Update as of 02/19/08

Sorry I haven't been in touch for a while, but I have been extremely busy with the most recent trips to Charleston over the past week. Here is the latest as I left today... On Monday, I met up with Janet Lintala (DAN! doctor in Beckley), Betsy Atwater, Ginger McAllister, Rev. Dennis Sparks of the WV Council of Churches, and a couple other parents (most at different times) at the capitol to meet with multiple Delegates, Senators and the Legislative Liaison of the Governor. Everything went very well on Monday, especially our final meeting of the day with Finance Chairman Delegate White. There was some idle chit chatting going on in the beginning, but I pretty much was straight out with Delegate White and asked if he planned on running the insurance bill. His response was that he was planning on running the bill, but stated that the language had to be fixed in the bill - of which we all agreed that it did. So Delegate White introduced me to the Finance Committee Attorney and allowed us to exchange contact information so we could be in touch frequently and work out the final details of the (hopefully) last amendment to Cameron and Dominic's Law. Delegate White then stated that the bill would be ran ASAP once the amendments were ready. So at this point, I went back to my friend's apartment (who thankfully puts up with me and allows me to stay with him during my time at the capitol) and worked on the amendments for the final bill. When I completed them, I emailed them to her along with some other documentation and awaited her call in the morning.

Today (2/19), I attended the WV Team Autism Meeting that occurred in Charleston and received a couple of calls from the Finance Committee attorney while I was there and worked out a few things with our bill. I then took a call from Rev. Dennis Sparks, and he informed me that he spoke directly with Gov. Joe Manchin yesterday after I left the capitol. He then informed me that they briefly discussed Cameron and Dominic's Law with him, and Rev. Sparks was told by Gov. Manchin that he had been recently informed about the bill, was in full support of it, and would inform the House and Senate Leaders of his support - and basically to pass the bill this session as long as the Finance Chairman approved the final language of the bill - which is obviously HUGE!!! By the end of the day, the Finance Committee attorney and I had a couple discussions about the bill, and basically it appeared that everything was fine and now it is just cleaning up the verbiage a bit... So basically it looks more and more as if we will have this autism insurance bill passed this session!!! I'm not getting too optimistic at this point, and I'm still going to work the bill the same as before, but if this all works out the way it has been discussed - we should have this bill passed before the end of session!

So, right now it appears that our bill will be going to the Finance Committee's Agenda this Thursday - I still need to get the time and location of the meeting, so check back here on Wednesday for this information. For those of you that can make it, your presence and support of Cameron and Dominic's Law at the capitol would be greatly appreciated!!!

I'll be in touch soon...