General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Thurs., Jan. 11, 2018

You may have seen that President Pro-Tempore Dave McBride has provided a room in Legislative Hall for lobbyists.   I generally support the move, although I doubt that it will have the desired effect.  McBride’s goal is to minimize lobbyists’ presence throughout the Hall.  While it will have some impact, there’s a reason why they’re called lobbyists. It’s because they hang out in the lobby, aka the common area between the Senate chamber and the House chamber. Why? In order to buttonhole legislators.  So they’re not gonna spend that much time playing cribbage in their second floor converted conference room.  Let me tell you what used to bug the shit out of me in the pre-cell phone days in Leg Hall.  I’d walk into my office and find some bleeping lobbyist (Ned Davis comes to mind early and often) sitting in my chair, talking on my state phone.  Not much I could have done b/c Davis would merely have skulked on down to the Pro-Tem’s office and complained. He was, after all, the Democratic National Committeeman. McBride’s intent is admirable, I only hope that it creates more room in the public space for the public.

OK. Here’s the Session Activity Report from Wednesday. As expected, the Senate unanimously approved the nomination of Saundra Johnson to head the Department of Human Resources. She had previously been the acting Secretary for this newly-created cabinet post. The Delaware State News reports that Gov. Carney is expected to nominate someone for Secretary of Labor soon.  Pay close attention to who that nominee is, and ask yourself, did Nicole Poore and Tony DeLuca roll the governor?  I’ll be asking that question.

It turns out that the bail reform bill is not on today’s Senate Agenda. It has, however, been scheduled for consideration on Tuesday.  Callcallcall.  Now here’s a bullshit bill for you.  HB 170 (Ramone), the so-called Angel Investor Act, provides yet another incentive for the 1% to get out their bulging wallets to invest in economic development.  I guess you could call it Mo’ Better Trickledown. Every representative voted for this giveaway, every senator will likely do the same. Chamber high-fives all around.

Interesting bill on the House Agenda.  HB 260 (Longhurst)  ‘creates the Grant-In-Aid Committee’. Isn’t there already a grant-in-aid committee, you ask? Yes. And no.  The members of the Joint Finance Committee have served as the members of the Grant-In-Aid Committee.  Presumably, this new committee would not automatically be comprised of the members of JFC.  Meaning, I guess, that the committee could complete their work on a more timely basis since grants-in-aid wouldn’t be put on the back-burner while the budget is hashed out. I would ask that an amendment, call it, say, the ‘Poore Amendment’, be added to the bill, prohibiting any legislator who derives benefit from the grant-in-aid process from serving on that committee. Or, come to think of it, on JFC.   Not sure that there would be enough legislators available to serve, however.

See ya next week.