(March 12, 2025) – Today, the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee held a hearing on the following bills:

• House Bill 2311 prohibits the secretary from adopting and enforcing policies for placement, custody and the appointment of a custodian that may conflict with sincerely held religious or moral beliefs regarding sexual orientation or gender identity and creating a right of action for violations

• House Bill 2365 establishes the South Central Regional Mental Health Hospital

The committee also took final action on:

• House Bill 2280 clarifies that the authorized activities of paramedics, advanced emergency medical technicians, emergency medical technicians and emergency medical responders may be authorized upon the order of a health care professional, permits certain ambulance services to offer service for less than 24 hours per day, every day of the year and requires entities using automated external defibrillators to register with the emergency medical services board.

The committee saw an amendment defining public places and private homes and added language to say only public places would need to register, added language to limit liability for entities that own AED devices and amended the bill to allow that in rural counties, the EMT or another qualified medical professional be in the back of an ambulance, but the driver wouldn't have to be.

The committee recommended the bill favorably as amended.

The committee will meet next on Thursday, March 13.