I sure hope so.
Does anyone else have any later news?
Please post here.

Sorry; I finally had to go to sleep

Basically you are totally right; Hannon did as he promised, brought it to the floor, but something very strange happened to ALL the important bills; nothing got voted on.

Here is a post from Ellen late last night, and also some press about it; eveyone including the press is a bit bewildered about what is going on...

you're also right, in that they do have to come back, so there is still some chance it can happen this year.

Ellen will put out the word once she has more clear information from Monica on the real inside info.

Here's ellens last post after the session ended, and below it some news articles that a terrific activist sent to me late last night after the live tv cam of the senate ended.

Sincerely,
Regina
[email protected]

Hi folks,
Well, I spoke with a very tired and very bewildered Monica Miller
tonight at about 11:30, as the legislature was adjourning. The bill did
not get voted on, but apparently almost nothing else did either.

We do NOT know what this means, i.e., whether the bill is still alive
this year. The legislature is coming back again to Albany, probably
over the summer.

Originally, that was supposed to be only to pass a budget , but now they
will probably be considering many bills not passed today. We just don't
know now whether we will have another opportunity then.

Monica has said it will take her a couple of days to sort through and
understand what was a peculiar day in the legislature.

What happened tonight was that Hannon had agreed earlier that he would
bring the bill to the floor for a vote. Hannon's bringing it to the
floor was somehow contingent on Bruno's cooperation, which is why we
were calling Bruno.

So everything was going nice and smoothly. At 7pm Hannon brought the
bill to the floor for the usual debate preceding the vote.. Then, as
Monica tells it, "everything disappeared.".

She said that from that point on nothing happened. There was not only
no vote on our bill, but no votes on any bills.

So something is apparently going on within the legislature that has
nothing to do with us. But what it is and how it will effect us, we
will not know for a couple of days.

Monica will get back to us in a couple of days, once she has figured out
what all this means. She is asking that no one contact her tomorrow ,
and she will be back to us with some explanations and some plans by the
end of the week.

Waiting the next few days is going to be the hard part for us.
Everybody in the Lyme community has been just wonderful in pitching in.
The phones were ringing off the hook in Albany. We have become a
community with a great deal of fight in us..I am just so grateful to
everyone who is pitching in to get this law passed.

We gotta give the adrenaline a rest for a few days, but be able to tap
into it again soon. New York has the bggest number of really excellent
and well known Lyme doctors. We also have the worst state disciplinary
board, the OPMC. We have a big fight here, but the result will effect
the whole country.

We started organizing here four years ago. Initially, the legislators
treated almost as a joke.. We have managed to turn that around to the
point that most of the legislators are on our side.

The OPMC Reform bill was introduced in 2002. The average time it takes
for a bill to pass in New York State is three to five years. I know
this struggle has seemed interminable, but we are pretty much on
schedule.

The activism of the Lyme community has kept the OPMC from chewing up our
doctors here. They know that the eyes of the country , even the
world, are on them.

We are going to keep up this activism and keep making noise. So please
keep a watch for my next update after Monica has figured out what this
evening out of the X-Files really means and what we will do about it.

Thanks to all of you. We will win this together. We ain't gonna go
away.
Love,
Ellen

Keep your chins up; it isn't over by any means, as Ellen already said. We may still have a decent chance at getting this done this year.

Sincerely,
Regina
[email protected]

No Agreement on Education or Other Sticky Issues as Legislative Session in Albany Ends
By MICHAEL COOPER

Published: June 23, 2004

ARTICLE TOOLS




TIMES NEWS TRACKER

ALBANY, June 22 - New York State government is often run like a giant game of chicken. With a $100 billion budget and dozens of laws that would affect New Yorkers hanging in the balance, the state's leaders stake out their positions, dig in their heels, and try to bend their adversaries to their will.

The game of chicken that was the 2004 legislative session formally ended last night with the state's leaders zooming past the precipice and over the cliff, failing to forge consensus on most of the major issues. As lawmakers prepared to leave town, New York still lacked the budget that was due April 1, a plan on education spending to satisfy a court order, and agreements on most major bills they said they wanted to pass this year.

"Practically speaking, we're not in agreement on anything of consequence, and I'm sorry to say that,'' Senator Joseph L. Bruno, the Republican majority leader, said after meeting with the other two men who run the state, Gov. George E. Pataki and the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver.

Although state officials have been known to blow deadlines for things like passing the budget, Mr. Bruno was adamant about leaving on the scheduled last day of session. Mr. Silver said that the Assembly would meet again Wednesday, and then leave. The leaders said that they would call their members back later this summer to pass a budget and other laws.

There was no agreement to raise the minimum wage, to overhaul the state's Rockefeller-era drug laws, to pass a bill that would have required health insurance to pay for more mental health treatments, or for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to take over the New York City's private bus lines.

Although the usual blizzard of last-minute laws largely failed to materialize, there were some scattered flurries. The Assembly and the Senate agreed to revise legislation overhauling the budget process, which they had announced on March 31, hours before they missed the state budget deadline for the 20th year in a row. But the governor has expressed reservations about the bill, so it was unclear if he would sign or veto it.

As advocates for more school spending had themselves arrested outside the State Capitol to protest the state's inaction, the state's leaders apportioned blame along partisan lines. The two Republicans, Mr. Bruno and Mr. Pataki, harshly attacked Mr. Silver, a Democrat, faulting him for holding up almost all major issues until all three leaders could agree on a plan to increase education spending to satisfy the court order.

