With the 2021 coming to an end, it is time to look back on our year and dive into the top 10 most read bills on BillTrack50 of 2021. From marijuana to vaccinations to COVID to gun control to standardized tests, this year has proved to be an interesting, wild ride.
#1 & 2: NJ Homegrown Marijuana Legalization
Coming in at spots one (read 93,433 times) and two (read 92,228 times) S3582 and A5552 aimed to make it legal for someone 21 or older to grow and possess certain amounts of marijuana for personal use. Proposed in March and May, these bills never made it out committee. The legislation would have cleaned up state homegrow policy seen by many as contradictory compared to other states that have legalized marijuana. If passed, the legislation would allow people over the age of 21 to grow up to six pot plants for recreational use or up to 10 plants for medical use at home, something not currently permitted under the New Jersey's recreational-use laws. A single household would not be permitted to have more than 12 plants.
Penalties for homegrown marijuana remain severe, even after the state legalized recreational marijuana on February 22 of this year. Governor Phil Murphy signed three pieces of legislation: A21, The New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory, Enforcement Assistance, and Marketplace Modernization Act, legalizing and regulating cannabis use and possession for adults 21 and older, A1897 - decriminalizing marijuana and hashish possession, and S3454 - clarifying marijuana and cannabis use and possession penalties for individuals younger than 21. Currently, if a resident grows 10 or more pot plants within their home, they can receive between 10 and 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $150,000.
Assemblyman Houghtaling had this to say about the legislation, “There is an issue at hand when we legalize marijuana, yet we punish individuals for growing it in their own home. As the law stands currently, growing even one plant can result in a first-degree crime punishable by 10 to 20 years in prison. This legislation will allow individuals the access to grow up to six plants for recreational use and 10 plants for medical use in their own home without the threat of going to prison.”
#3: Minor Consent For Vaccinations Amendment Act Of 2019
The third most read bill (53,944 times) this year was DC B23-0171, the Minor Consent For Vaccinations Amendment Act Of 2019. Over the last few years, a legislative trend of states allowing minors to get vaccinated and receive medical treatment without parental consent has emerged.
Some states have enacted legislation to allow minors to choose to get vaccinated against sexually transmitted diseases, like the human papillomavirus and hepatitis B. Eighteen states (Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Washington, and West Virginia) allow for “mature minors” to independently consent to vaccinations without parental approval. A “mature minor” is defined as “Any teenager who can demonstrate competence to consent to or refuse treatment. In the common law, a teenager who demonstrates adequate maturity may choose or reject some forms of care, including contraceptive and pregnancy care, mental health and chemical dependency consultations, and treatments for sexually transmitted diseases. In these instances the consent of the parent or guardian is not necessarily needed.”
The “Minor Consent for Vaccinations Amendment Act” would allow children 11 and older in DC to decide if they want to be vaccinated. Doctors would be required to ensure each child is “capable of meeting the informed consent standard.” To assist in this, the Department of Health would provide age-appropriate information about vaccines. Informed consent is the “communication between a patient and physician which results in the patient’s authorization or agreement to undergo a specific medical intervention.” Basically, it is ensuring that a patient understands medical procedures and treatments, the side effects, and knowing this, consents to the treatment.
Under the legislation, if a doctor determines a minor is capable of informed consent, they would be able to seek vaccinations recommended by the United States Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices even if the minor’s parents object to vaccinations on religious grounds. The bill also requires the doctor send the vaccination record in such cases to the child’s school, rather than to the parents. Doctors must seek compensation for the vaccinations directly from the insurance company without involving the parents.
For an in depth look at the legislation and how a bill becomes a law in DC, check out this blog post from earlier in the year.
#4: Gun Violence Prevention and Community Safety Act of 2020
Coming in at number for, the Gun Violence Prevention and Community Safety Act of 2020 was read 43,860 times this year. Proposed in January of 2020, the bill never made it out of committee and died. US HR5717's intent is “to end the epidemic of gun violence and build safer communities by strengthening federal firearms laws and supporting gun violence research, intervention, and prevention initiatives.”
The bill aimed to:
- Create a federal gun licensing system and require a federal or state-issued firearms license to purchase or own a gun. A grant grant program would be created to help states set up their own enforcement systems.
- Require universal background checks, close legal loopholes allowing individuals to sidestep background check requirements, and require background check denials to be reported to law enforcement.
- Establish Extreme Risk Protection Order Systems to keep guns out of the hands of individuals who present safety risks from buying guns.
- Establish a 7-day waiting period for the purchase of all guns.
- Ban military-style assault weapons, lethal gun accessories, and untraceable and undetectable firearms.
