Here’s what happened yesterday.
Commentators have already discussed the demise of the Jake Brakes bill. It looks like Bob Venables was trying to argue that local and county noise ordinances could handle any issues, presumably b/c they had done such a great job previously. Not. No, this was a sop to the truckers, pure and simple, and common sense prevailed, and maybe your phone calls helped.
BTW, when is the Senate gonna put the bleeping roll calls online? You can see the final vote totals, but not how each member voted. It’s just one more extended middle finger from Adams and Cook. The House has provided the roll call breakdown for years.
Doesn’t look like peach pie was on the menu yesterday in the Senate. Is it being held hostage as part of a quid pro quo by the Strawberry as the State Fruit cabal?
The Schooley/Sokola education reform package discussed yesterday is flying through both chambers.
Dave McBride’s solar panel legislation passed the Senate as did (to ‘bulo’s surprise) his Terry Spence Memorial Swimming Pool bill. Maybe the bill will sink and drown in the House…
YMMV, but not much here to pique ‘bulo’s curiosity.
Perhaps Bob Marshall’s SB 115 is most intriguing, as it appears aimed at nursing homes and others that are reimbursed for Medicaid services they are allegedly providing. Even a cursory reading of annual nursing home surveys suggests that Delaware facilities are illegally collecting millions of dollars from Medicaid for services the facilities claim to have provided but in fact have not provided. Maybe this penalty surcharge will make them think twice before they resume stealing.
Today’s Senate Committee Meetings
A reminder that SB 121 is being considered in today’s Senate Insurance Committee meeting at 2 pm.
The Senate Executive Committee meets in the Senate Chamber at 1:30 to “consider appointments and reappointments”. In keeping with Sen. Adams’ disdain for open government, none of the nominees are listed by name.
Today’s House Committee Meetings
It is possible that this will be the last full committee day for the House. The House doesn’t meet on Wednesdays for substantive deliberations, as the entire day is given over to committee meetings. However, sometimes, the last two weeks of session do not provide for a committee day, as there is so much to address on the floor. And there’s lots going on in today’s House committees:
Remember, Rep. Viola’s bill legalizing beer and wine sales in supermarkets is scheduled for today’s Revenue and Finance meeting at 12:30.
Viola’s bill eliminating deposits on bottles is on the Natural Resources Committee agenda at 4 p.m.
Rep. Gilligan has a construction-trades piece of legislation, HB 230, called the ‘Workplace Fraud Act’, ostensibly designed to make sure that contractors don’t screw employees by calling them ‘independent contractors’. It has been assigned to the House Administration Committee, and will be heard today.
A couple of interesting bills in the House Judiciary Committee today. Greg Lavelle, who has been the Catholic Diocese’s most forceful apologist when it comes to sexual abuse by priests, has his bill to apply the same standards to the public schools. ‘Bulo has no problem with the bill, just his specious argument that what happened over several decades in Catholic schools was anything but an institutional failure.
Of far more worth and importance is Melanie Marshall’s HB 168, which repeals minimum mandatory sentencing for non-violent drug offenders. This would reverse the disastrous and financially-wasteful legislation pushed through with brute force by the likes of Tom Sharp, Wayne Smith and Jim Vaughn, and would end one of the most willfully wrong-headed initiatives ever passed in Dover.
Check out all the info, and you will likely find stuff more to your interest.