Senator Bruno spoke wistfully about merging the two houses of the Legislature into one body, with a Republican majority, under his control. And Governor Pataki attacked Mr. Silver at great length, telling reporters, "It takes, as you all know, three to tango, and one of them, apparently, just is either unwilling or unable.''

Mr. Silver, for his part, faulted the two Republicans for offering education plans that he said were seriously deficient. He accused the Republicans of ending the legislative session with their work unfinished, and passing a temporary spending bill to keep the government running without a budget until August, because "they want a vacation.''

Still, on Tuesday lawmakers continued to pass smaller bills through the night. Both houses approved bills increasing the fine for leaving the scene of an accident in which a guide dog is injured, requiring all packs of cigarettes to contain at least 20 cigarettes, and allowing employers to conduct criminal background checks on people who transmit money. They passed a bill establishing labeling and recycling rules for products containing mercury.

And the two houses agreed on a bill to raise the pay of National Guard members and grant them income tax exemptions when they are deployed in New York for any emergency, not just terrorism. The bill would also allow government retirees to be rehired to fill in for National Guard members called for duty, without losing their pensions.

Late last night, officials said both houses were nearing a deal on a bill to expand the state's DNA database.

But the list of what was undone was much longer than the list of accomplishments.

Ultimately, the sticking point continued to be the court order on education. A year has now passed since the state's highest court ruled that the state had been shortchanging New York City's schoolchildren, and the state's leaders seemed no closer to signing off on the plan the court asked them to provide by July 30.

Senator Bruno criticized both the original lower-court decision, and the later Court of Appeals decision upholding it. "The judge I think, and the judges that ratified the original judge's agreement, didn't understand what they were doing, in plain English,'' Mr. Bruno said.

Even as lawmakers prepared to leave Albany for their summer breaks, and for their re-election campaigns, they began talking about when they might have to come back for a special session to do the work they never got to. On Tuesday night, the leading guess was that it would be sometime in mid-July.

No Agreement on Education or Other Sticky Issues as Legislative Session in Albany Ends
By MICHAEL COOPER

Published: June 23, 2004

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/23/education/23albany.html?ei=5006&en=caa751c282136fa7&ex=1088568000&adxnnl=1&partner=ALTAVISTA1&adxnnlx=1087963231-2IE4m/rrITO1nFEg1PFJmQ
http://www.wivb.com/Global/story.asp?S=1961499&nav=0RapO7Uu
http://www.pressconnects.com/today/opinion/stories/op062204s98426.shtml
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/21/nyregion/21albany1.html

This may help you understand that if a bill like this gets passed here, it will have a huge impact on every other state.

The fact that in a 3 year period, we went from no one in Albany even really knowing what lyme disease is to where we are now is a huge success that everyone who has helped in any way has played a role in.

We have put Lyme disease front and center on the map up in Albany, and now have MANY proponents and advocates right inside the legislature. Blocking all votes was likely the only way that hardball could be played last night; had it come up for the vote, I personally have no doubt it would have passed, so please understand the success of that.

Right now, no one knows why no significant bills came up for a vote, so this wasn't a particular issue to our bill.

Every call, letter, email you have sent has helped take a non-entity illness all the way across both houses of the NYS legislature right to the 3 readings, passed all committees and to the floor last night.

You may not understand what that means; now we have politicians actually doing some of the advocating for us.

Please don't get discouraged; we'll hear from Ellen in the next couple of days, and if there is another action alert, we need to be rested and ready.

I am also going to see about expanding my list of others to call in the meanwhile. Now that there's at least a little time, I'm going to build my list of more New Yorkers and those from other states to call upon for the quick and specific actions that may pop up at any minute for each or any of us to do.

I can tell you that Sen. Bruno will receive his messages this morning with hundreds of additional yes votes for passing S4148 that he didn't yet receive at 6PM last night. People were still calling in at midnight; I know that directly from the switchboard answering Sen. Bruno's phone.

Every call represents a voter; every legislator knows that.

Since there is at least a little time, perhaps we can build a bigger list of other groups who will be impacted by this bill.

If anyone has any contacts into other patient groups, and has a good handle on this bill and what it means, it may be a good time to prime other interested parties. If you do not feel you have a good handle on the bill but have a contact, please pass it along.

I'll be doing that as well.

We may be tired and a bit discouraged today, but do see the difference; our bill didn't get voted down; no bill got voted on last night at all. There is a world of difference in that.

Know that your hard work, your time, and your energy wasn't wasted at all; this will get done, and we will need everyone to keep showing up to finish it.

We'll know soon what happened, and then we will know what needs to happen next.

Thanks so very much for hanging in there when it isn't easy to do; as brittle as we can all feel having to live with this illness and it's politics, it has certainly made us one hell of a group of resilient people.

Be well and rest, but never give up.

Bravo to everyone who lobbied, campaigned, rallied the troops across the country, and especially every one of us who called, e-mailed and wrote to support the bill(s).

All those involved in the struggle deserve our utmost respect.

Your day will come and doctors will be safe from corporate/political harrassment.

When your day comes the path will be so much brighter for the rest of us.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you !!! God Bless you all, keep you safe, and give you strength.