In a rare crossover with the Open Thread, we can report that the Green Amendment cleared the House Administration Committee yesterday, and was immediately opposed by Delaware’s Secretary Of Agriculture Michael Scuse. When a Cabinet official opposes a bill, especially one from Carney’s select Band Of Team Players, it is not much of a reach to assume that the Governor wants the bill killed. Of course, that wouldn’t be fair. Someone, perhaps a reporter if one still exists down there, should ask him. Scuse’s opposition is chickenshit. Literally and figuratively:
He has received the Medal of Achievement from the Delmarva Poultry Industry, Inc.
I want a roll call.
Here’s yesterday’s Session Activity Report. The Renters’ Right To Counsel bill as amended received final approval in the Senate and heads to the Governor for his signature.
Today’s Senate Agenda features these bills that we have previously discussed favorably: SB 173 (Paradee), SB 152 (Mantzavinos), SB 167 (Pinkney), and SB 175 (Townsend). For some strange reason, I feel that the preceding sentence requires an Oxford Comma, but I don’t really no why. Can someone help me out of my commatose state? But, I digress. My Wife The Pharmacist tells me that SB 165 (Poore) is a good bill. As long as she plies me with drugs, I have to agree.
Which leaves me with SB 154 (Pettyjohn). For the first time that I can recall, this bill ‘unsunsets’ an agency or, perhaps more accurately, a program that the General Assembly had abolished. Abolished recently, in this case. The agency, or program, in question is the Focus On Alternative Skills Training Program. The program purportedly ‘provides tuition for an eligible individual to attend an approved non-degree credit certificate program that provides industry-accepted skill training and certification.’ Like plumbing or electrical work. Up to $9K a year. Sounds fine to me. So, why was the program terminated? There had to be a reason. The Fiscal Note is, well, weird:
Fiscal Year 2024: $78,354 – $1,000,000 (Maximum)
Fiscal Year 2025: $79,801 – $1,000,000 (Maximum)
Fiscal Year 2026: $81,277 – $1,000,000 (Maximum)
Well, that’s quite the range, said Captain Obvious. Can someone tell me what’s going on here?
Here’s today’s House Agenda. I’ll be looking to see who votes against HS 2/HB 142 (Morrison), which:
…precludes the so-called LGBTQ+ “panic” defense that seeks to partially or completely excuse or justify a defendant from full accountability for the commission of a crime on the grounds that the actual or perceived sexual orientation, sex, gender, gender identity, or sex assigned at birth of the victim is sufficient to explain, excuse, or justify the defendant’s conduct, or contributes to or causes the defendant’s mental state, or that the defendant’s reaction thereto constitutes a mental illness, mental defect, or mental disorder sufficient to excuse or justify the defendant’s conduct (including under circumstances in which the victim made a nonviolent romantic or sexual advance toward the defendant or in which the defendant and the victim dated or had a romantic or sexual relationship)…
There is one absolutely terrible bill on the Agenda, and I urge you to contact your State Reps to ask them to vote no. It’s HB 215 (Bolden), which ‘moves the date of primary elections for statewide office, county office, and municipal office to the fourth Tuesday in April, which is the date of the presidential primary (in presidential election years)’. Pro-incumbency, anti-insurgency, and anti-democratic. Unless global warming gets so bad that the ideal time to knock doors will be from December to March. Why Dave Sokola and Bryan Townsend are on this bill is beyond me, but it doesn’t reflect well on them.
Oh, the Maypole Dance? It’s on the Consent Agenda. Couldn’t they, you know, just make it the official dance for Hockessin octogenarians or something?