Tuesday's debate in the House Health and Human Service Committee over House Bill 1058 suggests that some South Dakota lawmakers spend more time listening to the uninformed paranoia of constituent e-mails than (a) reading what the bills before them actually say or (b) trying to apply their purported ideological principles consistently
House Bill 1058 is the South Dakota Department of Health's effort to update South Dakota's statutes on managing and preventing disease outbreaks. Much of the bill clears out 1950s/1960s-era language focusing on tuberculosis and makes clear that the Department's epidemic-fighting authority applies to communicable diseases like Ebola and virulent agents weaponized for bioterrorism.
Deputy Secretary of Health Tom Martinec did a good job of explaining in committee Tuesday (listen to his testimony beginning just after timestamp 16:08) what HB 1058 does and what it does not do. Among the does-not-dos:
- HB 1058 does not make it a crime to have a communicable disease.
- HB 1058 does not make it a crime to expose others to a communicable disease; current statute already does that. Section 4 of HB 1058 preserves that language.
- HB 1058 does not give the state the authority to force vaccinations; SDCL 34-22-6 outlaws forced vaccination. Section 15 of HB 1058 requires folks suspected of carrying Category I diseases or diseases declared a public health emergency to get diagnosis and treatment. Section 15 does not order preventive measures like vaccines.
- HB 1058 does not force South Dakotans to submit to a specific government mandated treatment; Section 16 preserves language on the books since 1963 protecting individuals' right to seek diagnosis and treatment from their own doctors.
From my own reading of HB 1058, I add the following observations of things HB 1058 does not do:
- HB 1058 does not give the Department of Health new quarantine powers. SDCL 34-22-1 already empowers the Department of Health to essentially close the state's borders to stop any communicable disease and detain any person carrying a disease threat across our borders. SDCL 34-22-9 already authorizes the Department of Health to "Prescribe methods and procedures for the control of communicable disease patients and carriers," which clause is not qualified with any restriction on quarantine. Sections 2 and 7 of HB 1058 simply clarify existing quarantine power.
- HB 1058 does not preserve three 1963 statutes (SDCL 34-22-7, -37, and -40) that required the state to pay for tuberculosis treatments. I understand the policy distinction here: in 1963, the state was declaring war on tuberculosis, committing to eradicating the chronic public health threat, while HB 1058 makes clear the authority of the Department of Health to confront new and evolving public health threats. But I do find it a bit odd that HB 1058 does not make explicit our willingness as a community to bear the cost of implementing our own epidemic control procedures... especially when this same state government refuses expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act to help tens of thousands more South Dakotans be able to afford the kind of diagnosis and treatment the state might mandate.
- Perhaps most importantly, HB 1058 does not appear to reduce any due process rights available under current law. Section 33 makes explicit the procedure the Department of Health can already follow to obtain a court order to enforce quarantines and other public health interventions. As Deputy Secretary Martinec explained in committee, a public health intervention order states that individuals have a statutory right to contest the order in court.
Contrary to the clear text of HB 1058 and the clear explanation from Deputy Secretary Martinec, a clump of conservative Republican legislators lobbed a jumble of unfounded fears and ill-formed anti-government rhetoric at this public health measure. Newly elected Rep. Steven Haugaard (R-10/Sioux Falls) asserted that the bill seems to expedite the due process of individuals, despite the absence of any language in the bill changing whatever due process surrounds court orders on quarantines or other measures. Rep. Haugaard fretted over the prospect that HB 1058 could expand to include flu (even though he himself acknowledged flu is a not a Category I disease subject to the bill text before the committee), but then fretted that flu is killing more people in South Dakota than the Ebola that motivated HB 1058.
Rep. Haugaard and Rep. Steve Hickey (R-9/Sioux Falls) both complained that HB 1058 was like the overreach of authority that government committed following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, yet neither legislator proposed an amendment to repeal the public health emergency law passed overwhelmingly by the South Dakota Legislature in 2002 that gives the Department of Health some of the "overreach" power it can use with or without HB 1058.
Rep. Haugaard offered as his legislating principle a sort of arch-conservative shadow-of-a-doubt standard: he said that if anything about a bill gives legislators pause—and he noted that even the supporters of HB 1058 expressed concern about protecting individual liberties—then we should vote the bill down. Rep. Haugaard evidently wasn't paying attention in 2012, when one of the main Republican arguments defending the education reform bill that raised numerous doubts about was that we couldn't just do nothing, that we had to try some sort of change and see if it worked.
