House committee advances package including minors' immunity, special education funding and school hunting program

A House committee on Thursday advanced a package of three House bills and referred them to the House floor.

The committee called up House Bill 22‑43, House Bill 23‑07 and House Bill 24‑60 as a package and voted to send the measures on to the full House. The committee executive director described the bills in brief before the vote: HB 22‑43 would provide minors with immunity from specified offenses related to their ****** exploitation; HB 23‑07 would change requirements for the distribution of funding for extraordinary special education program expenses; and HB 24‑60 would require the GAIN Commission and the Department of Education to develop an optional hunting and trapping educational program for students in grades 6 through 12.

“We have House Bill 22‑43, which provides minors with immunity from specified offenses related to their ****** exploitation,” the committee executive director said in overview remarks. The director also summarized HB 23‑07 and HB 24‑60 before the committee considered them as a package.

During the brief floor of committee discussion, a member stated that all Republican members would vote in the affirmative, and the chair stated that all Democratic members would also vote in the affirmative. The chair then declared the package passed and ordered it referred back to the floor of the House of Representatives.

The committee did not provide a numeric roll‑call tally in the record presented; the clerk’s roll call showed members present during the meeting but did not attach individual recorded votes to the package in the transcript.

The committee adjourned after disposing of the items on its agenda.