General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Weds., May 22, 2024

As expected, the Hospital Cost Review Board bill as amended passed the House and heads to the Governor.  No R’s voted yes, D Reps. Lynn and Matthews voted no.  One of my fave spies has sent me a piece opposing the legislation written by one Ben DuPont.  Pete’s kid.  Suggested I knock it down point-by-point.  Nope.  The DuPont wing of the Rethuglican Party has become the Irr-elephants in the room.

Here’s yesterday’s Session Activity Report.  Very pleased to see that Darius Brown’s bills doing away with certain fees imposed on defendants all passed.

Was kinda amused to see that three R’s voted for HB 374 (K. Johnson), which ‘provid(es) the same legal protections afforded providers of contraceptive and abortion services to providers of fertility treatment.  Amused in that all three have opposed virtually all measures protecting abortion rights.  Hensley, M. Smith, and Ramone.  If you guessed that two have WFP-endorsed candidates opposing them and the third is running for Governor, you would be correct.

Today’s Senate Agenda is substantive, with at least a couple of notable, and likely, controversial, bills.  Specifically, SS1/SB 11 and SB 12 (Townsend) address bail provisions and what crimes would be exempt from permitting bail.  SS1/SB 11 is the first leg of a Constitutional Amendment.  If I’m reading SB 12 correctly (hey, there’s always a 50-50 chance, right?), SB 12 would not take effect until/unless SS1/SB 11 becomes law.  Barristers, am I on the right track here?  I’m pretty sure these initiatives have come from the AG’s office.  I know they’ve been the subject of quite a bit of back-and-forth for the last couple of years.

The agenda also features two more great bills from Sen. Mantzavinos and Rep. K. Johnson concerning long-term care facilities. I’m blown away by what they’re doing. SS2/SB 150.  SS1/SB 151.  Check ’em out.

If anything, the legislative efforts of Sen. Gay have gone underappreciated.  She gets down in the weeds and does detail work that is important, but often overlooked.  Two bills on today’s Agenda illustrate the point:  SB 295:

‘strengthens the current practice of obtaining service letters for employment in child care facilities to protect children from workers who have engaged in prior acts that are prohibited by the Office of Child Care Licensing. The Act does all of the following: 1. Requires service letters used for child care facilities ask previous employers whether they would have any concerns about the employee providing care to children. 2. Requires service letters used for child care facilities ask previous employers whether the employee was ever warned, reprimanded, suspended, or discharged for any violations found in the Department of Education’s Regulations for Early Care and Education and School-Age Centers. 3. Requires the Office of Child Care Licensing to report any suspected failure of an employer to adhere to the requirements of a service letter to the Department of Labor for review and possible civil penalties.

SB 296:

‘provide(s) indirect purchasers who have been harmed by violations of the Delaware Antitrust Act the ability to sue for damages. Indirect purchasers of a product or service in the chain of distribution are often the ones who bear the burden of any overcharges from antitrust violations such as price-fixing. Direct purchasers and others in the chain of distribution of the affected product or service often have the ability to pass the overcharge through the chain of distribution to end users. This will align Delaware with at least 36 other states which currently allow for a cause of action for damages for indirect purchasers. Often, end users who make purchases in Delaware, primarily Delaware residents and businesses, are excluded from making claims against multimillion dollar settlement funds set up to compensate indirect purchasers for transactions made in other states that do authorize lawsuits for damages for indirect purchasers.

Good stuff.

We’ve saved the (deliciously) best for last.  Gov. Budget Smoothing will soon come face-to-face with the overwhelming rejection of his plans to break the state’s promises to its retirees.  In the forms of HB 281 and HB 282, both sponsored by Rep. Baumbach and pretty much EVERY member of the General Assembly.  I wonder whether there’s ever been such a unanimous repudiation of a governor’s policy in Delaware history.   Doesn’t matter whether Carney signs the bills or not.  They’re becoming law regardless.

700 words in, and we’ve still got a bleepload of fascinating bills in today’s committee meetings to cover.  So much so that I’m strictly adhering to my p0licy of only discussing House bills in House committees and Senate bills in Senate committees.

Today’s Senate Committee highlights:

SB 300 (Gay) ‘requires crisis pregnancy centers in this state to provide notice if the center is not licensed by this state as a medical facility and does not have a licensed medical provider who provides or directly supervises, in person, the provision of services’.

