Inside SB 0091: Sibling Visitation

The Associated Press, via the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette carried this story yesterday about SB 0091.

From the Story:

The bill would allow children in foster care to request visits if it is in their best interests. It also would allow a special advocate to be appointed to represent the child. If the Department of Child Services denies a visit request, the child or advocate could petition a juvenile court to intervene.

…

The Indiana Department of Child Services encourages sibling visits when possible and is always looking for foster homes and adoptive parents willing to take in several children from the same family, spokeswoman Susan Tielking said.

The bill was introduced by Sen. Mike Delph (R-Carmel). 

Here is the official summary of the bill:

Foster care sibling visitation. Requires the department of child services (DCS) to promote sibling visitation for every child who receives foster care. Allows a sibling to request sibling visitation if one of the siblings is receiving foster care. Requires DCS to allow sibling visitation if it is in the best interests of the child receiving foster care. Provides that if DCS denies a request for sibling visitation, an individual may petition a juvenile court for sibling visitation. Requires a court to grant sibling visitation if the court determines sibling visitation is in the best interests of the child who receives foster care. Permits a court to appoint a guardian ad litem or a court appointed special advocate if a child requesting sibling visitation is receiving foster care. Provides that a guardian ad litem or court appointed special advocate appointed in a sibling visitation case is immune from civil liability, except for gross misconduct. (The introduced version of this bill was prepared by the interim study committee on missing children.)

Lobbying the General Assembly

With the Indiana General Assembly beginning it’s 2008 legislative session tomorrow, the Indianapolis Star has a great story about what is legal in state lobbying.  The answer, just about anything.  Lobbying firms regularly take legislators out for dinners and lunches, but what else do they do?  Turns out there is no way to tell…and it’s all perfectly legal.

However;

Sen. Mike Delph, R-Carmel, and Rep. John Day, D-Indianapolis — say it’s time for a change, and they’re pursuing legislation to that end.

Under current law, lobbyists must report making a gift of $100 or more, but they don’t have to reveal what the gift is, nor its full value.

Senate Bill 59, filed by Delph, would require reporting of all gifts given in a single day that together are worth $25 or more, or any single gift worth $25 or more.

Day wants to go even further. His legislation, House Bill 1063, would prevent legislators from taking most gifts or meals at all. Day said he would allow legislators to accept only $50 of gifts in a calendar year, enough to cover a couple of lunches or so.

But don’t hold your breath.  This is not the first time this legislation has been tried and it has never gotten a hearing.

Senate President Pro Tempore David Long, R-Fort Wayne, has assigned Delph’s bill to the Senate Rules and Legislative Procedures Committee, which Delph acknowledged in the past has been considered a “graveyard” for doomed bills.

And Day’s bill has yet to be assigned to a committee.

Even if it does get a hearing and is passed, both big ifs, it won’t stop the practice;

Delph said he favors more reporting of what legislators accept, rather than barring gifts as a handful of states have done.

“Philosophically, I come down on the side of permitting people to do and give whatever they want,” Delph said. “But the public should be provided disclosure. The idea is to bring more transparency into government.”

He said the proposal has been received better among newer legislators than by those who have served longer terms.

“I hate to say it, but I think there’s a sense of entitlement on the part of some,” Delph said.