Today’s Headlines:
*Third Time The Charm For Seaford’s LLC’s? I doubt it, but it’s back on today’s House Agenda. There must be a story behind the story. I’d love to hear it.
*Budget & Bond Bills Headed For Passage. Both on today’s Senate Agenda. Well, not precisely. The Bond Bill has been laid on the table, and can be considered with a Motion To Suspend Rules. It’s first on Wednesday’s Senate Agenda. The Grants-In-Aid bill has not yet been introduced. I’m once again looking forward to seeing how much money Nicole ‘No Longer’ Poore’s Jobs For Delaware Graduates scam and Our PAL Val’s Police Athletic League gets shoveled in their respective directions.
*The Delaware Climate Change Solutions Act Of 2023 Is On Today’s Senate Agenda. Will any Rethugs support this bill? I’m betting no.
It’s a sign of the times that the highly-complex corporate law bills have been placed on a House Consent Agenda. Why not? Nobody knows what’s in them, and nobody’s gonna ask questions. Still, the annual lack of transparency should at least be questioned. You know, maybe get someone from the Corporate Bar on the floor and ask them to explain the bills in layperson’s terms. The lamentable fact is that the entire General Assembly is in on the scheme to ‘keep Delaware at the top of the corporation food chain’. As in, “We don’t care how you do it, just do it.”
Today’s Senate Agenda also features SB 51, which ‘prohibits food establishments from providing consumers with ready-to-eat food or beverages in polystyrene foam containers or with single-service plastic coffee stirrers, cocktail picks, or sandwich picks. It also prohibits food establishments from providing single-service plastic straws, unless requested by a consumer.’ The bill was amended, but not weakened, in the House, and is now ready for final passage.
The Senate is also wasting no time in considering the following energy-saving bills in addition to HB 99: HB 12 and HB 10. All three bills, along with SB 51, could be headed to the Governor’s office by the end of session today.
There are no House committee meetings today. Today’s Senate committee meetings consider mostly House bills, with these two exceptions, both in the Education Committee:
…ensures that educators hired after the effective date of this Act, who earned graduate degrees prior to becoming educators, receive credit on the salary schedule for those degrees regardless of the specific subject area of those degrees. Once an individual is employed as an educator, in order to receive credit for any graduate degrees earned after that time, such degree must be in the subject area in which the educator is employed.
SB 188 (Sturgeon) ‘enacts the Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact (ITMC). The Council of State Governments partnered with the Department of Defense and the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification (NASDTEC) to support the mobility of licensed teachers through the development of this new interstate compact.
I need to give everybody a heads-up on some important committee deliberations scheduled for Wednesday. SB 4 (Pinkney) is a great bill dedicated to probation reform. I’ll talk about it a lot more tomorrow. Suffice it to say it’s been saddled with a bullshit (aka unrealistic) fiscal note. Senate Corrections & Public Safety. Also, the Senate Executive Committee holds a meeting tomorrow with an agenda chock full of important bills.
The General Assembly is in session four days this week, with Friday signifying the end of the scheduled session. Will Speaker Pete step down as Speaker on Friday? Will anyone besides Rep. Briggs King step down w/o finishing out their term? Am I merely fishing for ‘curiosity clicks’? Don’t know, don’t know, and yes.