- Ban bulk gun purchases and establish a new law to specifically ban gun trafficking.
- Strengthen the ATF's authority to inspect gun shops and enhance record-keeping requirements for gun dealers.
- Authorize the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to address safety defects in firearms and firearm accessories, raise the excise tax on gun sales to 30% and ammunition sales to 50%, and state that gun manufacturers can be held liable for civil penalties for the harms their guns cause.
- Provide $100 million in annual funding for federal research into gun violence and create a new grant program to provide $100 million per year for gun violence intervention programs.
#5: Sabika Sheikh Firearm Licensing and Registration Act
US HR127, or the Sabika Sheikh Firearm Licensing and Registration Act, was proposed in January of 2021 and has been read 22,862 times this year. This bill, which is still in committee, aims to create a national firearm registry, set a minimum gun ownership age at 21, and require licensing and psychological evaluations.
Named for an exchange student from Pakistan killed in a 2018 school shooting in Texas, the bill would require gun owners complete a government training course, have a clean record, and register their firearms with the federal government. Under the bill, gun owners (except for law enforcement and specified security personnel) would be required to pay firearm insurance and would be banned from using ammunition of .50 caliber or greater.
The bill would also require gun owners to have a psychological evaluation. The bill states, "The Attorney General may deny such a license to an individual if— (i) the psychological evaluation indicates that the individual has a chronic mental illness or disturbance, or a brain disease (including dementia or Alzheimer’s), is addicted to a controlled substance (within the meaning of the Controlled Substances Act) or alcohol, has attempted to commit suicide, or prior psychological treatment or evaluation of the individual indicated that the individual engaged in conduct that posed a danger to self or others." The psychological evaluation process mandated in the bill would also take into account the psychological condition of other members of the licensee’s household, current and former spouses, relatives and associates.
The U.S. attorney general would be given jurisdiction over licensing through the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. The licensure registry information would be made available to law enforcement from the local to the federal level as well as the U.S. military.
#6: The Mississippi Medical Cannabis Act
The Mississippi Medical Cannabis Act, or MS SB2765, was read 14,217 times last year. SB2765 was originally proposed as a legislative alternative to the medical marijuana program voters overwhelmingly (73.7% voting Yes) approved in the November 2020 election with Ballot Initiative 65.
The bill was introduced in January, passed the Senate after a “do-over” vote in mid-February, but ultimately died in March of this year. SB2765 would have implemented two taxes on medical marijuana: a 4 percent excise tax at cultivation and a 7 percent sales tax the patients would pay during purchase. The money earned from these taxes was slated to go to education, including early learning and college scholarships. The bill also would have imposed large ($15,000 and $5,000) licensing fees on growers and dispensary shop owners. The bill was initially drafted to create its own medical marijuana program, regardless of whether the court upholds the voter-passed program outlined in Ballot Initiative 65. The legislation was amended after a heated Senate debate to take effect only if the court struck down the voter-passed program.
The City of Madison, Mississippi Mayor, Mary Hawkins, filed a lawsuit against Initiative 65 in the Mississippi State Supreme Court before the vote on October 26, 2020. They argued the state’s initiative process is flawed and the measure was improperly brought before voters on the ballot. They tasked the court to invalidate the measure and not count any votes cast in the November 2020 election related to it. The court ruled on May 14, 2021 that the initiative was invalid because it did not comply with the signature distribution requirements in Section 273 of Article 15 of the Mississippi Constitution. Section 273 states "The signatures of the qualified electors from any congressional district shall not exceed one-fifth (1/5) of the total number of signatures required to qualify an initiative petition for placement upon the ballot." In June, paperwork was filed to challenge the Supreme Court ruling that overturned Initiative 65.
According to the Mississippi Free Press:
Since post-2000 redistricting, Mississippi’s top election officials, including current Secretary of State Michael Watson, had maintained the ballot-initiative process was still valid so long as petitioners collected signatures from each of the former five congressional districts as the lines existed in the 1990s.
But the Mississippi Supreme Court rejected the interpretation that state election officials had operated on for the past two decades, ruling Initiative 65 invalid and striking down the ability of residents to put issues on the ballot so long as there are not exactly five congressional districts. It was the second time in 99 years that the Mississippi Supreme Court had killed the ballot initiative right based on a technicality.
These articles, Mississippi's Medical Marijuana Mess and Mississippians Ask Federal Court to Restore Ballot Initiative Rights, do a great overview and discussion on what Mississippians are currently trying to accomplish.
