Of the 3,517 bills filed this Session (including 1,634 proposed House appropriations projects, which are considered bills), only 207 passed both the Senate and House. That is 10 more bills than last year’s total. Here is a recap of some interesting bills that passed and failed this Session.
Bills that Failed
VACATION RENTALS After much protest by local governments and close votes in committees, bills that would have transferred oversight of vacation rentals to the Department of Business and Professional Regulation failed to be heard on the Senate or House floor.
ELECTRONIC PRESCRIBING An effort to make prescriptions for medicinal drugs be electronically generated and transmitted to the pharmacist filling the prescription was heard in all three House committees but none in the Senate. This issue will likely return again next year as the world continues to go virtual.
MEDICAL BILLING A bill requiring hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers to provide an estimate of health care treatments passed the House 116-1 and was never heard in the Senate. Current law lets patients request this information, but it is not mandatory.
MEDICAL MARIJUANA House leaders were anxious to place a percentage cap on the amount of euphoria-inducing THC in medical marijuana for patients under age 21. The Senate would not agree to the cap.
RESILIENCY A Statewide Office of Resiliency will not be created in the Governor’s Office, but the Chief Resilience Officer will transfer to the Department of Environmental Protection. Secretary Noah Valenstein will add those duties to his role. Another bill requires sea level impact projection studies prior to publicly-financed construction along the coast.