Policy Update

Tort Reform Passes Rules Committee, House Vote Set for Thursday

2/09/2005

Source: Atlanta Business Chronicle
Tort reform is one step closer to reality after a vote this morning by the House Rules Committee, which will send Senate Bill 3 to the House floor for debate and a vote tomorrow.

The committee approved four amendments to the legislation, including a provision that would increase the caps on noneconomic damages to $750,000. That is up from $250,000 in the bill approved by the Senate last week.

Other amendments approved by the committee dealt with liability in emergency rooms and the definitions of expert witnesses. Seven other amendments were brought before the committee this morning, most of them sponsored by Rep. Wendell Willard (R-Atlanta). All of them failed.

The debate became heated after Committee Chairman Earl Ehrhart (R-Powder Springs) offered House Minority Leader Dubose Porter (D-Dublin) the opportunity to defend the Democrats' amendment. "I won't move on these amendments because I think this process is flawed," Porter told Ehrhart.

Porter was upset because the committee was operating under modified structure rules, which allows the committee to decide which amendments will have an opportunity for a vote on the floor.

Ehrhart responded, insinuating that Porter was being hypocritical. "I believe you engrossed 66 bills," he said.

Engrossment, a procedure under which no amendments are allowed to a bill, was the strategy used by the Senate last week. But Porter, who has often derided the Republicans' rules as "undemocratic," said in an interview that even the Senate's process was better.

"They voted on the floor of the Senate to engross. We're not getting that in the House," he said.

The House will be able to vote individually on each of the four amendments approved by the committee today. But even if the legislation passes the House tomorrow, the process will not be finished.

The bill will likely go to a conference committee, where legislators will work out the differences between the House and Senate versions before sending the legislation to Gov. Sonny Perdue.