A bill to ban gender-affirming care for transgender minors has been resurrected in the session’s final week. The Senate Health and Welfare Committee voted against the bill, but the full Senate voted to move the bill to Senate Judiciary A. Chairman of Health and Welfare Fred Mills opposed the move because of the work his committee already did on the proposal.
“This committee did a heck of a job, everyone that was there had a chance to testify, nobody missed the process, everybody got as fair as a shake as they could do,” said Mills.
Mills made the tie-breaking vote that resulted in the defeat of the bill in his committee. He says the legislation received a fair hearing.
“I’ve been here 16 years and I’ve lost many bills on a 4-3 vote, 5-4 vote and in the end, I came back and I worked on it the next year, I made it better, I compromised and I found a solution,” said Mills.
But the full Senate voted 26-12 to move the legislation to Judiciary A, which voted for the legislation, so a debate can take place on the Senate floor.
There was very little testimony on the bill in Jud A as Chairman Barrow Peacock did not want to discuss the health aspects of the bill, only what is committee oversees, the legal remedies of the legislation. Democrats on Judiciary A did not attend today’s meeting in an act of protesting the procedural move executed by the Republican-controlled Senate.
The legislation will need to be approved by the Senate and the House will have to agree to Senate changes made to the legislation before the end of the session, which must conclude business by Thursday at 6 PM.
Comments