House passes bill to help officers’ families
Published 5:28 pm Tuesday, March 20, 2012
House Bill 11, a bill that would provide families of fallen officers in Alabama with temporarily continued health care coverage, passed in a 91-0 vote in the House of Representatives last Wednesday.
State Rep. Kurt Wallace said he has sent Sen. Cam Ward the bill, which now has 59 co-sponsors.
Wallace said the only question posed before the vote was whether the bill would be retro-active to include families affected before the bill passes.
“I had to say ‘no.’ How far would you go?” Wallace said. “We certainly can’t afford that. We’re trying to fix things going forward.”
Wallace expects the Senate to make its decision the week after next.
Another bill Wallace is pushing for approval is one that would restrict registered sex offenders from living in the same residence unless it qualifies as a treatment facility with supervised care.
Wallace began work on the bill after 23 people convicted of sex crimes were released to the same address in Clanton in less than two years.
Wallace said his committee overwhelmingly passed the bill and he hopes to have it up on the floor Thursday.