Delaware General Assembly Pre-Game Show: Tuesday, January 14, 2025

Spoiler Alert:  The first two paragraphs of this article have been cut-and-pasted from 2023.  With, of course, the dates changed to reflect this year’s legislative calendar.

Today’s Opening Session is merely ceremonial.  Swearing-in of the Senators and the Reps, followed by receptions, and pictures with families and friends.

For all you legislative newbies out there, welcome!  We cover every legislative session day with a pre-game show and, where applicable, a post-game wrap-up.  The Delaware General Assembly is in session for about 50 days between now and June 30.  Here is this year’s legislative calendar.  The General Assembly meets from Tuesday through Thursday.  The House conducts committee meetings on Wednesdays, with no significant legislative business on the floor. There is a 6-week break for Joint Finance (Budget) hearings that covers all of February and the first week of March.  The Bond Bill Committee will meet from March 31-April 3. General Assembly not in session.  There’s a two-week break from April 22-May 1. Then a two-week budget markup the last week of May and the first week of June.  This year’s session is scheduled to end on Monday, June 30.

The General Assembly is scheduled to meet for nine session days in January.  Tuesday, January 21 will also feature the swearing-in ceremonies for the new Governor and Lieutenant Governor. 

I intend to watch the swearing-in of the new legislators live today, which you can as well as pretty much everything is now available to view here.  Just click on the Live Stream links.  So psyched to watch Kamela Smith, Frank Burns, Claire Snyder-Hall and Mara Gorman get sworn in.

The first drama of the session could well hinge on what action, if any,  the new House Speaker Mimi Minor-Brown will take to address the DUI and near-fatal crash caused by Rep. Kevin Hensley.  I think he should be at least be taken off the Joint Finance Committee.  He gets serious extra money for serving on JFC, money which, in my opinion, he has disqualified himself from receiving.

Of course, the Speaker herself has been identified by the State Auditor as having collected money from both Del-Tech and the University Of Delaware while supposedly carrying out her official state legislative duties.  So she may not feel she’s in position to stand in judgment of a fellow legislator.  Which is one major reason why the Democratic Caucus should never have elected her as Speaker.  We’ll be watching.  And reporting.  Her performance as Speaker will be one of my most closely-watched story lines of this session.  As will how she deals with Kevin Hensley.

Back tomorrow with (maybe? perhaps?) the first committee meeting previews of 2025.