General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Thursday, April 1, 2021
Topics For The General Assembly Easter Break:
The House Kop Kabal Must End.
Franklin Cooke Must Be Defeated.
The Three (Or Four) State Reps (And One Governor) Who Must Be Lobbied Heavily On Minimum Wage.
Here’s yesterday’s Session Activity Report.
There’s only one big story today. The Senate will try (and, I think, succeed) to pass significant gun safety legislation. The Senate could have passed such legislation last session, but Senators Dave McBride, Nicole Poore, and Cathy Cloutier voted to bury the bills in the Senate Executive Committee. Then President Pro-Tem McBride had put the bills in the Executive Committee with the express purpose of killing them, his promises to run them notwithstanding. Two of them are gone, and Poore has had her power cut out from under her. This Senate rocks. In case you haven’t been reading these reports, here are the two bills: SB 3 (Lockman) and SB 6 (Sokola). Not only does the Senate rock, but Dave Sokola is already the best President Pro-Tempore in Senate history. Period.
Today’s House Agenda is highlighted by HB 200 (Longhurst), which finally ‘establishes a framework for assessing needs and planning and implementing projects that support Delaware’s efforts to improve the quality of the State’s water supply and waterways. A Delaware Clean Water Trust account is created as a funding source for executing projects highlighted by this framework.’
Kids, this is yet another example of a bill that could have passed a couple of sessions ago. However, as she has consistently done, Valerie Longhurst insisted that she be the prime sponsor of the bill, went out and publicly proclaimed that it was gonna be the greatest thing ever, only to find out that the bill didn’t have a fucking funding mechanism, something one would hope a prime sponsor would have understood. In other words, she fucked up the management of this bill every bit as much as she has fucked up the management of every single gun safety bill she has insisted on having her name on as the prime sponsor. Most recent example: ghost guns. But, I digress. The bill now has a funding mechanism, and its long-delayed implementation is more than welcome. As House Majority Leader, Longhurst can and does grab any bill that she wants, and sponsor it. She does not do any of the hard work that generally goes into putting a bill together. See bill. Steal bill. Who’s gonna stand in her way, only to get crushed? This House does not rock.
Well, I’ve got my list of topics to address during the upcoming recess. Time to get started on them. As soon as I correct some imbalances on my fantasy baseball team (too many Phillies).
A Substitute version of SB 3 has passed the Senate with 13 yes votes. All D’s except for Bruce Ennis voted for this version of the bill:
https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?legislationId=58548
HB 200, the Clean Water project bill, has unanimously passed the House.
Not to knock anything moving in a positive direction as to clean water, but the dollar amounts mentioned are a drop in the bucket. Delaware needs mandatory testing of all private potable wells , period. Funding that should be some ones primary focus. How can we treat a problem that we are not sure we have and how bad we have it? All surrounding states Health Dept. test and certify potable wells. With mandatory testing we will identify the problems and seek to fund solutions.
Looks like the killer weaponry bill has been tabled.
First story on the gun bills I’ve seen so far https://baytobaynews.com/stories/delaware-senate-passes-two-big-gun-control-measures,44257
Sounds like a, uh, fun afternoon
Woo-hoo! Sarah McBride and Kyle Evans Gay vs. Dave Lawson is not a fair fight.
Props to Sarah for pointing out that elections have consequences.
BTW, while I really like Matt Bittle, he should have pointed out that Anthony DelCollo, who is now the Senate Rethug attorney, is a former state senator and was defeated by someone (Spiros Mantzavinos) who supported the gun control measures.
BTWBTW, turns out that the killer weapons bill had been tabled for an hour due to a glitch with the Livestream, not due to problems with the bill.
This is a great line….Before concluding, Sen. Lawson warned colleagues they risked waking up a “giant … that I don’t think any of us want” if they continue passing legislation like the gun bills.
Bring it on doughboy.