Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee advances SB 63, approves liability and damages change; several amendments fail

The Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee voted to pass Senate Bill 63 out of committee as amended after a series of proposed changes and debate about the bill's scope and constitutional risk.

The approved amendment, offered early in the session, moved the bill's effective date and revised the bill's damages provisions to list recoverable remedies in the strict‑liability section as actual and punitive damages, injunctive relief, costs of suit and attorney's fees. Jenna, committee staff and the reviser on the bill, explained the change: “the specific types of damages that a plaintiff was able to recover were not listed before. And so this lists 1 so that they will mirror the available damages to be recovered in the actions in C and D, which would be actual and punitive damages, injunctive relief, cost of suit, and attorney's fees.”

The committee also debated an amendment from Senator Petty that would have exempted licensed mental‑health providers regulated by the Behavioral Sciences Regulatory Board from professional discipline under the bill and explicitly stated that common classes of mental‑health medications…