House Judiciary Committee passes several bills to the House floor

On Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee convened to consider a series of bills and went on to pass several of them.

Among the legislation considered by the committee was SB76, a bill introduced by Sen. April Weaver, R-District 14, which would exempt nursing mothers from jury duty. A piece of companion legislation, HB209, was unanimously passed by the House on Tuesday. The committee amended SB76 to mirror that companion legislation and subsequently passed it out of committee. SB76 will now go to the House floor, and if passed, will head to the governor’s desk.

Rep. Ben Robbins, R-District 33, also presented HB177 before the committee. The bill, which was passed by the House Ways and Means General Fund Committee last week, looks to enforce current law which mandates that children approved for Medicaid must first be covered by a parent’s private health insurance if able. Specifically, the law would give Alabama judges the power to mandate that a child currently covered by Medicaid be added to a parent’s employer-provided private health insurance instead.

Rep. Robbins explained that since passing through the Ways and Means Committee, he has amended the bill to address some of the concerns raised by Alabama Arise during a public hearing.

“Now, the way it will work, is if a judge orders… so, whenever a court has jurisdiction over a noncustodial parent, that judge may order the noncustodial parent to provide health insurance to their child… what we will allow Medicaid to do, if permissible by federal law, in essence [is] subrogate,” Robbins explained. “So if you were ordered to provide insurance and you did not and then child ended up in the hospital or had some illness and Medicaid had to cover those costs, not only could you be held in contempt, but Medicaid could garnish your wages to seek reimbursement for all expenses paid.”

The committee quickly approved Robbins’ changes to the bill and passed it out of committee.

The committee also passed HB232, introduced by Rep. Alan Baker, R-District 66, that would require juvenile courts to make local superintendents or principals of private K-12 schools aware if one of their students is charged with or adjudicated delinquent for certain serious crimes, including murder, rape, or sodomy.

HB360 also passed the committee. The bill, presented by Rep. Chad Robertson, R-District 40, renames drug courts to “accountability courts” and expands their jurisdiction to include veterans and individuals suffering from mental illness.

SB108, which establishes criminal penalties related to mail theft, and SB47, which provides certain legal immunities for community-based first responders, were among the other bills passed by the committee.