Wetlands summer camp promises pre-teens fun
March 23, 2016
UPDATE: Missing Raceland man found dead
March 23, 2016
EDITOR’S NOTE: First in a series examining local lawmaker bills
With a grueling special session now behind them, state legislators are now proceeding with broader agenda, still in the process of filing bills that will be considered during this year’s regular schedule of meetings.
State Rep. Beryl Amedee R-Houma has proposed laws that largely concern education and public health, a mix of offerings that showboat the former Terrebonne Parish councilwoman’s penchant for approaching government issues with a combination of her strong conservative values and a desire to streamline what government does and how to go about doing it.
The state’s child abuse hotline, restrictions on Louisiana’s food stamp program, Medicaid rules and the TOPS tuition program have drawn the freshman legislator’s attention. While she expects some opposition, Amedee has expressed confidence that her proposed measures are both needed and reasonable.
A tweaking of the state’s child abuse hotline rules is first on the agenda, with HB-86, that would require schools to post the number in places where children at schools can see the notices.
“If there is one child somewhere in a school who is in a bad situation this is worthwhile,” Amedee said in an interview.
Amedee said she has already heard some objections to the proposal ranging from cost and actual printing of notices, to the potential that children might abuse the number through horseplay or for other reasons.
“Every day schools use copy machines to print out oodles of paperwork,” Amedee said. “What is there to take an 8 ½ by 11-inch sheet of paper and put that on a couple of walls?”
There was a suggestion by one legislator, Amedee said, to have the number posted in teacher lounges. But Amedee said that after speaking with educators, it is her belief that the protocols they must follow as mandatory reporters of abuse eliminate the need for such signs. Children, she said, are another matter.
Another education-related bill from Amedee is HB-367, that would reduce the amount of a TOPS award according to payments pending for need-based financial aid, such as the federal PELL Grant program.
PELL pays for non-tuition costs of college, TOPS does not. But the TOPS payment, Amedee said, is awarded initially and then adjusted to take into account the other financial aid sources.
“What if we allow other need-based sources to pick up funding for tuition when possible first and then figure the TOPS award?” Amedee said. Precisely how that funding balance would work, Amedee said, is still something she is studying, and what fact-finding she does could result in an amendment to the bill.
HB-421, authored by Amedee, would prohibit the state from waiving federal SNAP, or food stamp, requirements that able-bodied adults without dependents work or perform community services, without the authorization of the legislature.
Gov. John Bel Edwards, almost immediately after assuming office, enacted a waiver of the requirement through an executive order. Amedee’s bill would eliminate the state’s chief executive’s authority to do so.
Amedee said she is not necessarily opposed to all potentially eligible people receiving the benefit, but says it should be in the hands of lawmakers rather than one chief executive. The “able-bodied” requirement, she said, would not apply in cases of brain diseases or learning disabilities so severe that the individual qualifies for Medicare.
Co-payments of as little as $8 would be required of Medicaid-eligible patients seeking doctor services at emergency rooms. “The purpose is not to patch up the state budget eight dollars at a time,” Amedee said. “The idea is to get people to think twice before using emergency rooms for routine services.”
One bill that Amedee does not expect much opposition to is HB-765, which would include victims of sexual assault within the provisions that already apply for domestic violence. In cases where one spouse physically abuses another, the victim is allowed under certain circumstances to break a residential lease without penalty. This bill would allow the same benefit to apply in cases of sexual assault, protecting victims of rape and certain other crimes to be bound to their place of residence if that was where the crime occurred.
HB-87 removes the requirement that certain students – those in approved home study programs anchored by private schools – be exempt from meningitis vaccination requirements. Waivers are already technically given for those students, Amedee said. Her bill would reduce paperwork more than anything else.
“They are already not required to send those records to Baton Rouge,” Amedee said of schools that are not public in home study situations. “This just equalizes it and takes the question off the form that is filled out.” •
