General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Thurs., May 9, 2019
Well, the gun bills weren’t released from the Executive Committee yesterday. Don’t worry, they will be. The sooner, the better. I was gonna quote from some of the opponents here, but out of respect to your brain cells, I won’t. Teh stoopid, it burns.
Here is yesterday’s Session Activity Report.
Today’s House Agenda features HS/HB105 (Rep. Minor-Brown), which creates a ‘Step Therapy Exception Process whereby patients who are required by their insurance company to go through step therapy protocols can, under certain circumstances, bypass step therapy to obtain the initially-prescribed medication’. This would eliminate requiring patients to have to jump through hoops before being permitted to get prescribed drugs. BTW, feedback on Rep. Minor-Brown has been unfailingly positive. One long-time legislative observer referred to her as a ‘rock star’. And, remember, kids, her decision to run led to the retirement of a long-term back-bencher. Prospective candidates, take note.
HB 109(Kowalko) is similar to recently-enacted legislation concerning Rehoboth Beach, and prevents the Park Slope Kathy argument that ‘LLC’s are people and entitled to vote’ from taking effect in Newark.
A Kowalko bill is the highlight of today’s Senate Agenda. You may recall that HB 46 ‘creates a Delaware Manufactured Home Owner Attorney Fund…(to) provide legal representation and advocacy for manufactured home owners enforcing existing rights in disputes with community owners’. You may also recall that three D’s, Bill Bush, who voted no, and Andria Bennett and Gerald Brady, who went not voting, which is the same as no, saw fit to not protect people living in manufactured homes. Joined, of course, by every single Rethug in the House. I’d be surprised if any D votes no on this bill in the Senate.
I also like SB 63(Delcollo), which essentially protects whistleblowers from discrimination under Delaware’s Equal Accommodations law. Look for a close to unanimous vote.
Talk about being fast-tracked. Someone has gone to great lengths to jump HB 125(Schwartzkopf) to the head of the legislative line. It is notable that the two top legislative leaders are the sponsors. Again, I certainly support our craft brewing industry, but I would like to know why this bill has a rocket up its butt. Anybody have any info?
Over and out.
HB 46 passed the Senate, 20 yes, Hocker going not voting. A senate amendment was added to the bill, a ‘friendly’ amendment sponsored by Sen. Ennis. For newbies, a friendly amendment is one that is supported by sponsors, not one that in any way makes the bill weaker.
That means that the amended bill goes back to the House for a final vote. I wonder if either Bush, Bennett or Brady will vote like D’s this time.
Could THIS be the reason why HB 125 has a rocket up its butt:
https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/2019/05/09/dogfish-head-brewery-merging-makers-sam-adams-beer/1155701001/
If so, I will again point out that the purpose of the bill is being hidden from the public.
Can you link to some background on HB125?
Here’s the body of the bill. Bear in mind that the underlined portion is new, the marked out portions are being stricken:
http://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GenerateHtmlDocument?legislationId=47347&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=HB125
Again, the real purpose of the bill is not spelled out, so I don’t know for sure. But when something like this is fast-tracked, my Spidey Sense kicks in. I’m not even saying it’s a bad bill, I’m just saying that there’s a reason why we’re being kept in the dark.
And when this merger comes from seemingly nowhere, I think there’s a reasonable chance that there’s a relationship here.
Well, HB 125 passed unanimously and will head to the Governor. We may never know the story behind this bill.
Looks to me like Dogfish needed the legislation in order to merge with an out-of-state brewer. Didn’t dig into the issue of sale/manufacturing volume but it looks as though the state is letting some third party (“brewers association”) determine that Dogfish Adams can make and sell as much beer as it damn well pleases and still be considered a craft brewer.
If we had more than one legislative reporter (Matt Bittle) working in the state, someone might have sniffed this out before Sam A. and Sam C. turned it into a media event.
That’s what I think. What bothers me is that the bill provided no notice of what its purpose was. Just read that synopsis again. It says nothing:
” This bill is intended to facilitate the growth and expansion of Delaware licensed craft alcoholic beverage companies within the State by permitting them to continue to grow and expand in an increasingly competitive environment. This bill does not change the position of craft alcoholic beverage companies in the traditional “three-tier” system.”
Last sentence is critical. It’s “Bill Synopsis for Dummies.” Even if it has absolutely noting to do with Delaware’s fixed market distribution system, gotta make sure the low-IQ component of the GA understands they can vote for this one without upsetting the beer carts.
This bill was deliberately shrouded in secrecy. Speaker Pete’s not talking, Dave McBride’s claiming ignorance, and Carney remains sphinx-like. Once again, you didn’t have a right to know:
https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/2019/05/10/aided-delaware-lawmakers-dogfish-deal-result-hypercompetition-beer/1162837001/
A disgrace.