Delaware General Assembly Pre-Game Show-June, 23,2009

Presumably Dick Cathcart has spent the past four days reading all the fine print in the Governor’s budget proposal, and presumably he’ll be prepared to provide his Mindless Minions with their marching orders in Caucus today. Not a bad idea with only a week to go in the legislative session and an $800 million budgetary crater to fill. And no doubt the partisan hacks at ‘Lancaster Avenue’, as RSmitty likes to designate Rethug HQ, already have at least three press releases feigning outrage in the can, each one employing the phrase, ‘The Democrat Party‘.

While the budget showdown is obviously the focal point for the remainder of session, there’s a lot of key legislation moving through the legislature. Here’s what’s on tap for today:

Today’s Senate Agenda (Click here for full list):

SB 121(Sokola) is #1 on the Agenda and guaranteed to be #1 for entertainment value as well. Bob Venables, with his laughable amendments and his marble-mouthed Southern drawl, is once again sure to make an unintentional fool of himself.  Listen closely, b/c his ‘stream of consciousness’ style of talking off the top of his head can be pure comic gold. He is not really a mean-spirited person (Dr. Sigmund Somnambulo posits that the sacred and profane sides of Venables’ personality are constantly at war w/ each other), but there are times when he just can’t help himself. This will be one of those times. Best of all, the bill will pass, so there’ll be a happy ending for DL readers.

SB 106 and SB 173(Both McDowell) promote energy efficiency and enable counties and municipalities to become more energy-efficient as well. ‘Bulo is sure that Tommywonk has a much more sophisticated analysis on his site, so go there and root around. Based on the prime sponsors and co-sponsors, this is probably legislation that is strongly supported by the environmental community.

SB 80(Katz) creates a Delaware Health Care Consortium to create a statewide network so that medical facilities can  share patient records electronically.

Today’s House Agendas(Click here for full lists):

They’re working with three agendas now, so be on the lookout for mixing and matching. Anything on any of those agendas can in theory be brought up at any time. One reason for this is necessity. There are so many negotiations going on all over the building, especially with the ‘money’ committees, that often the House Majority Leader will be prepared to call on the sponsor of the next bill only to find that the sponsor is nowhere to be found. So, it’s not really intended to confuse, but it does from time to time.

And to make it more confusing, one is a House Consent Agenda. Now pay attention, kids, b/c El Somnambulo is only gonna explain this once. A Consent Agenda is an agenda with several bills on it, generally considered to be of a non-controversial nature. With the unanimous consent of the House, only one roll call is necessary to pass all the bills on the Consent Agenda. If even one member of the House requests that a bill be removed from the Consent Agenda and considered on its own, the bill is removed, no discussion needed. 

Let’s look at some highlights:

HB 185(B. Short) requires sponsors of scurrilous robo-calls daring to attack the integrity and honesty of political candidates to identify themselves at the beginning of the call. (As in, for illustrative purposes only, “This call questioning the sanity and pointing out the sexual deviancy of his opponent is proudly sponsored by Michael Protack, Official Leader of the Delaware Republican Party”). At least that’s one way to get his name out there. Although, to be fair, confusion could rear its head as in, “Oh, yeah, you’re Protack, the sexual deviancy guy.” Not that there’s anything wrong with that…

HB 198(D.E. Williams) would have Delaware ratify a national compact providing for the popular election of the President. ‘Bulo believes that this bill has been unduly maligned here, and he sees no reason why the person who receives the most votes for President, regardless of the breakdown of where they come from, should not be elected President. The Electoral College may be lots of fun for the stat heads, but electing a President who does not receive the most votes seems undemocratic.

Val Longhurst’s Manufactured Housing bills, previewed here last week, are back on the agenda. Bob Gilligan’s bill designed to prevent contractors from designating employees as ‘independent contractors’, also discussed last week, is on the agenda.

HB 199(Schooley) requires private insurers to cover recommended developmental screenings for toddlers and infants. The State Medicaid Program already pays for such screenings.

And, among the bills on House Consent Agenda E is the much-anticipated Strawberry as a State Fruit bill.  Shortcake for everyone in the Majority Caucus Room right after session if the bill passes! And Gerald Hocker’s already got his supplier on standby so that there’ll be plenty on hand for this weekend’s State Fruit Sellabration at both locations!