals that better address the challenges the state faces without hurting Arizonans.
“Instead of coming up with new ways to target and isolate our children, we should be working together to create an Arizona where everyone has the freedom to be who they are without fear of harassment or judgment,” she wrote on Twitter.
The measure continued hostility toward LGBTQ Arizona youth from GOP lawmakers, who last year joined a national wave of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric to pass a trans athlete ban and gender-affirming surgery prohibition. This year has seen heightened discrimination, with Arizona Republicans introducing several measures to punish drag performances, keep trans students out of public school facilities and ban any books that mention any pronouns.
https://www.azmirror.com/2023/05/22/hobbs-shoots-down-anti-trans-pronoun-ban/
Slavery ban could go before Louisiana voters again
The lawmaker who last year suggested a change to the Louisiana Constitution to prohibit slavery and involuntary servitude — and then asked voters to reject it — has revised his proposal this session.
House Bill 221, from Rep. Edmond Jordan, D-Baton Rouge, cleared a major legislative hurdle Monday when it cleared the House of Representatives with a 98-0 vote. His proposal specifies “the prohibition of involuntary servitude shall not prohibit an inmate from being required to work when the inmate has been duly convicted of a crime.”
There was an attempt to make a similar change last year when the bill was debated on the House floor. The word “except” was added to its ballot language regarding the “otherwise lawful administration of criminal justice.” Proponents had a problem with “except” being put in the same sentence as “slavery is prohibited.”
The House Democratic Caucus, which had originally backed the proposal, pulled its support, as did groups that advocate for the incarcerated and the ACLU of Louisiana. More than 60% of voters statewide rejected the constitutional amendment last November.
If the Senate approves Jordan’s measure this session, it would be put before voters Oct. 14.
https://lailluminator.com/2023/05/22/slavery-ban-could-go-before-louisiana-voters-again/
Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen signs abortion, gender care restrictions into law
LINCOLN — Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen on Monday signed into law new restrictions on abortion and gender-affirming care for minors, which opponents vowed to fight until the very end.
Legislative Bill 574, proposed by State Sen. Kathleen Kauth of Omaha, passed 33-15 last Friday on the final round of debate. The measure includes an approximate 10-week abortion ban (12 weeks gestational age) and restrictions on transition surgeries, hormone therapies and puberty blockers for youths.
“Today is an extraordinary, historic day for the State of Nebraska,” Pillen said at a signing ceremony. “It’s a day where it’s really simple: Protect our kids so that our state has a bigger and brighter future.”
Under the law, the chief medical officer and Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services would be charged with setting the rules and regulations around the puberty blockers and hormones for patients before the age of 19. Transition surgeries would be prohibited.
https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2023/05/22/nebraska-gov-jim-pillen-signs-abortion-gender-care-restrictions-into-law/
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