May 14th Capitol Update

After a busy week at the State Capitol, I wanted to give you a brief update on some important bills that came before us.

On Tuesday night, the House of Representatives once again voted to extend the governor’s emergency powers, H.B. No. #5653,  through July 20th. This is combined with a passage which would expand legislative “oversight” regarding emergency declarations. My position on the governor’s emergency powers remains the same; we need to return to a system of checks and balances. We have been back in session since January 6th, more than 8 months after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. With restrictions easing, it is beyond time for the legislature to stop ceding power and be part of the decision-making process. I will continue to be against any future extension of emergency powers.

Also, there were two proposed state constitutional amendments for early voting, H.J. #59 and no-excuse absentee voting, H.J. #58. I couldn’t vote for these proposals because it will hurt lesser funded candidates and new people looking to enter the political process. This will also take away from direct, one on one voter-candidate contact which will ultimately be bad for the voters and the people I represent. These proposals also lacked safeguards such as requiring photo identification or signature verifications. We all need a photo ID for many things that we do in our daily lives, with elections being so important we need to put the proper measures in place to preserve the integrity of elections.

On Wednesday, the House passed legislation that expands “red flag laws”, H.B. #6355, that seizes firearms from people who are considered “at-risk” before a crime occurs. The biggest change is the loose language that would allow a person to make a complaint about a person they were “dating” or “intimately involved” with. This person would be able to make a complaint against a legal gun owner and that owner would be subject to having to surrender these guns because of this complaint. I voted no because of the very unclear definition of “dating” or “intimately involved”. Both of these terms are very subjective and will lead to many problems including innocent, law abiding gun owners, who will be subject to having their guns removed without just cause.

Finally, H.B. #6491 AN ACT CONCERNING ELECTRONIC DEFENSE WEAPONS, a bill in which I was proud to co-sponsor passed through the House and awaits further action in the Senate. This law would allow legal gun owners the right to self-defense through electronic weapons such as a taser. The right for a person to defend themselves is not only very important to me, it’s a constitutional right.