The House is taking action on the Department of State’s failure to properly advertise a proposed constitutional amendment providing a two-year civil window for child sex abuse survivors to sue their alleged abusers. The proposed amendment should have been on the May 18 primary election ballot, but the department’s error means a vote on the issue is delayed for at least two more years.
House Resolution 91 will create a Select Committee on the Publication of Constitutional Amendments that will complete a study of how constitutional amendments in the Commonwealth are advertised.
The select committee, made up of the majority and minority chairs of the House State Government Committee and three other members of the House of Representatives, at least one of which is from the minority party, will hold hearings, gather testimony and issue a report with recommendations.
The study is necessary as more than three months have passed since the failure to advertise was discovered and neither the General Assembly nor the public have been given any further information about how this egregious error occurred.
