House amends affirmative-action bill after extended debate and multiple floor amendments

Lawmakers spent a prolonged period debating House Bill 89, which would require an affirmative-action plan for state employment. Representative Milner resumed the bill's consideration and framed it as a tool to collect data on employment practices and set reasonable goals without imposing quotas.

Representative Ballantyne moved an amendment adding language that "Nothing contained in this section shall require the establishment of hiring quotas." That amendment was agreed to on the floor. Representative Bishop later proposed substitute language to delete the word "prepared" so that the affirmative-action plan would "be reviewed by the legislature before implementation"; debate over the legislative role in review culminated in a substitute amendment that passed 53–11.

Another amendment proposed to forbid "preferential treatment of any identifiable group" (including nepotism) was debated and ultimately passed by division, 42–22. Speakers across the aisle questioned whether requiring legislative review of agency plans would be practical or would force the Legislature to review many other agency plans; supporters argued that legislative review is an appropriate exercise of the body's policymaking role.

As of the end of the available transcript, the bill had been amended multiple times and noted as "further amended," and the final floor passage or defeat for H.B. 89 is not recorded in the excerpt.