Vote Tracker Update: Finally Some Action

Well, would you look at that. The Delaware General Assembly has gone and updated their webpage with a sleeker design and easier navigation. I’m still figuring it out, but the one bug I see right away is that when you click on a particular piece of legislation, you are not taken to that legislation’s URL landing page, but instead you view it in window on the main page. Now, individual URLs for specific legislation are still available and are provided as a link in the Vote Tracker below. You simply click on the Bill number and your browser will take you to that page.

We have finally the first voting action on one of the bills we are following. The Senate unanimously passed Senator Sokola’s Senate Bill 31 to continue to enable Teach for America to recruit and train teachers to teach in Delaware. It moves over to the House.

Senator Poore’s SB 33 was voted out of the Senate Education Committee on its merits, and then laid on the table in the Senate yesterday, March 24. Laying on the table does not necessarily kill a bill, but it suspends or postpones consideration of it. So I guess we need to know why, since the Bill would have implemented one of the many task forces’ we turn to in this state whenever we have a problem. And the problem here was reforming the individualized education program (IEP) process, which is the way educational programs and services for students with diagnosed disabilities in Delaware public schools are determined. I have seen no explanation yet in the media as to why we are postponing considering this bill.

Representative Jaques’ HB 12, which seeks to ensure that every public school has a nurse, has been released on its merits from the House Education Committee, but committee questioned the match-tax method of funding, and so it was referred to the House Appropriations Committee. Jaques’ other bill, HB 14, which requires all doors to each classroom have a lock on either side of the door. The House Education Committee released the bill on its merits, but it was also referred to the House Appropriations Committee, I suppose in order to determine the cost of such a requirement.

Sen. Robert Marshall (D) has introduced legislation that will increase the minimum wage up to where it should be: $10.25 an hour. The bill calls for 50-cent, per-hour increases over the next four years until minimum wage hits $10.25 an hour by June of 2019. I’d prefer we just increase it straight away to $10, whatever games we have to play to get legislators onboard, let’s play them.

Most importantly, Senator Marshall has introduced SB 39 to increase the minimum wage to $10.25; and Senator Peterson has introduced SB 40, the repeal of the Death Penalty in Delaware.

There is of course more, so please check the charts. New legislation added to the chart will be highlighted by yellow. Committee action on a bill will be highlighted in blue. Any positive Chamber votes will highlighted in green. Any negative action will be highlighted in red. Remember, we are not tracking all the bills, just the bills of progressive or liberal interest, including those sponsored by Republicans, and including those that we, as progressives and liberals, want to see defeated (i.e. the Estate Tax Repeal bill). You can download the tracker in the form of a Excel spreadsheet by clicking on the menu button in the lower right corner of each box.