Rep. Haugaard even asserts that the Ebola epidemic in Africa was overblown. The only reason the concern may look overblown now is that African countries took steps at least as drastic as the provision of South Dakota law clarified by HB 1059 to stop Ebola in its tracks.
Rep. Lana Greenfield (R-2/Doland) said that making people take their temperature twice a day and putting them in a holding tank seems extreme to her. She said she'd rather be stoned in the town square. Baffled as to how to respond to that nuttiness, Deputy Secretary Martinec thanks Rep. Greenfield for her comment, said he "would respectfully disagree," and characterized HB 1058 as a reasonable and judicious effort to balance individual freedom with protection of the public.
Of all people, committee chair Rep. Scott Munsterman (R-7/Brookings) closed the discussion of HB 1058 with one of the most sensible comments on rights: "Think about the masses who also have the liberty to be disease free and not be exposed."
Rep. Munsterman's sentiment, a Republican embrace of the general welfare over extreme individual liberties, won the day, leading an 8–5 vote to send HB 1058 to the House floor. The bill has been deferred, as the Department of Health, far from plotting an authoritarian takeover, is working on clarifications to address the concerns it has heard.
Frankly, the only amendment it appears we need is a provision to quarantine radical conservatives from infecting the Legislature and threatening public health with their ideological nuttiness and blindness to the text on the page.
Lots of emails on this bill... All saying slow down, don't give license to a health dept to decide what constitutes a contagious disease. People are frustrated Obama didn't shut down travel from these countries but South Dakotans now lose more freedoms. There is concern we are seeing the militarization of law enforcement, an ease of civil forfeiture and now maybe their kids won't get to come home from school because someone at school has a fever. People are concerned our govt continues to use and even manufacture crises as opportunities to take away more freedoms. To me this bill is as reactionary to Ebola as was the sentinel bill to school safety.
It seems the right wing (most of the legislature) is concerned about the individual crackpots rights in this state, what about my right to not be infected by one of these idiots?
How can wingnuts be ascared of their own makings? The election is over,they don't need to frighten uninformed voters for at least two years,do they?
http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/why-an-ebola-flight-ban-wouldnt-work/
There are no direct flights to or from Africa to America. Typical over-reating/fear mongering by wingnuts for political purposes and political purposes only!!
What about the people that don't get vaccinated such as Measles and whooping cough? What about the elderly, those undergoing chemotherapy and others with compromised immune systems that are exposed to these people as potential carriers that refuse to get vaccinated.
Who ends up paying for medical services when these people with measles go to the emergency room and need medical care?
I agree with Tim Rev. Hickey. If people want to play Russian roulette with their kids there's not much I can do. But what about my kids?
There are no freedoms being lost here.
I don't know what freedoms that Hickey is talking about that are being lost, either, Owen.
Steve, if not the dept. of health, who should determine what is a contagious disease?
Rep. Hickey, this is an instance where you may need to tell all your e-mailers to chill the heck out and look at science and public health. This bill doesn't give "license" to the Department of Health to decide what is a contagious disease. Science does that. The Department of Health already has the authority to decide which diseases are Category I and Category II, right? The Department already has the authority to declare a public health emergency, right? If your e-mailers have any beef, the contents of this bill constitute at most a minor increase in the threat to their "liberty" already posed by current statute. Are you and your naysaying colleagues planning a hoghouse to strip the Department of Health of all of its existing authority to quarantine and otherwise tackle epidemics?
Rev. Hickey, I had a classmate who died from the complications of having polio. Before she died, she attended school by wearing those heavy metal full length leg braces. The polio vaccine came too late for her.
My concern is that children are at the mercy of their parents. When parents for whatever reasons decides to not have their children receive vaccines, it is the children who will pay the price if the disease causes a temporary illness, or permanent disabilities. When a child has permanent disability as a result of diseases like the measles, that individual will have lost a lot of freedom for the rest of her/his life, not the parents.
Children with allergies, or are sensitive to the ingredients of the vaccine, should not receive them. When that happens, other precautions need to be made including making sure that they are not exposed to others who have the disease. That includes trying to reduce the spread of the disease by vaccinating children and adults who might be a part of that child's life.
My question to you, is what is the solution, or what should be done when there is an outbreak of diseases like the measles?
I had diphtheria in the mid-fifties(as a 2 year old) and my family was quarantined for sometime. My ex FIL's father died of Tuberculosis in the early 80's and my family was quarantined and tested for TB. I absolutely hate the thought that someone's religion trumps public health when there are contagious diseases roaming around. But then we have wingnuts standing up to intrusive gubmint just so these communicable diseases are never wiped out.
