House Insurance Committee adopts substitute for bill altering workers’ comp dismissal rules; passes 9-2

The House Committee on Insurance, chaired by Chairman Deal, moved into executive session and on a set of amendments adopted a new committee substitute for House Bill 4 97 before voting the substitute do pass by a 9 to 2 margin. Chairman Deal opened the executive session and offered the motion for a do-pass vote.

Committee members discussed a committee substitute originally presented by Representative Chris, who was absent; Chairman Deal explained the changes on his behalf, saying, “This this allows for basically dismissals on workman's comp on additional grounds. It changes some language that we had some concerns with the fiscal note. It changes that term and not and it doesn't require a full hearing for every dismissal. So we believe he's in believing that that will lower the fiscal note.”

The committee approved an amendment to the bill (amendment ending in point LR 0.01), adopted a house committee amendment and then rolled those into a new house committee substitute. After the substitute was adopted, the clerk called the roll for the do-pass motion. The committee recorded a final vote of 9 to 2 in favor of the house committee substitute for House Bill 4 97.

The committee did not take additional public testimony on this item during the executive action reported in the transcript. No outside witnesses were recorded for this motion in the portions of the transcript covering the executive session.

The committee moved on to other agenda items after the vote.

Votes at a glance: House Committee substitute for House Bill 4 97 — Passed, 9 yes, 2 no.

Notes: The transcript records the sponsor's intent as described by Chairman Deal (above). The committee indicated the substitution and amendment process aimed to address language that members believed would reduce the bill's fiscal note; no new fiscal-note figures were stated in the transcript.