The Governor signed HB 35 into law yesterday, surrounded by a group of parents who lost their children in the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting in Connecticut last December. The law extends mandatory background checks to most private gun sales this July. There are three other gun control measures that are part of the Governor’s gun control package: a bill establishing gun-free school zones (HB 67), a ban on high-capacity magazines (HB 58), and a requirement to report lost or stolen guns (SB 16).
SB 16, the aforementioned bill that would require gun owners to report lost or stolen guns within 7 days after discovering the bill lost or stolen, has cleared the committee and is headed to the House floor for a vote. How anyone can oppose this bill is beyond me. Indeed, if you oppose this bill, you must be a terrorist or a criminal, or at least an enabler of the two.
Represenative Kowalko’s HB 13 finally passed the House after six years of trying, 30-11. The bill bans lawmakers from becoming lobbyists after they leave the General Assembly for one year after leaving office. His previous bills called for 2 years. The Republicans have introduced that version of the bill in the Senate, and offered an Amendment was offered to increase the term to 2 years, but it was defeated. I am not sure why, but some Democrats in the House are really making themselves look like defenders of lobbyists by opposing this legislation. Some surprising names in the no column. And given that all the Republicans voted yes, it is obvious that they are using this and the double dipping issue to their advantage. And the Democrats voting no are dumb enough to let them.
Meanwhile, SB 6, the bill to raise the minimum wage has been tabled in the House Economic Development and Banking Committee. The committee voted 7-3 to table the measure. The proposal would raise the current hourly wage from $7.25 to $7.75 on Jan. 1, 2014, and to $8.25 on Jan. 1, 2015. The bill can be revived at any time during this session by having the committee change its mind and report it out for a House floor vote, or 21 House members can petition the committee to release the bill for a floor vote.
Here are the members of that committee:
I imagine all the Republicans voted to table. That’s 4. I can guess that Paul Baumbach and Dennis Williams were 2 of the 3 to oppose the motion to table. The question is who are the three Democrats who joined with the Republicans to screw us.
Finally, HB 105, the bill to allow Election Day voter registration cleared the committee and awaits a vote on the House floor.
And now for the rest of the Vote Tracker:
To keep up to date on all legislation that is of priority to liberals and progressives, DL has partnered with the Progressive Democrats for Delaware (PDD) to compile this Vote Tracker. Now, this chart does not follow all the legislation that has been filed. We don’t report on perfunctory bills like the ones about the charter of Georgetown or ticket scalping. Nor do we follow the progress of judicial nominations, executive nominations, or Concurrent or Joint Resolutions unless they are a matter of controversy. So the legislation that is listed is a matter of concern and priority for those of us on the liberal / progressive side of the aisle.
The legislator’s names which are colored blue are Democrats. If they are colored red, they are Republicans. The first chart focuses on House Bills, and the second chart focuses on Senate Bills. If you want to download this Vote Tracker chart, at the very bottom you will see a black bar with a Microsoft Excel logo on the right. Click on it and you will be able to download the chart into the Excel format.
HOUSE BILLS:
SENATE BILLS: