Ready for the next laws

Alicia Robinson

Think of them as New Year’s resolutions that may soon have the force

of law.

Newport-Mesa’s elected representatives will be pushing various

pieces of legislation in 2004, and some of them won’t be entirely

new.

Ken Maddox, 68th District assemblyman, will be attacking an issue

that’s been dogging businesses throughout the state: worker’s

compensation.

“I plan on carrying at last one piece of legislation to deal with

worker’s compensation fraud,” he said. “A lot of the abuse in the

system is perfectly legal.”

He wants to close loopholes in the law. One example is by

preventing physicians from owning medical equipment companies, which

they can get their patients to buy from at inflated prices.

Another item on his agenda is something you don’t hear from

legislators too often: “I’ll probably be actually looking to

eliminate some laws,” he said.

He hopes to repeal one of various recent laws that he feels create

“onerous hurdles” to gun ownership and infringe on 2nd Amendment

rights.

Maddox said he also expects to continue to defend Sept. 11-related

funding, which legislators often try to raid to solve budget

problems, and he’ll work on water-quality legislation to clean up

Orange County’s watersheds.

In Washington, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher will promote his legislation

that would require hospitals to report illegal immigrants to U.S.

authorities, spokesman Aaron Lewis said.

The bill is a follow-up to recent Medicare legislation that offers

reimbursement to hospitals for treating illegal aliens.

“We figured if hospitals are checking who’s an illegal immigrant

so they can get reimbursed, they might as well pass it along to the

border patrol,” Lewis said. “The problem is that hospitals are

already overburdened right now. It might prevent people coming across

the border to get medical care.”

Rohrabacher has also introduced legislation that would modernize

long-standing space regulations, allowing development of a U.S. space

tourism industry. As chairman of the House Space and Aeronautics

Subcommittee, Rohrabacher has a particular interest in the field.

Finally, this year, Rohrabacher “will be working to make sure that

Orange County receives its fair share in tax dollars back from

Washington, D.C.,” Lewis said. The congressman will support

clean-water projects for the area and funding for additional lanes on

San Diego Freeway.

Cox wants to take the fear out of the color-coded alerts

Rep. Chris Cox is reportedly aiming to make the nation’s

color-coded alert system regional instead of national, allowing

smooth sailing for some areas while others are battening down the

hatches.

Cox discussed the alert system on “Fox News Sunday” over the

weekend, when he said terrorists can take advantage of the current

system with threats that may be idle but are costly to guard against.

He’s sponsoring legislation that would base alert levels on

terrorist threats to specific regions rather than using one

nationwide alert, according to congressional newspaper The Hill.

And Democrats are getting on board with his plan, according to the

paper. Among them: fellow Orange County representative Loretta

Sanchez.