A Busy Work Session and a Crucial Deadline

HB 3000, the Autism Insurance Reform Bill,
is scheduled for a work session today, April 27, 2009,
at 3PM, Hearing Room D, State Capitol.
TODAY
See the note below about legislative calendars!

• The Agenda for the 4/27/09 meeting of the House Health Care Committee
  [It looks like there are 5 bills scheduled for public hearing, and 15 bills carried over from the 4/24 meeting for work session.]
  

• To view the live streaming video of the meeting (not archived)
  Windows Media Player
  

• To listen to the live streaming audio
  Live Audio Today
  

• To listen to the Audio Archive of the meeting

An important note about legislative calendars

According to the Oregon Academy of Family Physicians 2009 Legislative Report,

"April 28 deadline for moving bills out of first committee
Friday, April 17 was the deadline for scheduling work sessions for bills in the chamber of origin. The next deadline is April 28. By then, committees must take action on those bills. [Blog author note: HB 3000 was scheduled for the work schedule--but action must be taken on it by the House Health Care Committee by Tuesday, April 28, 2009 for it to remain an "active" bill without special measures to revive it.]
These internal deadlines help winnow the field of bills under consideration. Hundreds of bills will drop off the radar screen for lack of action, either on the 17th or by the 28th.
But it’s important to remember that no bill is really dead until the session gavels to an end. While it is unlikely that dead bills will be revived, it’s not impossible.
Policy committees will spend May considering bills that have passed the other chamber."

[This has some relevance to why this particular Committee Meeting has so many bills to address. There was a comment by Representative/Chairman Greenlick in the 4/24/09 meeting that HB 3000 is intended to be sent to the Rules Committee. If done so today, this would mean that action was taken in the first committee, and HB 3000 will still be active and in play!]