General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Wednesday, June 23, 2021

Pretty much every bill we discussed yesterday passed yesterday.  The one exception, HB 122 (Heffernan), which would require that persons with disabilities be paid a minimum wage, is at the top of today’s House Agenda with an amendment by the sponsor. Meaning, all is well with this excellent bill.

Here is yesterday’s Session Activity Report.  Time constraints (our site was down for awhile) prohibit me from sharing all the terrible votes from the miscReants yesterday.  Suffice it to say that Reps Briggs King and Collins voted against giving foster care kids a shot at higher education. That’s just cold.  If I had the notion to re-rank the 62 legislators from best to worst (I don’t), Collins would be #62 by a wide margin.  He is completely devoid of empathy. Scrooge with a cracker accent.

Today’s House Agenda features both the Budget Bill and the one-time Supplemental Appropriations bill. The Supplemental provides funding to implement legalized marijuana regulations, should HB 150 pass.  That bill notably has not reappeared on an Agenda since it was pulled by the sponsor awhile ago.

Some other highlights on the House Agenda: SB 72 (McBride), which ‘clarifies that discrimination against any person because of religion is illegal’ in Delaware; and SB 147 (Pinkney), which ‘codifies a reasonableness requirement for the use of force, both non-lethal and lethal’…and ‘makes it clear that the determination of one’s state of mind is an objective standard —that is, what a reasonable person would have believed, rather than what the defendant believed.’

Notable by its absence is SB 148 (Pinkney), which:

…expands the Division of Civil Rights and Public Trust’s responsibility to review deadly use of force incidents by law enforcement by adding review of cases involving serious physical injury. It also requires that if the Division issues a public report on the use of force, the report must include the race of the law enforcement officer who used force, the race of the individual on whom force was used, and whether race was a relevant or motivating factor.’

Like SB 147,  SB 148 is out of committee.  Memo to Sen. Sokola:  This is one bill you must insist that the House consider, cop cabal notwithstanding.  It has the potential to hold cops, to some degree, accountable.  Which is why you might have to fight for it.

Today’s Senate Agenda is less impactful, with HB 29 (Baumbach), which prevents the post-election filing deadline game of musical chairs for office seekers, perhaps the highlight.

One reason for the Senate’s relatively small agenda is that Senate committees are meeting primarily to consider a whole bleepload of bills coming over from the House.  For an example, check out today’s Senate Judiciary Committee Agenda.  Quite a few consequential bills there, including the police body camera bill.

There is, however, a Senate bill with one of the more unusual titles I’ve seen in quite awhile: SB 191 (Lopez), ‘AN ACT TO AMEND THE CHARTER OF THE CITY OF LEWES RELATING TO THE MANNER AND METHOD OF CONDUCTING ANNUAL MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS AND FISHING ALONG THE DELAWARE BAY SHORE’.  I get it, it’s a Charter change, doesn’t impact the Delaware Code, but I thought it was a pretty cool juxtaposition.

Gotta book, I’ll try to do better tomorrow.  In fact, I will do better tomorrow, assuming the hamster on the wheel that powers this site doesn’t collapse from exhaustion.