Let’s start with some good news: The minimum wage increase bill cleared committee. The Forces Of Ee-Vil were out in force and are just getting revved up to drive a stake through the heart of this bill. I think it may have the votes to pass in the Senate. Don’t see any likely D defectors. In the House, you have DINO’s like Quin Johnson, Andria Bennett, and, most importantly, Pete Schwartzkopf. So its fate remains uncertain. I’d just like to see the bill pass the Senate unamended. BTW, any word from our D governor on this, or is he just ‘monitoring’ the situation? Don’t worry, John. The Chamber can’t take back your Award Of Honor. It’s yours unto perpetuity. You’ve earned it.
Here is yesterday’s Session Activity Report.
Wellwellwell, maybe Delaware will find itself in league with the Maritime Provinces after all. SB 73 (McBride), which would ultimately place Delaware year-round in the ‘Atlantic Standard Time’ zone, passed with only 4 nos. It’s unlikely that this will ever come to fruition as a whole lot of other events have to take place in other jurisdictions for this bill to take effect.
It’s no surprise that most Rethugs don’t want to give released prisoners a fighting chance to succeed upon release. Seven of them voted against SB 123 (McBride), and Sen. Delcollo went not voting. Only Senator Cloutier joined all the D’s in voting yes, which was enough to pass the bill.
Every senator voted to prevent adult establishments from setting up shop in venues that previously housed adult establishments. What can I say? I said it all yesterday.
The most interesting bill on today’s Senate Agenda is the one at the very bottom. HB 73 (Jaques) is the first leg of a Constitutional Amendment that would permit ‘no-excuses-needed’ absentee voting. A 2/3rds vote is required for passage, but I think that R opposition will be minimal. This time. Two years from now, when the second leg comes up, who knows?
I also like SB 141 (McDowell), which ‘… encourages Delaware’s institutions of higher education to assist foreign-born, student entrepreneurs, who are engaged in the development of new businesses and technologies in Delaware, to provide them with assistance in maintaining proper legal status within the United States’. The bill is designed to ‘…encourage the creation and development of new businesses and new technologies in Delaware, without creating a new program with new funding needs’.
Today’s House Agenda features (I think) the first Consent Agenda of the year. OK, newbies, time for a learning opportunity. A Consent Agenda contains several bills deemed by the Speaker to be non-controversial. One roll call will result in the passage of all the bills on the Consent Agenda. Any legislator may request that any bill be removed from the Consent Agenda, and that request must be honored. In this case, due to the nature of the bills on the Consent Agenda, a 2/3 vote will be required. You’re welcome.
…enables a key component of the Take Care Delaware program, a partnership between law enforcement and schools to adopt a trauma-informed approach to children who have been identified at the scene of a traumatic event. The Take Care Delaware program, which will start as a pilot, operates by a police officer or emergency-care provider alerting a child’s school about the child’s presence at a traumatic event that the police officer or emergency-care provider responded to. In order to avoid violations of the State Bureau of Investigation’s dissemination statute and the Victim’s Bill of Rights in Title 11, this bill creates a narrow exception to both statutes that allows police officers and emergency-care providers to send the child’s name to their school district or charter school so that the child’s teachers can ensure the child is handled in a trauma-informed way.
…creates the Delaware Health Insurance Individual Market Stabilization Reinsurance Program & Fund (the “Program”). The Program will be administered by the Delaware Health Care Commission in order to provide reinsurance to health insurance carriers that offer individual health benefit plans in Delaware. The Program will be funded with passthrough funds received from the federal government under the Affordable Care Act, funds provided by the Federal Government for reinsurance, and through a 2.75% annual assessment based on insurance carrier’s premium tax liability.
Uh, that’s about all that interests me today, but YMMV.