#7: Massachusetts Essential Worker Pension Boost
MA H2808 (read 13,870 times) aims to give public employees in the state who worked in-person during the COVID-19 state of emergency a three-year bonus retirement credit. The legislation (which amassed over 100 cosponsors in the Legislature) directs the secretary of administration and finance to identify all public employees who volunteered or were required to work at job sites or outside of their homes during the state of emergency.
The bill states that a COVID -19 Essential Employee Retirement Credit Bonus should be given to identified "employees who have volunteered to work or who have been required to work at their respective worksites or any other worksite outside of their personal residence during the COVID-19 state of emergency declared by the Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on March 10, 2020 through December 31, 2020."
Rep. Jonathan Zlotnick, the bill's sponsor, had this to say during a hearing, “This was the time when these essential services were most important, the people being asked to perform them were most at risk coming into contact with members of the public and with co-workers,” Zlotnik said during the hearing. “They continued to do their jobs, often exhibiting flexibility and creativity and an effort to ensure that those needs were met. It is in recognition of that effort that we offer this bill.”
Scott Hennigan, a molecular supervisor for the State Public Health Laboratory, said this "We were the COVID response. And all staff from all laboratories in the building stepped up and came forward to go into hoods, to do the paperwork, to work with the systems, the computer systems, to get the results out the door within a 24-hour period of time."
#8: Modifies definition of "impact zones" in passed New Jersey Marijuana Legalization Legislation
NJ S3664 relates to a previously mentioned bill, A21, The New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory, Enforcement Assistance, and Marketplace Modernization Act. As a reminder, A21 legalized the recreational use of marijuana in New Jersey for adults age 21 and older.
Read 12,089 times, the bill would modify the definition of "impact zones" in the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory, Enforcement Assistance, and Marketplace Modernization Act. In addition to the definition of the term set out in A21, an "impact zone" would also include a municipality located in a county of the fifth class with a population of over 600,000 based upon the county's population according to the most recently compiled federal decennial census, in which municipalities received State urban aid. Under the A21, "impact zones" are one of the factors taken into consideration by the Cannabis Regulatory Commission in considering applications for licenses for cannabis businesses.
#9: Washington Standardized Assessments for Student Teachers
WA HB1028 would eliminate a standardized assessment for student teachers in the state. This bill, signed by the Governor in May, eliminates a standardized assessment for student teachers within the state called the edTPA — the educative Teacher Performance Assessment. Eighteen states, including Washington, require students pass edTPA before they can receive their teaching certification.
The bill focuses on adopting “evidence-based, measureable, meaningful and documented” knowledge, skill, and performance standards. Critics of edTPA the test have stated it’s expensive ($300 per test), too long, and unnecessary.
The bill gained a lot of support because a key part of the assessment requires students to film themselves teaching in a classroom, which is impossible with the virtual learning we have had to implement as a nation during the pandemic. This meant that many Washington students weren’t able to take or pass the test this past year.
A previous version of the bill would have permanently gotten rid of a state standard requiring edTPA, but the passed version only removes the requirement for all students who graduate between 2019 and 2022. The new amendment, however, means students who graduate after 2022 will again be required to take the edTPA to receive their credentials.
#10: The Michigan Informed Consent in the Workplace Act
MI HB4471, or the Michigan Informed Consent in the Workplace Act, was read 10,955 times this year. This bill, stil in committee, aimed to prohibit employers from requiring an employee to get a vaccination for flu, tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis (“TDAP"), or COVID-19 for any reason as a condition of employment. The bill also aimed to prohibit employers from treating an employee who doesn’t receive any of these vaccinations any different than those who do, including making them wear a face mask.
Under the measure, it would be illegal for employers to fire or to refuse to hire someone who refuses vaccinations or refuses to wear a mask while at work. The legislation would allow employees to sue an employer who violates this Act and collect damages.
Currently, big employers requiring vaccinations include the U.S. military, hospitals, and some major airlines. In November, a U.S. federal district court in Fort Worth, Texas, upheld United Airlines vaccination policy. The policy they put in place requires workers to have the COVID-19 vaccination or be placed on unpaid leave, even if they have a medical or religious exemption.
House Democratic Leader Donna Lasinski had this to say, “Getting shots in arms has given our economy a shot in the arm, and House Democrats stand with the business community in opposing taking away the ability for a business to do what it needs to keep its customers and to keep its doors open. We’re used to seeing Michigan Republicans engage in cheap theatrics and political stunts to score points with the anti-vaccine crowd, but with the delta variant spreading rapidly, this bill is truly dangerous and could pave the way for another COVID surge and economic collapse, hurting small and large businesses.”
Cover Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
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