House committee reviews H.550 draft 3.1, narrows search and nondiscrimination language and sets reporting timeline

The House Corrections and Institutions Committee on March 12 conducted a line-by-line review of draft 3.1 of H.550, the bill that would set how the Department of Corrections treats transgender, gender-diverse and intersex individuals in intake, searches, housing, and programming.

Hillary Cheddar Ames of the Office of Legislative Counsel told the committee that version 3.1 shows internal edits in yellow and reflects some changes suggested after this morning’s testimony: "This version shows in yellow highlights internal edits from version 2.1," she said, and proposed first reviewing the new edits and then proceeding with a detailed line-by-line pass.

The draft narrows the non-discrimination and search provisions and adds several procedural safeguards. The bill, as revised in committee discussion, would make explicit that the department’s decision not to accommodate an individual’s search, classification, housing, or programming placement request "shall not be based on the anatomy, including the genitalia or other physical characteristics or diverse gender expression of the individual." Committee counsel explained the text is consolidated into a…