General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Weds., April 18, 2018
Let’s start with some rare, if modest, good news. Ernie Lopez’s Sussex County ‘Damn Revenooers’ bill has been excised from today’s Senate Agenda. OK, back to reality.
Here’s yesterday’s Session Activity Report. Nothing surprising.
Committee time, kids! Let’s investigate. Starting with the House. Just because. Highlights from today’s committee lineup:
*HB 369 (Osienski) ‘expands the offense of falsifying business records by including the act of altering or modifying and creating false medical records…Expanding the offense of falsifying business records to include medical records will be a useful tool for combating healthcare provider fraud, protecting patients, and assisting patients in ensuring the integrity of their medical records.’ Judiciary Committee.
*HB 337 (K. Williams) ‘prohibits marriage of individuals under 18 years of age’. Hmmm, I agree that it’s generally not advisable to marry that young. (‘Some’ would say ‘or at all’.) But making it illegal? I dunno. Health & Human Development Committee.
*HS1/HB 319 (B. Short) provides that, ‘(w)hen Medicare determines that a treatment is safe for its population, commercial insurers in Delaware may no longer deny coverage on that basis’. Seems like a good bill to me. Business Lapdog Committee.
*Oh, God, here we go. HB 335 (D. Short) ‘establishes the Delaware School Safety and Security Fund to allow eligible public schools to compete for grant awards to partially or fully fund projects intended to improve school safety or security’. And, of course, there will be a panel of political appointees to determine the winners. First year funding? $5 mill. Money that could go to, I don’t know, education. I will note that the prime sponsor and most of the other sponsors of this travesty oppose pretty much every gun control measure that comes before them. And HB 336 (Miro) ‘requires each public school district to equip the schools within their respective jurisdictions with an adequate number of panic buttons that may be used to immediately alert local law enforcement authorities of a security threat at a school.’ There’s no fiscal note yet for this bill, but, again, if funded, it will reduce available funding for education. Education Committee.
Senate Committee meeting highlights:
*SB 166 (Henry) requires that feminine hygiene products be provided free of charge to individuals in custody at facilities operated by the Department of Correction and facilities operated by the Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families. It’s ridiculous that such a basic provision requires legislative approval, but it does due to institutional incompetence and indifference. Elections & Government Affairs.
*SB 162 (Henry) is, IMHO, a very important and valuable bill. It ‘mandates audio recording or audio and video recording of the custodial interrogation process by law enforcement when the interrogation relates to a crime described in ยง 4201(c) of Title 11, which designates certain crimes as violent felonies, or to a delinquent act’. There are some exceptions, the most suspect of which is ‘exigent circumstances’, however, the bill also ‘requires the prosecution to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that an exception applies’. The only ex-cop on the bill as a sponsor is Sen. Bruce Ennis, so the going could get tough. But I think this is an absolute necessity. Judicial & Community Affairs Committee.
*I generally don’t comment on bills that have already passed the House and are in Senate committees. But I’ll make an exception for HB 170 (Ramone), which gives, yes, yet another break to investors who provide capital to Delaware companies. Because even though they pay a pittance in taxes, they won’t get off their fat asses to invest that money unless we throw more money at them. Bill passed the House unanimously, will probably do the same in the Senate. Still sucks, though. Banking, Business & Insurance Committee, which is Brian Bushweller’s counterpart to Bryon Short’s Business Lapdog Committee in the House. They’re both leaving which, in the case of ridding the General Assembly of two corporate whores, is a good thing. Don’t worry, plenty more to take their place, though.
The Senate will work this agenda today. The big news, though, is that HS1/HB 330 (Schwartzkopf), is scheduled at the top of tomorrow’s Agenda. To put it mildly, the outcome is in doubt. Now is the time to contact your State Senators if you support raising the minimum age required to purchase deadly weapons.
Mike Ramone’s NCC succession bill was run through the Senate today in committee where Bobby Marshall proceeded to cast doubt and aspersion on council’s motives and by way of that, the motive of the sponsor. He pushed and pushed. And pushed.
Luckily, George Smiley had plenty of exquisitely-stated ammo in response and Ramone followed up with enough of a case that Marshall backed off.
I have doubts about the bill as well. It’s not out of bounds for a legislator to ask questions about it. It’s not as if Marshall is an ally of KHN’s. Supporting a great candidate like Tizzy Lockman does not mean that one should trash the intent of her opponent. Something, I might point out, that Tizzy hasn’t done. Her campaign has been class all the way.
Annnnd, the bill increasing the legal age for purchase of deadly weapons has been REMOVED from tomorrow’s Senate Agenda. Meaning, it probably doesn’t have the votes to pass.