General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Wednesday, May 12, 2021

I’m really enjoying Matt Bittle’s blow-by-blow descriptions of the gun control hearings. He lets the witnesses speak for themselves.  He’s worth the subscription, which is why I have one.

The latest bill in question, SS1/SB3 (Lockman):

…would mandate individuals seeking to buy a handgun first complete a training course before submitting an application to the Delaware Department of Safety and Homeland Security. The agency would issue a qualified-purchaser card within 30 days as long as the applicant is eligible, enabling the cardholder to buy as many handguns as he or she wants in the next six months.

Applicants would have to pay for training and a background check.

Delawareans who already have a concealed-carry permit would be exempt from the training course.

Under the bill, the state would maintain a database of those who applied for a permit, using it solely to help trace firearms and identify criminals. Records would be cleared after two years, and the information would not be public. Per the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, 10 states have passed laws requiring individuals to get a license to buy at least some type of firearm.”

That’s Matt Bittle’s description.  He writes that an amendment may be needed to address a couple of issues that arose at the hearing.  We’re getting close, folks!

Here is yesterday’s Session Activity Report.  The Trone Family Monopoly bill was tabled in committee. Good.

Neither chamber will meet in session today. Committee meetings rule the roost.

Let’s see what House committees will consider today…

*HB 157 (Wilson-Anton) appears to be a wise updating of the Controlled Substances Act as it pertains to pharmacists. Health & Human Development.

*HB 162 (Minor-Brown) …’creates a fund to allow the Department of Services for Children, Youth, and their Families to award competitive grants for the targeted provision of services that have been proven effective in helping juveniles avoid contact with the criminal justice system. This Act also allocates $500,000 for FY 2022 to the Fund for provision of cognitive behavioral therapy services and vocational training services. Health & Human Development.

*HB 195 (Walker) ‘requires certain police officers and some certain employees of the Department of Correction and Department of Services for Children, Youth, and Their Families to wear a body worn camera and to use the body worn camera to record interactions with a member of the public in accordance with the regulations to be established by the Council on Police Training. This Act requires state agencies to implement the statewide body worn camera program through the procurement of cameras, development of a central data storage program, and provision of necessary personnel as funding is available.’  AS AG Kathleen Jennings has pointed out, the establishment of a centralized data base will significantly reduce the ongoing cost of this initiative.  Since Franklin Cooke is one of the sponsors, look for the bill to clear committee.  Public Safety & Homeland Security.

*HB 144 (K. Williams) will provide more funding for Pre-K Special Ed by changing the level of funding supporting students as follows:

From one unit of funding for every 12.8 pupils to the following:

a.One unit of funding for every 11.3 pupils, effective July 1, 2021;

b.One unit of funding for every 9.8 pupils, effective July 1, 2022; and

c.One unit of funding for every 8.4 pupils, effective July 1, 2023.

You may be asking yourselves, where is the funding coming from?  The answer is that, for the most part, the Joint Finance Committee has been apprised of these initiatives, and can fund them in the Budget Bill.  Education.

Sometimes, you can tell the bill’s intent from its sponsors.  Which is why I’m leery of HB 154 (M. Smith, not Melanie. Although both back Mike Ramone.).  Who could oppose making it ‘an unlawful employment practice for an employer to discriminate against any individual because of their political affiliation or political belief’?  Not me. Then, why are there only Rethug sponsors on this bill?  Anybody know the back-story on it?  Labor.

Today’s Senate Committee highlights:

*If you’re into crypto-currency, then this bill may interest you.  Still smells like a pyramid scheme to me.  Banking, Business & Insurance.

*Escheators Never Win.  Except, in Delaware, we successfully turned it into yet another money-making scam where we had to virtually do nothing to strike it rich (yet another cornerstone of the Pete DuPont legacy).  We’ve been scrambling since other states have cried foul.  Which, I suspect, is the impetus for SB 104 (Townsend). Banking, Business & Insurance.

*To hear Lauren Witzke tell it, Sen. Bryant Richardson is some namby-pamby RINO who provides succor to socialists. In fact, he just sucks.  Does SB 108 strike you as succor to socialists? The bill ‘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‘.  The bill is perversely labeled ‘”The Woman’s Right to Know Act’, which would be the first time the bill’s sponsors have supported women’s rights on any issue. Don’t worry, it’s not going anywhere. Sunset.

*SB 101 (Townsend) ‘creates a right to counsel for tenants in evictions and other landlord-tenant actions.’  Here’s why it’s needed:

Approximately 18,000 eviction cases are filed each year in the State of Delaware, and while 86% of landlords are represented by an attorney, agent, or business manager, only 2% of tenants have representation. The disruptive displacement that accompanies eviction proceedings create significant costs for state and local government related to shelter funding, education funding, health care provided in hospitals instead of community-based providers, transportation costs for homeless youth, and foster care. Evictions and disruptive displacement also have significant, well-documented, and long-lasting effects on the lives of individuals and families, including poorer physical and mental health, increased risk of homelessness, increased risk of employment loss, loss of personal property, damage to credit standing, and relocation into substandard housing. Further, evictions fall disproportionately on Black and Latinx families, who have also been the hardest hit by the COVID-19 crisis.

In reading the synopsis, I suspect that the Attorney General has been an active participant in crafting this bill.  Wouldn’t it be great if our ‘governor’ was active on any legislation save budget-smoothing and privatizing economic development? But, I digress. Housing.

*SB 11 (Townsend):

is the first leg of a constitutional amendment that modernizes the Delaware Constitution’s bail provision and clarifies the power of the General Assembly and the Courts to define certain felony offenses for which, or circumstances under which, pretrial release on bail may not be available. Upon enactment of the second leg of this constitutional amendment, Article I, § 12 of the Delaware Constitution proposed will do all of the following: (1) Retain the express declaration of a general right to have bail set in a criminal case. (2) Provide that the only crimes for which bail must be withheld are capital murder, where the evidentiary proof is positive and presumption of the accusation great, and other felony offenses determined by and under procedures prescribed by law where the evidentiary proof is clear and convincing. (3) Ensure that one condition precedent to bail being withheld in non-capital cases is a finding that no bail condition or combination of bail conditions other than detention will assure the safety of another person or the community, that the person will appear for future proceedings, or that the detention is necessary to prevent the person from obstructing justice.

There are even a couple of R’s on the bill.  Executive.

That should be enough for you to chew on until tomorrow.