Legislative Wrapup and Preview-June 11, 2009
As you can see, most of the action was in the committee meetings, both House and Senate. Lots of interesting bills were reported out, including the Presidential Popular Vote Compact Bill discussed here. Also, in the spirit of bipartisanship, and on behalf of gastronomic equality, not only was Gerald Hocker’s (R) bill making the Strawberry Delaware’s Official Fruit released from Committee, but in the Senate, Rep. Darryl Scott’s (D) bill making Peach Pie Delaware’s Official Dessert was also released from Committee. Since the Beast Who Slumbers has total confidence in the creativity of his readers, he will leave it to them to ‘cobble together’ some snark relating to this momentous, and high-calorie, occasion.
Among the more interesting bills:
SS1/SB 35 (Blevins)-Gives the Delaware Insurance Commissioner the authority to protect Delaware residents from artificially-high health insurance rates. Excellent legislation, but only, of course, if the IC will actually use the authority provided.
SB 80 (Katz)-Establishes a Delaware Health Consortium to create a Statewide health information system. This would enable the timely electronic transfer of clinical and financial health records between providers.
SB 49 (McBride)-Would make it easier for residents to install solar panels on their homes by restricting the use of local covenants to prohibit such improvements.
There are some other intriguing bills on the Senate Agenda. Just click on the bill number, and you may find something of more interest to you than what ‘bulo has posted.
HB 85 (D. Short)-Reforms group health insurance rating rules to make them more predictable and less complicated for small business.
SB 85 (McDowell)-‘Bulo needs Tommywonk to explain this one, but it appears to provide customers financial incentive to utilize renewable energy sources.
HS1/HB 70 (Oberle)-Bans the use of local covenants to prohibit the installation of wind energy systems.
SB 59 (McDowell)-Updates building code requirements for energy efficiency and in a manner that ensures that Delaware will receive its share of Federal stimulus dollars.
HB 198 (D. E. Williams)-Debated at length here yesterday, this would commit Delaware to the State Compact to elect Presidents by popular vote.
There are several other intriguing bills on the agenda. The ones listed above are the ones that piqued ‘bulo’s interest the most. However, believe him, YMMV.
One additional note: You will notice that there are now two House agendas posted. The House does this a lot, and, at some point, they will likely be working from multiple agendas. El Somnambulo will try to provide the highlights for each new agenda when posted, but it will get progressively more complicated the closer it gets to June 30.
UPDATE: TOMMYWONK TO THE RESCUE!
Tommywonk explains both SB 85 and SB 59 here. And, since he does it in a manner even El Somnambulo can understand, you know he’s done a great job. Major Tip of the Sombrero to the Wonkster!
Tags: Delaware, General Assembly
Hey El Som!
Thanks so much for doing this. It’s a lot of work but IMHO very worthwhile.
SB 85 provides for net metering for electric utility customers with wind or solar installations, which has been compared to allowing customers to accumulate rollover minutes on their cell phones.
The only slight problem I have with any of these bills, is SB 80. Why would you need a 12 member board for an organization that’s supposed to just share medical records? The big concern I have is not so much that, but the fact that the commitee will also transmit your financial records as well. If it was truely just in the interest of the people, it would keep possibly your insurance information.
I mean really, if you get in an accident, and you need your records, why do they need to know if you owe a doctor money?
Good questions, Phil, and ones that should be asked during floor discussion. ‘Bulo thinks that the reason you need 12 members is to include all of the medical facilities that would need to coordinate the sharing of records.
The wind bill, HB70, bothers me. I am concerned that small wind turbines move way too fast (kills birds) and are generally quite inefficient.
http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2009/04/small-windmills-test-results.html
I love the solar stuff, but the wind stuff could really screw up some of the environment if there isn’t good permitting.