No IDs for homeless

Rep. Tom Burch, D-Louisville, narrowly lost a bid on the House floor to spread statewide a program to give official identification cards to homeless people.

Burch said many homeless people are veterans who need an official ID to collect benefits. He said a similar program has worked well in Jefferson County and would require three people who work at a homeless shelter to verify identity.

But the debate on House Bill 308 stirred up House Republicans. Rep. Stan Lee, R-Lexington, said the IDs could end up in the hands of illegal immigrants.

"The bill has good intentions and we want to help any veteran we can, be they homeless or gainfully employed," Lee said. He attempted to amend the bill to force individuals to prove citizenship before getting the ID.

Speaker Jody Richards ruled the amendment was not germane and did not allow a vote on the amendment.

But Republican Minority Leader Jeff Hoover pointed out that the bill on the floor was not the version passed out of committee. Richards said Burch did not call for the committee substitute because it contained provisions that might have made Lee's amendment germane.

After that, the vote went south, moving from more than 50 passing votes to a final count of 47 to 49, with three members not voting. (Two of the three were out of the House, including Dottie Sims, who had been injured in a fall earlier in the day.)

Afterwards, Burch said he thought "the members got confused. They thought they were voting against terrorists. I've never seen a homeless person fly into a building. I've seen them sleeping under them, though."

Burch said he did not call the committee sub because it would have allowed Lee's amendments.

Richards said he was surprised by the vote, especially the 11 Democrats who voted against it. "I don't know why it was so controversial," Richards said.

- Janet Patton

Comments

[Elizabeth]

I absolutely love Tom Burch. He works across party lines to help the people who really need our help.

Bravo for him many times over!

[Jimbo]

Guess there is going to be nothing in this General Assembly to assist the poor and the down trodden.

Most of America's homeless are Veterans who were damaged while serving out nation.

If the Bush Administration won't help our Vets then we need to at least give them IDs.

Of course if we give the homeless IDs, it would be an admission of a problem??

[Bill Adkins]

As soon as gutless Stan Lee proposes legislation to prosecute businesses that hire illegals I'll stop calling him 'gutless.' For so long as he only attacks the illegals without going after the real criminals, their employers, he's gutless.