Please expect full notes, feedback, and next steps form the convening early next week. I want to ensure what I send out is comprehensive, detailed, and lands in your inbox at beginning of the week.
I have a few updates for you this week:
Upcoming interim hearings
An Attorney General Opinion on COVID Vaccine leave
Please let me know if you have any questions!
Julia
Upcoming Interim Hearings
Interim hearings have officially started and the schedule is quite packed already.
You can find all house hearing live streams here and all senate live streams here.
I'll continue to update this list as well as include a brief summary of past hearings each week:
Senate Committee on Local Government - Wednesday April 20th, 10am - Agenda - The Committee will "Study the development of the language used for constitutional amendment and local ballot propositions. Recommend changes to make ballot propositions more easily understood by voters."
House Committee on Ways and Means - Thursday April 21st, 10am - Agenda- While not directly related to our legislative topics, the committee will discuss how to use $3 billion in surplus dollars on property tax reduction.
House Committee on State Affairs - Tuesday April 26th, 9am - Agenda - The Committee will discuss the monitoring of HB 5 the Comprehensive Broadband Expansion bill.
House Committee on Public Education - April 26th - This has not been officially posted, but I continue to hear that it will be posted soon - stay tuned for official agenda notice.
House Committee on Business and Industry - Wednesday April 27th, 1pm - Agenda - The Committee will discuss COVID impacts on the workforce, including industry specific disruptions.
Senate Committee on Finance - Wednesday May 4th, 10am - Agenda - This is the first hearing with new chairperson Senator Huffman. They will discuss inflation's impact on the business community and state government as well as investments made by the Teacher Retirement System.
House Committee on Higher Education - Thursday, May 5th, 10am - Agenda - The Committee will discuss the 60x30 plan progress.
Response from Attorney General on the Implementation of Vaccine Leave
In August of last year, Senator Bettencourt requested an opinion from the Attorney General's office on the legality of offering additional leave to individuals who received the vaccine.
The Attorney General release his (unsurprising) opinion today that this violates Executive Order GA-39 and that a "a person’s vaccination status likely falls within the definition of “protected health information” under this federal statute."
While AG opinions are not legally binding in any way, they can be utilized in legal proceedings as persuasive evidence. You can read his full opinion and the original request from Senator Bettencourt here.
