A bill giving the V.I. Board of Medical Examiners express authority to license and regulate telemedicine in the territory got the thumbs-up from the Senate Rules and Judiciary Committee Monday and will be voted up or down before the full Senate.

The bill, sponsored by Sens. Sammuel Sanes, Usie Richards and Ronald Russell, [Bill 29-0247], says the Board of Medical Examiners will issue a group license authorizing one or more groups of out-of-territory physicians who are licensed in their home state, to provide telemedicine services in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The board will set up the rules for licensing and have authority to establish regulations governing its practice.

The committee approved an amendment Monday deleting a passage saying the board can establish an advisory committee, leaving all regulatory decisions instead in the hands of the board.Voting yea were Sanes, Richards, Sens. Carlton "Ital" Dowe, Patrick Sprauve, Alicia "Chucky" Hansen and Celestino White. Sen. Ronald Russell was absent.

The Rules and Judiciary committee also approved three nominees to appointed government posts, sending them on for final votes before the full Senate. It approved the nomination of Debra Smith-Watlington to a judgeship in the Family Court Division of V.I. Superior Court on St.Thomas. It also approved and sent forward the nominations of Carol Callwood to the Government Employees Retirement System Board of Trustees, St.Thomas District and Wesley Samuel Williams, Jr. to the University of the Virgin Islands Board of Trustees.