August has been the most explosive month yet. From tensions running high with North Korea to the transgender military ban to Charlottesville to white house employees leaving to the first presidential pardon under Trump – it feels as though this month has had to have been at least six! The trending legislation this month reflects a lot of these situations, along with other important events happening in the states.
NJ A5073 – Deaf Student’s Bill of Rights – This bill aims to require school districts to recognize the rights of students who are deaf, hard of hearing, and deaf-blind and provide them access to different services and aids.
- Appropriate screening and assessment of hearing and vision capabilities and communication and language needs and the continuation of screening services
- Individualized and appropriate early intervention to support the acquisition of solid language bases
- Information for the families of students on placement considerations and available educational options
- Opportunity to meet and associate with adult role models who are deaf, hard of hearing, or deaf-blind and to meet and associate with their peers in the school environment and during school-sponsored activities
- The right to have a communication plan in the student’s Individualized Education Program or 504 plan, as applicable
- Mental health services and supporting services from qualified providers fluent in American Sign Language
US S200 – Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act of 2017 – “First-use nuclear strike” means a nuclear weapons attack against an enemy that is conducted without the President determining that the enemy has first launched a nuclear strike against the United States or a U.S. ally. This bill aims to prohibit the President from using the Armed Forces to conduct a first-use nuclear strike alone. The strike would have to be conducted pursuant to a congressional declaration of war expressly authorizing a nuclear strike before the strike order could be made. For more information on Nuclear First Strike Policy, read this post.
AL SB60 – Memorial Preservation Act – This bill aims to prohibit the relocation, removal, alteration, renaming or any other disturbance of monuments located on public property that have been in place for 20 or more years. The bill also puts forth mechanisms for the relocation, removal, alteration, renaming, or other disturbance of monuments and the renaming of certain memorial streets, architecturally significant buildings and memorial buildings. Finally, the bill creates the Committee on Alabama Monument Protection to oversee all of the proceedings involving monuments. These types of bills have been proposed throughout the last few years and have recently gained national attention from the events in Charlottesville earlier this month. For an opinion piece from SarahEvelynn about these events and more legislation surrounding Charlottesville, read this post.
RI H5690 – Applicability Of Traffic Regulations – This bill aims to provide that a person driving an automobile who is exercising “due care” and injures another person who is participating in a protest or demonstration and is blocking traffic in a public right-of-way shall be immune from civil liability for such injury. Many other bills like this have been proposed since the Standing Rock Protests in 2016. For more information about protests, read this post. There is also more about these laws that aim to protect drivers from hitting protesters in the opinion piece on Charlottesville due to the death of protester Heather Heyer. For more information on protesting from this year, read this post.
NM SB239 – Making Mountain Daylight the permanent New Mexico time – We’ve been seeing a few other bills similar to this one in Texas, California, Colorado, and Michigan. These bills have been proposed as a response to studies showing that changing the time zones every spring and fall is actually super bad for your health and also leads to decreased productivity.
NY A04050 – Authorizes the department of motor vehicles to issue limited purpose drivers’ licenses – This bill aims to authorize the issuance of limited purpose drivers’ licenses where an applicant would not be required to establish legal presence in the United States at the time of application. It also states that these types of licenses may be used as legal identification. These types of laws are proposed to help immigrants have a form of legal, accepted identification. For more information on the DREAM Act which made news this month for the DACA Day of Action, read this post.
RI H5343 – Reproductive Health Care Act – this bill aims to prohibit the state from interfering with a woman’s decision to prevent, commence, continue, or terminate a pregnancy prior to fetal viability. It also aims to prevent the state from restricting the use of “medically recognized” methods of contraception or abortion and the manner in which medically recognized methods of contraception or abortion are provided. For more information about bills relating to abortion this year read this post or this post.
MO SB43 – Modify the law relating to unlawful discrimination -This bill covers and defines interesting aspects of discrimination. First, it brings in the factor of age and people being discriminated against in the workplace by employers requiring compulsory retirement for sixty-five-year-olds who were employed in a “bona fide” executive or high policy-making position. The bill also states that “disability” does not include “current, illegal use of or addiction to a controlled substance”, but that it could be considered if someone is participating in or has completed a supervised drug rehabilitation program and is no longer engaging in the illegal use of a controlled substance. The bill also defines “discrimination” as any unfair treatment taken because of race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, sex or age as it relates to employment, disability or familial status as it relates to housing.
US HRes30 – Condemning the Dog Meat Festival in Yulin, China – This resolution looks to reaffirm the commitment of the United States to protect animals and the progress of animal protection. This bill condemns the Dog Meat Festival in Yulin, China for four reasons:
- It is a spectacle of extreme animal cruelty
- It’s a commercial activity not grounded in Chinese history
- It is opposed by a majority of the Chinese people
- This type of event threatens global public health.
IL SB1467 – Amends the Wildlife Code – Provides that any person may use a crossbow to take any animal during the appropriate archery season. It also states that it is unlawful to use spears, gigs, hooks, poisons, chemicals, or explosives to take animals protected by the act. People are also prohibited from using any mechanical device, spade or digging device or using smoke or other gases to dislodge or remove protected mammals.
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