ASUI”s medical amnesty bill may soon be finalized after it was sent to Gov. C. L. “Butch” Otter”s desk earlier this week.
The bill would grant legal protection to underage drinkers in the case of a medical emergency. ASUI Lobbyist Nate Fisher said after the bill passed in the Idaho House of Representatives March 7, it made its way through the Idaho Senate.
“Our Senate sponsor was Patti Anne Lodge, who is Chair of the Judiciary and Rules Committee on the Senate side, which is huge,” Fisher said. “She”s a big advocate to have especially with this bill going through her committee.”
With the support from Sen. Lodge, Fisher said the bill was passed unanimously in the Senate Judiciary and Rules Committee Mar. 11.
On the Senate floor, the bill was amended to include a three-year sunset clause, which means the bill will expire after three years.
“So in three years they”ll have to bring it up again, but that (sunset clause) was just added out of concern that medical amnesty would raise the drinking rate among those under 21,” said ASUI Director of Policy Nick Wren. “So they”ll have to reexamine it in three years.”
Wren said the amended bill was passed Tuesday by the Senate. Now Otter will choose to either sign or veto the legislation.
Fisher said even with the sunset clause, if the legislation is passed it will give them the opportunity to evaluate how the policy affects the state. He said he predicts that if the bill is finalized, the sunset clause will be struck out when it is revisited in three years and medical amnesty will be on the books as an Idaho law indefinitely.
“Thirty-two other states now have passed these types of laws, and none of them have heard of considerable issues,” Fisher said. “The sunset clause was just kind of a safeguard to address the concerns of some senators. I consider this a huge success.”
Wren said the legislation will be on the governor”s desk this week and should be decided upon within the next five business days. He said this move forward with medical amnesty has been rewarding since he, Fisher and many other UI students have worked hard to ratify the bill.
“As far as we can tell this is the first time that at least ASUI has tried to pass a bill purely through ASUI,” Wren said. “In years past we”ve had a lobbyist but they have primarily helped with getting more scholarship funding and getting more funding for UI, which is obviously something that UI also lobbies for. So this is the first year we”ve done something by ourselves and struck out on our own.”
Fisher said he has high hopes Otter will sign the bill because of the overwhelming support they have already received for the legislation.
“We”ve had very little pushback on this and even when we did we were willing to change it to address concerns of some of these policymakers,” Fisher said. “It shows our ability to be compromising and use of collaboration on this bill.”
Wren said he is fairly certain the governor is in support of the bill and Vandals will see medical amnesty become a reality.
“Every indication I”ve gotten so far has said we”re home free,” Wren said.
Jessica Gee can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @JessicaC_Gee