General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Thurs., January 11, 2024

We now see the outlines of the Delaware Rethuglican Party platform for 2024:  Giving LLC’s the right to vote; getting revenge for not being able to attend church back in 2021; and now fighting the onerous regulations driving people toward the purchase of EV’s.  Sound like a winning combo to you?

Not content with merely filing a lawsuit against electric vehicle mandates, which they have done, they’ve now introduced legislation looking to limit governmental powers over the implementation of regulations:

“Our jobs, whether we’re Republicans or Democrats, as representatives is representing Delawareans – not special interest groups that got us our job if they did, not parties if they got us our job if they did, but once we’re in our chairs we’re supposed to be representing Delawareans,” House Minority Leader Michael Ramone, R-Pike Creek South said.

Left unsaid, of course, is that climate deniers and the fossil fuel companies are behind the propaganda campaign against EV’s.  But, I digress.

Representative Jeff Spiegelman, R-Townsend, plans to introduce two proposals that he said would bring the citizenry into the regulatory process. A new Joint Committee on Oversight of Agency Regulations would be created to bring about these rules, according to the House Republican Caucus:

(1) Require that all regulations adopted by an agency between November 1 and October 31 expire at 5 p.m. on the following June 30, unless the General Assembly acts to prevent it.

(2) Establish criteria for the committee’s review of state agency regulations.

(3) Establish a process for the committee’s review and oversight of state agency regulations, including the requirement of a staff report, public hearings, and committee recommendations to the General Assembly.

(4) If the committee recommends a regulation not be allowed to expire, requires the committee to draft and introduce a bill that removes the expiration of each regulation the committee recommends not be allowed to expire.

Regulations such as what’s been called the electric vehicle sales mandate would go before lawmakers first, according to Spiegelman.

“The regulation couldn’t just be passed. Practically, it would be treated more like legislation and go through the General Assembly process that we outlined,” Spiegelman said.

White noise for white people.

Here is yesterday’s Session Activity Report.

Doesn’t look like the Senate came in yesterday.  Which, based on the aftermath of the storm, probably made sense.  So, the Senate has the same agenda as it had yesterday.

The highlight of today’s House Agenda is SS1/SB 106(Gay),  which ‘modernizes and expands the concept of maternal mental health by replacing the definition of maternal depression with the more encompassing definition of perinatal mood and anxiety disorder. This Act contemplates treatment for any caregiver who may be affected by perinatal mood and anxiety disorder.’  Because they’re assholes, every single Rethug senator voted against the bill.  All D senators voted yes.   Will we see a repeat in the House?

Hey, wish I had more.  But I can only work with the raw materials at hand.