Sen. Robert Deuell‘s one-for-one anonymous needle-exchange bill (SB 188) made it out of the Senate’s Health and Human Services Committee on Tuesday with just a single vote against it. No, it wasn’t Houston GOP Sen. Dan Patrick, whose public health credentials are – err – questionable (see, for example, his Feb. 24 press conference). Instead it was newbie Sen. Joan Huffman, the Republican who took over the Dist. 17 seat vacated by Sen. Kyle Janek – who, by the way, in 2007, as a member of the committee and as a member of the whole Senate, voted in favor of needle exchange.
Despite Huffman’s ‘No,’ the bill, which the Dept. of State Health Services says could prevent as many as 100 new HIV cases each year (which in turn could save the state millions – treating the uninsured for HIV costs the state roughly $385,000 per person), the measure will now move to the entire body for consideration.
OOPS: As it turns out, Patrick did in fact turn in a proxy vote against Deuell’s bill. Sorry.
This article appears in February 27 • 2009.