Mr. Jim, science as interpreted by the legislatures determines what is a disease that can be caught by others. It is the only way, otherwise the Health Department will be circling around in black SUVs pointing listening devices at all of our houses. They may already be.
omg, you poor bastardos
Mr. kurtz, it is clear that you are not in the truth and are morally corrupt and under the influence of Satan. I think that's why I like you so good.
Damn you Kurtz, I thought I was the one that was " morally corrupt and under the influence of Satan." May the force be with you Grudz.
The Blindman
Its the coservitives idea of paying forward. Stop all abortions, but make it as easy as you can to kill thousands after birth keeping the population under control through epidemics. Now thats proven science.
it looks like Rev. Steve is pro death. I'm just saying.
The Blindman
Bill, it just breaks my heart to witness Cory typing his fingers to the bone helplessly hoping himself from a bad dream only to trip at the sound of goodbye. Confusion has its cost.
So, let me get this thinking straight:
American citizens, living in relatively disease free areas, declining to be vaccinated = BAD
Illegal immigrants violate our laws by coming here illegally, violate immigration requirements to get the same vaccines and come here illegally bringing said diseases that infect those Americans= OK
Want to bet this isn't the type of "leadership" on the issues the voters are interested in?
Statehood for...oh, you know the rest.
Nice Steven Stills quote Larry. :-)
BF: love the one you're with, for what it's worth. Go see Boyhood.
Statehood for Ukraine?
actually Mexican children are immunized.
http://www.vaccinationnews.org/DailyNews/December2002/MexicoMore22.htm
DD they are both = BAD
Remember, folks, HB 1058 has nothing to do with vaccinations.
Rep. Hickey, thinking further about your comment: the comparison to the school gunslinger bill is interesting but flawed.
(1) The school gunslinger bill came from reactionary lawmakers looking to wedge our schools open to weapons as part of the NRA Second Amendment agenda. HB 1058 is a department bill from a government agency seeking to clarify its public health procedures. The only people carrying an "agenda" appear to be opponents who are voting against reasonable state-level public health precautions in order to grandstand against Obama and federal policies.
(2) The school gunslinger bill was a foolish reaction to school shootings with a plan that makes schools more dangerous with armed civilians. HB 1058 is a logical reaction to the Ebola crisis by a state agency that realized our state statutes required clarification to ensure the agency could carry out its proper duties to keep South Dakota safe from disease outbreaks.
(3) The school gunslingers (if anyone were foolish enough to implement them) are an entirely new program, representing a grave new infringement of my right as a parent to send my child to a violence-free educational environment. HB 1058 is a clarification of existing authority, creating little to no additional infringement on individual liberty. Most if not all of what I heard committee members complaining about in HB 1058 can already happen under existing statute.
Owen, you may want to take a look at World Health site data that show the people coming here illegally, mainly workplace age adults, for the most part were not vaccinated. Good news for future illegal immigration problems though..
Boyhood. Just watched it last night with Suzie on the appleTV thing (iTunes). Quite the concept. Wonderfully realized. Hard to believe they actually pulled it off.
This pandemic bill is reactionary like the sentinel bill. It doesn't come from our dept of health. It comes from the Obama adminstration. They have a far bigger agenda than the NRA and personal freedoms aren't a high priority on that agenda. The bill removes appellate steps because we don't have 3 days with Ebola to react. It allows the dept of health to elevate any category 2 disease to a category one just because they say so. Imagine if they did that with AIDS. I asked in committee for them to narrow this to Ebola only instead of any potentially infectious disease. They saw it limped out of committee and had poor chances of meeting the 2/3 requirement on the House floor. So they took a few days and are narrowing it some to alleviate the general concerns. Rep. Haugaard is a lawyer and he might have more to say about these expansions on the House floor.
I'm not reading the bill as increasing the Department of Health's power. Actually, just the opposite.
Section 11 of the bill actually reduces the Department of Health's mandate under the law. Instead of making enforcement a "duty" it simply "authorizes" the Department to provide for enforcement. Thus, it provides a bit more discretion and flexibility in enforcement depending of conditions at the time. That seems, actually, to be what Rep. Hickey wants, so I can't understand the opposition.
There's a man with a gun over there.
Step out of line, the man come and take you away.
In Greece, "The Left's Time Has Come". Damn, I like to read those words. Austerity is such a failure that cannot work on any continent.
