Legislative leaders on Thursday rejected a majority of new bills proposed for consideration in January, including a number that aimed to revive debates from previous sessions.
When the second year of the 128th Legislature continues in 2018, lawmakers won’t debate new proposals related to Maine’s bottle redemption system, metallic mineral mining rules, net energy metering, female genital mutilation, extension of Pine Tree Development Zones, limiting the governor’s power to remove sheriffs or any of a number of proposals to alter the citizen-initiated referendum process. Proposals to renew debate on those matters failed during several dozen votes taken Thursday by the 10-member Legislative Council, which is composed of five Republican and five Democratic legislative leaders.
Thursday’s votes were necessary because of rules that are supposed to prohibit the consideration of any bills in a Legislature’s second, shorter session that aren’t emergencies or to address budgetary issues.
Here is a list of the bills lawmakers let in from a list of 272 bills they considered.
— An Act To Authorize a General Fund Bond Issue To Fund a Program of Student Debt Consolidation and Repayment.
— An Act To Fund the Downeast Correctional Facility.
— An Act To Amend the Laws Governing Offenses against the Person.
— An Act To Establish the Crimes of Forced Labor and Aggravated Forced Labor in the Maine Criminal Code.
— An Act To Increase the Penalty for Visual Sexual Aggression against a Child.
— An Act Regarding the Prohibition on the Possession of a Firearm on School Property.
Originally posted on Bangor Daily News:
Legislative leaders spike most bill proposals for second session