Steve Burns
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON – (WMAL) A long, often contentious process to allow the District to join five other states in legalizing physician-assisted suicide is likely to come to an end Tuesday, when the Council is expected to give a final stamp of approval to its Death with Dignity legislation. The bill passed 11-2 in a preliminary vote earlier this month, and there is no reason to expect any change in votes.
The Council then has another thorny issue on its plate in putting together what could be one of the country’s most generous paid leave programs. The bill has been in the works for over a year.
Mayor Muriel Bowser had been a wildcard in the Death with Dignity process, not divulging her opinion on the polarizing issue. However, she told WMAL last week she expects it to become law even if she doesn’t sign it.
“I’m not going to veto the bill,” she said. “It is a gray issue for me personally. I’m going to allow the bill to proceed, but I do have some misgivings about it.”
The bill stipulates patients must receive a diagnosis of six months or less to live from two doctors, and also be cleared of any mental illnesses or depression. It also requires the patient to request the lethal drugs twice over a period of at least 15 days.
The bill elicited an emotional response from the Council during the preliminary vote on Nov. 1, with some members recalling difficult periods during the end of a family member’s life.
“This is by far my toughest vote,” Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie said through tears while remembering the death of his father earlier this year. “My family had to watch him suffer. I wouldn’t wish that on anybody else.”
“To deny it to those who competently choose it is simply to prolong the process of death,” Councilmember Mary Cheh said.
Opponents to the bill have brought up the possibility of coercion and abuse, especially against the elderly or disabled. Cheh said there have been no precedent for those cases in other states, and the bill has protections against such scenarios.
The Council then moves on to another polarizing issue as it crafts its Paid Family Leave policy. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson has been keeping the details closely guarded, something Bowser has criticized him about in the past. He said Monday he expects the gears to start moving on the bill shortly.
“I’m kind of amused by those who are saying that it’s been rushed through,” Mendelson said. “The advocates for the bill are saying it hasn’t moved quickly enough.”
The bill has been one of Mendelson’s top priorities of the session, though some final details remain to be determined, including how many weeks the leave program would allow, the new tax rate on employers, and how much of their pay employees would receive while they are out. The original bill provided for 16 weeks, but Mendelson pared that down to 12 weeks in a subsequent draft. He said he expects a preliminary vote to take place at the Council’s legislative meeting on Dec. 6. It would then need to be put up for a final vote before the end of the year. Otherwise, it would be back to square one in the new year.
“There will be a new tax. It will be a payroll tax. It will be a tax on employers, not employees,” Mendelson said. “We’re looking at this as a program of first resort. This program will be used first before any benefit program that an employer may offer. Employers may scale back some of the benefits that they offer because of this program.”
Some in the business community have been critical of the bill and the mounting expenses they say are the result of an overzealous District government. This, on top of the increase to the minimum wage passed earlier this year, could halt new hiring, some said.
A coalition of large businesses in the District supported an alternate plan earlier this year providing 8 weeks of paid leave per year, stipulating that businesses can independently determine funding mechanisms. Mendelson denied the proposal.
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