So now blocking state Department of Health authority to fight disease outbreaks is a way to stick it to Obama. Uff da.
Rep. Hickey, please show me the line of this statute that removes the appellate steps to which you refer.
Also, please show me the line that gives the DOH new authority to move diseases from Category II to Category I.
Hey, two-thirds vote? Where's the tax increase that triggers the 2/3 vote requirement? Or is there something else that requires that supermajority on HB 1058?
In the miraculous appearance of Ebola in the State of South Dakota, where would that person be treated here? Last I heard, there was no place to go in South Dakota. In Mali, West Africa, think Timbuktu, they have gotten it under control now as the last infected person there was declared free on December 15 thanks to flights that came from the United States, Europe and China with the personnel and equipment needed to fight this outbreak. All of this leads to one question for me, why are conservatives such bed wetters?
Military madness
Is killing your country
So much sadness
Between you and me.
War, war, war
War, war, war
...
But every junkie's like a setting sun.
I think what we've got on this bill are people who don't know how to read a bill just making stuff up, scaring people who are rather gullible, and providing them email addresses. Hickey actually voted for the bill in committee. The same set of five voted against this bill present right before it. My guess is there are a bunch of rather gutless legislators who can't think for themselves. You have to wonder how those guys get elected. I suppose by leasing out their brains to whatever minder is orchestrating the emails.
Republicans are amazing, truly they are.
While they sit around at their tinfoil hat conventions promoting faux fears about President Obama usurping their rights and liberties, they neglect to discuss Republican President George Bush who is actually responsible for the greatest invasion of privacy and Free Speech with his Patriot Act, that affects every American.
If Hickey and other Republicans are so fearful of government taking their rights away, they would launch state legislation attacking the Patriot Act.
If the Republicans can continually pass or try to pass legislation challenging Roe vs Wade, they could spend the next 40 years trying to overturn the Patriot Act.
Larry, is it the people who drafted this proposed bill, and those who sponsored it are the ones that you are PO'd at?
Cory, I believe this bill has an emergency clause. Thus the need for 2/3 vote. Surprised they don't simply drop the emergency clause and push it through.
Hickey, do you have top secret information on Obama's 'agenda' that you're not tellin' us? Come on, Hickey, you rascal, don't keep us in the dark. Don't the good people that voted for you have a right to know?
I did not know that the national Department of Health could force any state legislative body to address the issue.
Ken, that's the one. Thanks!
For what its worth-ain't there a Buffalo and a Springfield in South Dakota?
Jeni, I'm not POed at any one legislator just at the hypocrisy of banning travel to black Africa while pooh-poohing a white measles epidemic. New Mexico immunizes fewer people than SD does.
"the comparison to the school gunslinger bill is interesting but flawed."
I agree Cory. The sentinel bill is about protecting rights, HB 1058 is about taking them away. Now prove my point regarding your totalitarian agenda by deleting this comment too.
If I had ever been here before on another time around the wheel
I would probably know just how to deal
With all of you
And I feel
Like I've been here before
We have all been here before, we have all been here before
We have all been here before, we have all been here before
We have all been here before, we have all been here before
Jenny, here is some secret info from one who worked in naval intelligence:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_6?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=behold+a+pale+horse&sprefix=behold%2Cstripbooks%2C407
Jenny, when you get done with that research, check out the whistle blowing of a former British intelligence officer:
http://www.amazon.com/Conspirators-Hierarchy-Committee-300/dp/0963401947/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1422283121&sr=1-1&keywords=john+coleman
"If Hickey and other Republicans are so fearful of government taking their rights away, they would launch state legislation attacking the Patriot Act."
Roger, great idea. The problem is that there are not enough conservatives in Pierre or DC to pull it off.
I thought I met a man who said
He knew a man who knew what was going on
I was mistaken, only another stranger that I knew
And I thought that I'd found the light
To guide me through my nights and all this darkness
I was mistaken, only reflections of a shadow that I saw
And I thought I've seen someone
Who seemed at last to know the truth
I was mistaken, only a child laughing in the sun, in the sun
Sibby, question for you. Are the sources you linked to above what put you on your current path? Or has your current path just recently led you to those sources? What's your developmental chronology here? Just curious. That's some pretty New Agey stuff. Just sayin'. JFK killed by alien technology? Muslim Brotherhood folks are Masons... Holy moly!
Sibby, are you working for the govt?
Bill, my research lead me to these sources. In fact Coleman made a claim that counters what I gathered from another source.
