Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 15, 1995 TAG: 9502150056
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
The Senate returned it to committee Monday on what would have been its third and final reading. Usually, such a step means a bill is dead for the session.
But that appears not to be the case this time. It's just that now that the bill has gone this far, everyone wants a piece of the action. Legislators are lining up to tack amendments onto the bill to aid institutions in their districts.
The House bill, championed by Del. Jim Shuler, D-Blacksburg, will go before the Senate Health and Education Committee again Thursday morning. A week ago, the same panel approved the bill after Shuler agreed to add two more exceptions to the state's moratorium on new nursing home construction.
Meanwhile, the Senate version of the same bill, sponsored by Sen. Malfourd "Bo" Trumbo, R-Fincastle, is still alive but awaiting consideration before a House committee.
Trumbo said Tuesday he doesn't care what happens to his bill, which apparently has been amended several times. "In all honesty, my goal is to make sure the Warm Hearth people are covered," Trumbo said. "I just want to make sure one of those bills makes it out."
The Senate returned Shuler's bill Monday at the request of Sen. Stanley Walker, D-Norfolk, a committee member who apparently will seek to add on an exception for a Norfolk-area institution.
There's also an effort afoot to amend the bill to allow a 55-bed rehabilitation hospital in Loudoun County that had been rejected earlier, Shuler said. Tacking on such amendments is called "Christmas treeing" in legislative lingo, as in adding ornament after ornament.
"It's part of the process," Shuler said. "It's just unfortunate that my bill's been picked to do that."
Already, a total of four nursing home exceptions are included in the bill, which started out with only Warm Hearth's request. Shuler and Trumbo are now maneuvering to avoid having too many other exceptions added to the bill, in fear that such added freight will result in its being killed.
Shuler said he expects the committee will remove the amendments before returning it to the full Senate by Friday. If it's approved then, Gov. George Allen would have to sign it before the Feb. 25 end of the session, Shuler said.
Aside from providing jobs for Montgomery County, the new center would meet a growing demand in the New River Valley for nursing home beds, and would save families the burden of driving to the Roanoke area or elsewhere to visit their relatives, Warm Hearth advocates have said.
State Sen. Madison Marye, D-Shawsville, has abstained from voting on the bill. In a Feb. 10 letter to Montgomery County Administrator Betty Thomas, Marye wrote that he does not oppose Warm Hearth's effort. "The facts are that I had a definite conflict of interest. I stated this to the good folks at Warm Hearth and explained that I could neither support nor oppose their position," he wrote.
Marye is an officer and director with Meadowbrook Inc., which operates nursing and retirement homes, including one in Shawsville.
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1995
by CNB