“The Department shall adopt regulations to implement the provisions of this section by January 1, 2015.”

As introduced, the legislation did not require that the regulations be adopted by a certain date.

Several specific prohibitions on law enforcement officials would be deleted from the bill.

Why did the lobbyist show me these changes?

I serve on the Judiciary Committee, which will decide if the amended bill gets reported to the House floor.

I am the House chair of the AELR committee, which will review the proposed regulations this fall.

Why are these changes being proposed?

The more specific the bill is, the more likely there would be a floor vote on a controversial provision.

All 188 members of the General Assembly would be on record.

By contrast, there are 20 members of the committee I chair.

Plus, any votes would take place after Election Day.

Nonetheless, what we approve – legislation or regulation, must be sound public policy.