General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Thurs., March 29, 2012

Speaker Gilligan said that lobbying reform legislation will pass this session, and I’m sure he’s right. After all, yesterday’s announcement of lobbyist reform was so important that Governor Markell’s own Brian Selander was rolled out to tout this press release:

Dover, DE – A bill that would dramatically expand disclosure requirements for lobbyists was introduced today with broad bipartisan support. Governor Jack Markell joined Senate President Pro Tempore Tony DeLuca, House Speaker Bob Gilligan and legislators to introduce Senate Bill 185. (Bill hasn’t officially been introduced, will probably be introduced today.)

“How can you tell who’s working to influence the bills that could become the laws that will affect your life? The problem is, in many cases right now, you can’t, because state disclosure laws simply haven’t kept up. This proposal helps solve that problem, bringing needed light to the process,” Markell said. “As a Delawarean, you shouldn’t have to be in the lobby of Legislative Hall or in the offices of a state agency to know who’s trying to shape a law that matters to you. This bill would make that information more available.”

Currently, lobbyists only need to disclose that they are working for a client, but do not need to share what work they are doing on that clients behalf. Senate Bill 185 would require that lobbyists specifically identify each piece of legislation, each area of the budget or the bond bill, or each proposed state agency regulation that they are lobbying to change.

The new disclosures must occur within five business days of the lobbyist having “direct communication” with a legislator or the Lieutenant Governor or Governor on a bill, or within same time frame from communication with a state agency employee regarding a proposed regulation. If the communication takes place before a bill is introduced or proposed regulation published, the disclosure will be within five business days of the bill introduction or regulation publication.

The reporting by the lobbyists will be done electronically and all the reports will display on a public website.  The Governor thanked Common Cause for their advocacy on this issue.

“A lobbyist who spends every day in the state capitol operates in a different reality than the average citizen. This bill opens an important window on what’s really going on in Dover, and it will make it much easier to track what lobbyists are doing and to hold them accountable,” said James Browing of Common Cause.

I like this bill a lot. Why? (1) This will make it so much easier to connect the dots between lobbyists and campaign contributions; (2) as a result, this may well cause legislators to think twice about the easy relationships between themselves and lobbyists; (3) this will almost certainly annoy lobbyists, something I’m all for; (4) this clearly will make doings in Dover more transparent. Let’s see if anyone introduces amendments to try to carve out exceptions.

The bill still doesn’t address disclosure of wining and dining of officials by lobbyists, and doesn’t address the revolving door that has legislators becoming lobbyists. And, for those who say that this is a ‘start’, it may well be the ‘end’ if further reforms are not enacted. And leave it to Wayne Smith, former Newt clone, now President of the Delaware Healthcare Association, to raise the specter of Citizens United:

Smith said he will comply with whatever changes are enacted but wondered if the First Amendment right to petition the government is being curtailed by requiring lobbyists to disclose the bills they have targeted.”The whole idea of registration for a certain class of people” is troubling, Smith said, adding that perhaps state officials who lobby on behalf of the governor or their agencies also need to register as lobbyists and make the disclosures. “But I’ll work in any environment the General Assembly constructs. It’s reality. It exists. My test is whether I can effectively represent my members.”

I’m not so naive as to believe that election year politics had nothing to do with this. And the bill is by no means a panacea. Still, passage of this bill would lead to more transparency, and that’s a good thing.

SB 185 highlighted an otherwise slow legislative day. The Senate passed SB 157(Peterson), which I discussed yesterday. Committees met. And that was about it.

Not much floats my boat on either of today’s agendas. The Senate will pass the $100K tax break for oil lightering; and will consider SB 174(Bushweller), which I discussed in detail yesterday. If you can find other interesting items here, more power to you.

The House agenda features legislation designed to prevent abuse of handicapped license privileges by those not handicapped; and a bill that would take away driving privileges for those under 21 who commit graffiti offenses. I still want to know exactly what the tie-in is between graffiti and driving privileges, and why only those under 21 are targeted  by this bill. Can someone explain it to me?

Well, I see that my word count is at 777, and I know that that Mega Million jackpot is somewhere north of half a billion  dollars. If that’s not a sign to wrap things up, I don’t know what is.