The General Assembly had its collective working shoes on yesterday, with some interesting bills sailing right through, and some intriguing bills being introduced. I admit that I was surprised at some of the results. For example, in the House, Rep. Keeley’s bill having inmates counted at their last known residence instead of their prison address for redistricting purposes, passed unanimously.
And, in an equally surprising (and gratifying) result, SB 255(Henry), which removes the prohibition against persons convicted of any drug felony from receiving federal food benefit assistance, passed by a vote of 16 Yes, 3 No, and 2 Absent. The Senate has determined that it’s none of your damn business as to how the individual senators voted. If you want a copy of the roll call, contact the Secretary of the Senate, Bernard Brady (but be nice, he is one of the real good guys, and it’s not his fault that the ‘Honorables’ won’t allow the posting of roll calls), at (302) 744-4129. If I have the time today, I just might do it myself.
Rep. Hudsoncapano’s bill raising the fines for failing to register motor vehicles passed with only one (Plant) dissenting vote, and three Not Votings (Blakey, Jaques, Miro). With all due respect to Rep. Plant, if the fine represents a financial hardship, then following the law eliminates the threat of a fine. Which is the purpose of the new legislation. Sure beats a slew of unregistered vehicles on the roads in violation of the laws.
Lotsa interesting bills were introduced yesterday, including several ‘Green Energy’ bills from Sen. McDowell: SB 266, SB 267, and SB 273. I anticipate Tommywonk’s trenchant analysis forthwith.
As usual, I will withhold discussion of introduced bills until/unless they are scheduled for committee discussion or floor action.
The only floor action today will be in the Senate. All other (official) business takes place in committee hearings. The Senate Agenda consists primarily of House bills that have previously been discussed here. I just hope that Rep. Barbieri’s common-sense bill giving educators and administators some discretion over the reporting of incidents at school passes. It barely squeaked through in the House(21 votes required for passage, and it got 22).
And, now, it’s time to check out those committee meetings.
Highlights from the Senate:
Some bills just make you want to go hmmm…like this one from Sen. Venables. As near as I can tell, this basically would exempt farmers from requirements that they not violate certain nuisance ordinances. This didn’t come from out of the blue, so who exactly is Venables trying to protect, and what led to this bill? In today’s Sen. Ag. Committee.
Good luck trying to make sense of this one in today’s Senate Banking Committee meeting.
Legislation to further parental involvement in their children’s education will be considered in today’s Senate Education Committee. As will this bill, requiring adequate student growth before a teacher is accorded the highest level of notice and hearing protections.
Tony DeLuca is once again conducting hearings on gubernatorial nominations in the Senate Executive Committee. He once again is not providing names. DeLuca is so much like Tom Sharp that it isn’t funny. The more people clamor for open government, the more obstinate he becomes. And, trust me, Sharp was never as full of himself as DeLuca is.
Another head-scratcher, this time from Sen. Booth: “This Act simply says that whatever another state does to Delaware businesses, Delaware may do to businesses from that State.” Simply-stated, indeed. Again, what is the impetus for this bill? And, uh, has anyone thought through the “Law of Unintended Consequences” on this one? In today’s Small Business Committee meeting.
Let’s head across the lobby and check out the House Committee Meeting schedule.
Very important doings in the House Appropriations Committee today. Let me first explain that the House Appropriations Committee consists of the House members of the Joint Finance Committee. Any house bill that generally has to be considered by JFC would go through the House Appropriations Committee. In this case, all three bills on the committee agenda were previously released from other House committees, and were then reassigned to Appropriations b/c of their fiscal impact. These bills are being considered now b/c JFC is in the homestretch of wrapping up the budget. So this is Standard Operating Procedure, not in any way an attempt to delay passage of these bills. HS1/HB 10 (Schooley) “will make the same-sex partner of a State of Delaware regular officer, employee or eligible pensioner entitled to the same benefits that are provided to spouses of state employees and pensioners. Employees of Labor Unions and Delaware Authorities and Commissions covered under the sections of the Code are also included.” HB 128(J.J. Johnson) “permits law enforcement officers and probation and parole officers to retire after 25 years of service without penalty.” And HB 399(Scott) “will create the Inspire Scholarship Program. Inspire scholarships are available to Delaware students with excellent credentials and economic need to attend Delaware State University.”
The Economic Development/Banking/Insurance/Commerce/Shave & A Haircut/Two Bits Committee will consider what I believe to be a major piece of legislative overkill today. HB 390(B. Short) “adopts much of the model legislation with the intent of aiding and fostering small job growth in our State by creating a friendlier regulatory environment for small businesses.” The , um, ‘model legislation’ was drafted by the Bush Administration in 2002. How, exactly, has ‘regulatory flexibility’ worked out for us as opposed to, say, the financial industry or the oil industry? I repeat, if there are specific impediments discouraging the flourishing of small business, then by all means, legislate them. But throwing out consumer protections and best practices in the name of encouraging small business is a disaster waiting to happen.
As much as I admire what the Labor movement has brought to our country as a whole, I can’t endorse HB 363 (Oberle), which is being considered in the House Education Committee today. The bill would “require instruction in public schools on the history of organized labor in America and the collective bargaining process.” I’ve got an idea. Why don’t legislators stay away from monkeying around with school curricula? We need only to look to Texas where fiction is replacing fact as required teaching (Newt Gingrich, Contract With America, et al) to see where this all ends up.
Until tomorrow, this is where I end up.