SB 301 (Gay) ‘requires public universities in this state to provide access to medication for the termination of pregnancy and emergency contraception.’

Both in Senate Health & Services Committee.

SB 305 (Sturgeon) ‘streamlines and modernizes the State Early Childhood Education Program in § 3001 of Title 14, also referred to as State-funded early care and education…provides the Department of Education (Department) with a general grant of authority to provide early childhood educational services…subject to available appropriations…requires the Department to provide free, full-day early childhood educational services for preschool-age children who satisfy eligibility requirements developed by the Department. Education.

SS1/SB 23 (Huxtable):

Accessory dwelling units (ADUs), also known as in-law units or garage apartments, are valuable and convenient forms of housing that can help to increase Delaware’s housing supply. In order to expand affordable housing opportunities, this Act requires local governments to permit the construction of ADUs within their jurisdictions without prohibitive barriers or onerous application or zoning requirements.  Housing & Land Use.

Today’s House Committee highlights:

HB 401 (Lambert) ‘require(s) the Division of Public Health to provide the results of lead screenings or tests to school nurses and require contracts or computer upgrades to include lead results.’  Health & Human Development.

Check out today’s House Appropriations Committee agenda.  All of these bills have fiscal impacts.  The committee consists of the House members of the Joint Finance Committee.  So, assuming the bills are funded in the proposed budget, they’ll likely be released from committee.

Don’t know if I’ve seen a more Delaware Way bill this session than HB 365 (Cooke), which permits ‘mobile sports betting’ in Delaware.  Pretty sure that Castle was Governor when the insiders cooked up this ‘video lottery’ way around a constitutional bar on legalized gambling.  That led to the racinos.  When you read this bill, you will note that each of the three racinos will have the right to contract with two providers.  Not that the gaming will be confined to the racinos, oh no.  And here’s yet another Delaware Way component:

Licensed operators will also contribute 1.5% of their monthly adjusted gross sports lottery receipts to purses for allocation under the direction of the Delaware Thoroughbred Racing Commission or the Delaware Harness Racing Commission, as applicable.

So. The State will enhance its coffers.  The racinos and what remains of Delaware’s horse racing industry benefit.  The only losers–the gambling addicts who can’t resist making the bets.  Bad bill.  Will pass.  Administration.

HB 360 (Wilson-Anton) ‘adds Eid ul-Fitr and Eid ul-Adha to the list of state holidays.’  Administration.

HB 391 (Dorsey Walker):

Delaware relies on fees imposed as surcharges by the criminal legal system to generate revenue for government services. These criminal fees can be an unstable revenue generator, especially when there are recessions, pandemics, or other major economic events. This Act repeals three fees that currently fund videophone systems used by state and local agencies, personnel, equipment, and training expenses related to judicial branch security, and victim notification initiatives.

All of these bills eliminating fees on those on the criminal justice system grew out of recommendations by the Criminal Legal System Imposed Debt Study Group.  The work they’ve done is so admirable that the members deserve a shout-out:

Voting Members:
Rep. Sean M. Lynn, Co-Chair
Sen. Darius J. Brown, Co-Chair
Maj. Peter Sawyer, Secretary, DSHS
Gayle Lafferty, State Court Administrator
Lisa Minutola, on behalf of Jon Offredo, Office of Defense Services
Rebecka Steiner
Meryem Dede
Romain Alexander, Office of the Governor
Allison Abessinio, Office of the Attorney General

Non-Voting Members:
Philisa Weidlein-Crist, Statistical Analysis Center
Hon. Christina Dirksen, Secretary, DTI
Jason R. Smith, Controller General
Brenda Wise, Director, Office of Management & Budget
Spence Price, Director, DELJIS
Kenneth Kelemen, Director, Judicial Information Center
William DiBartola, Office of State Courts, Collections Administrator
Tanya Whittle
Christopher Ciecko, Commissioner, Department of Corrections
Hon. Alan Davis, Chief Magistrate of JP Court
Hon. Addie Asay, Chief Judge of Family Court
Hon. Stephanie Fitzgerald, Chief Judge of Court of Common Pleas
Hon. Alicia Howard, President Judge
Rev. Rita Mishoe Paige.

Great work, folks!

See you tomorrow.  I doubt that the agendas will be packed as a holiday weekend beckons.