General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Thursday, March 18, 2021

Today is $15 Minimum Wage Day in the Senate.  SB 15 (Walsh) cleared the Senate Labor Committee yesterday, and is the first item on today’s Senate Agenda.  I predict 14-7, maybe Lopez goes ‘not voting’.

Can we talk for a minute over Our PAL Val Longhurst and her continued ineptitude in running gun control bills?  Her latest screw-up on ‘ghost guns’ is not her first.  She has played Charlie Brown to the NRA’s Lucy before:

Let’s talk gun control legislation. Specifically, let’s discuss how the House D’s, in particular, invariably fall into the same Groundhog’s Day continuum.  It’s either incompetence, or deliberate malfeasance.  Here’s what’s bugged me for quite some time:  Why do Pete Schwartzkopf and Val Longhurst insist on sponsoring the major gun control legislation?  They aren’t in any manner the strongest or most committed legislators on the issue. Pete, in fact, is quite comfortable with the NRA and the so-called Delaware Sportsmen’s Association. And both continue to repeat the same failed approach that has caused previous gun control legislation to fall apart.  On both Longhurst’s bump-stock bill and Schwartzkopf’s bill to increase the minimum age for purchasing deadly weapons, they re-enacted Charlie Brown, Lucy and the football.  They set themselves up as the sole negotiators with the Forces Of Evil, and they made major concessions that weakened both pieces of legislation before they even hit the floor, as if the Forces Of Evil were negotiating in good faith.

They then professed themselves to be shocked, shocked, when the Forces Of Evil raced across the lobby and worked to weaken and/or defeat both pieces of legislation in the Senate after they had passed the House. So, Longhurst’s bump-stock bill returned from the Senate with amendments that sent Longhurst into another of her many snits. As if only she had the right to negotiate on her legislation. Yo, PAL, you got played again. And the minimum age increase?  It already has five eviscerating Rethug amendments waiting for consideration in the Senate.  Here’s my point: Longhurst and Schwartzkopf should not have been the ones running these bills when there were more committed and far more competent legislators available to run them. It’s not typical for the House leaders to be the leads on legislation like this. I guarantee you that Bob Gilligan would have deferred to other members to run these bills. In fact, just look at the job that David Bentz did on shepherding HS 1/HB 302 through the House. He’s one of many D House members who would have done a better job than the so-called ‘leaders’. OK, just had to get that off my chest.

Well, we have a whole new leadership team in the Senate.  If Pete ‘n Val are sincere (insert joke here) about trying to pass effective gun legislation, they should defer to the Senate, where there are no longer any impediments caused by incompetence and/or venality. And/or they should defer to competent House members who truly are committed to gun control.

Now, Val’s talking about amendments to her ‘ghost guns’ bill. Why? Because some mouth-breathers railed against their ‘rights’ to own untraceable weapons being threatened.  Fuck that. Pass the bill as is.  Stop giving in to this microscopic minority every time they get their dander up.  Val’s great at grandstanding, but totally sucks at legislating.  New leaders, please.

Here is yesterday’s Session Activity Report.

Two Stoopid Rethuglican bills were stopped in their tracks.  SB 58 (Lawson), which purportedly ‘removes the State’s authority to forcibly isolate, quarantine, vaccinate, or treat individuals against their will for COVID-19 during a state of emergency relating to COVID-19′ did not, and will not, clear the Senate Executive Committee.  HB 40 (Collins), which ‘requires a physician to offer a patient ultrasound imaging and auscultation of fetal heart tone services before terminating a pregnancy and provides civil and criminal penalties for the failure of a physician to comply with this requirement’, did not, and will not, clear the House Health & Human Development Committee.  Unserious legislators, unserious bills. Playing to the Trump crowd.

There are two important bills on today’s House Agenda.  HB 20 (Longhurst) ‘requires all public and charter schools which have students in grades 6-12 to provide free feminine hygiene products in 50% of the bathrooms used by students who can have a menstrual cycle.’  When you think about it, it’s difficult to understand why it’s taken so long to implement this policy.  I was gonna say that this bill would likely pass unanimously, but somebody voted ‘unfavorable’ in committee. Can’t wait to see who votes against this bill.

HB 33 (K. Johnson) ‘changes the relationship between physicians and physician assistants from supervisory to collaborative, in recognition of the evolving role of physician assistants and reflecting the education, training, and experience required for licensing, which emphasizes the team-based practice model’.  Anybody who, you know, goes to a medical office understands why this makes sense.  I do, however, have one question: Why are we getting rid of ‘public members’ on licensing boards?  From the synopsis: “This bill adds 2 physician assistants members recommended by the Regulatory Council for Physician Assistants to the Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline in lieu of 2 public members.”  The General Assembly, largely through the Sunset Committee process, added public members to serve not only as voices for consumers, but to discourage boards from going into business for themselves (a rasslin’ reference) rather than protecting the public.  Can any legislator explain why this trend is being reversed? At first glance, I don’t like it.  Why not just increase Board membership by two?

Stay tuned throughout the day as I cover the minimum wage bill.