Former intelligence officers, one British and the other America and both written in the early nineties, makes for more than just conspiracy theorists. Both admit when they take what they know, and at times, then wonder what that means. So one still needs to do some vetting. Coleman does include "fundamentalists Christians" as a problem. If he means people like Hickey, then I have to agree. As you say, pretty New Agey.
"JFK killed by alien technology?"
Not what they are saying. Both say JFK assassination was an inside job, and the British guy says that the call was from Europe. The naval officer claims JFK was shot because he was going to expose the alien stuff to Americans. I am not saying any of it is true. Still comparing their claims against Biblical prophecy, and other researchers.
A common theme from these two collaborate what I read before about illegal drugs. It is controlled by the crony capitalists at a global level of hierarchy. It is am important method of accumulating huge amounts of wealth. And I believe legalization will not happen until the crony capitalists maintain that control via government regulations.
The issue that ties to the subject of this thread is their claims regarding future plans on population control. The goal is the exact opposite of what those promoting HB1058 are claiming...saving life. Not saying those promoting HB 1058 are guilty. They are simply useful tools with good intentions.
Santa Claus
SaniFlush
Drano
Thanks for the explanation, Sibby.
Sibson, call 1-800-NUT-CASE, they can help you.
Donald Pay
2015.01.25 AT 22:13
" I suppose by leasing out their brains to whatever minder is orchestrating the emails."
I like that Don. Not to legislators, Somebody check their brain. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SBcADQziQWY
The Blindman
Right Roger, we should be paying no attention to whistle blowers.
Sibson, I don't have a problem with whistleblowers, I have a problem with faux fear freak shows.
"I have a problem with faux fear freak shows."
Like global warming? Like, we are all going to die from Ebola?
I can see by your coat, my friend
You're from the other side
There's just one thing I got to know
Can you tell me please, who won the war?
http://www.revealnews.org/article/are-child-care-records-online-in-your-state/
Global warming? Hey, the Republican lead senate voted last week (98-0, I believe) that global warming is real, gotta believe those conservatives, right Sibson.
Ebola fears have been debunked since the outbreak a couple of months ago, FOX Not News Anymore and other conservatives tried to use it to scare the hell out of Americans and link it somehow to President Obama, it simply didn't work then and Sibson can't make it work now.
Roger, you seem to forget that there is a difference between the liberal Republican Establishment and us conservatives. Look at the roads and bridges crisis they fabricated here in South Dakota. All to justify their liberal tax and spend policies.
And there is one big similarity between the Communist News Network and Faux News...propaganda designed to deceive.
Yeah, Roger: we don't need no stinking gubmint cause Jesus on the main line.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2FrFBceLuY
sibson=conservative republican
"liberal Republican Establishment", now there's the oxymoron for the day.
Kurtz, whether it fistfights or music theres better inebriate to then CSN and sometimes Y. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=J2T0RpkyqUU
Fond memories of the Back Porch, and two pretty girls providing two of the three part harmony for me and George.
The Blindman
Thanks Larry for the Jesus on the Mainline clip.
Do you think Sibson will understand it?
Ha! I was just playing that tune the other day, Bill D. Playing around it, actually. Exploring an extreme (for me) variant on Palmer Modal Tuning. (EEEEBE). Talk about making a guitar play itself! There's almost nothing you can do that doesn't sound good (as long as you do it at least twice. LOL)
Not to smart about alternative tunings, but I have played GGGGGD. From the youtube EEEEBE on a twelve string is prety cool. It takes me three hrs to tune a twelve string. I love to play em but hate to tune em.
The Blindman
yup, 12 string is a beotch. but with a brass slide in those tunings....
"maybe the beach boys have gotchu now, with those waves singin 'Caroline'".
What is truth? and do we want our Gov't to have more control? I personally know 2 MD's whose children were atutistic after vaccines...hmmm? Changed my life and changed theirs. Now we want to give the keys to our Gov't? What about GMO's- nothing being done there. How about the new CAFO coming to SD..YOU LIKE that? How about the Gov't passing Ag Gag laws to the animals can be legally abused? We really want more Gov't intrusion? It is time for a "Convention of States" join us on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/conventionofstates?fref=photo
http://www.healthfreedoms.org/five-year-old-girl-dies-of-very-same-flu-strain-she-was-vaccinated-against/
http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/vaccinated-spreading-measles-who-merck-cdc-documents-confirms
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/07/30/whooping-cough-vaccine.aspx
Kim's general freak-out gives all the reason we need not to open up the Constitution to immolation at an Article V Convention.