Wednesday was basically a committee day with a handful of non-controversial bills being worked in the Senate.
Here is yesterday’s Session Activity Report.
Today’s Senate Agenda features two House bills that seek to address the issue of ‘double-dipping’ elected public officials. Both HB 9 (K. Williams) and HB 38 (K. Williams) passed the House unanimously although, it should be pointed out, Rae Moore was absent for both votes. I bring that up as she was one of the legislators identified as perhaps collecting twice for work only performed once. Plus, she’s been absent from session quite a bit lately. Don’t know if there’s a story there or not.
HB 9:
…requires a paid elected official or paid appointed official of this State or any political subdivision of this State (“official”) who is also employed by a state agency or a political subdivision of this State to disclose the dual employment to the Public Integrity Commission (“Commission”). This disclosure will assist the Commission and the State Auditor in evaluating if the official is receiving dual public compensation for coincident hours of work and requires the Commission to report to the official’s employer of any finding of dual compensation.
HB 38:
…requires an institution of higher education that receives funding from this State to keep and provide records for an elected or appointed official who is employed by the institution of higher education. The University of Delaware and Delaware State University are to comply with this Act for employees who are paid in whole or in part with State funds. If the State Auditor finds that an institution of higher education is knowingly in violation of this Act, the State Auditor may impose an administrative penalty on the institution of higher education and shall report the violation and amount of administrative penalty imposed to the Public Integrity Commission, Department of Justice, and the Office of the Controller General.
Two excellent bills, likely to pass unanimously.
The Senate is also scheduled to consider nominations under Executive Business. Presumably including the confirmation of nominations for Marijuana Czar and for Public Advocate.
Only bill that interests me on today’s House Agenda is HB 45 (Griffith), which appears to be designed to enable law enforcement to better track firearms purchases. The bill:
…requires payment card networks to make available to merchant acquirers the merchant category code for firearms and ammunition businesses that was established by the International Organization for Standardization on September 22, 2022 by July 1, 2025, and for merchant acquirers to assign the MCC for firearms and ammunition businesses to firearms merchants beginning October 1, 2025.
Or maybe not. If I get a chance, I’ll listen to the floor discussion. Or, you can tell me what it does. Even better.
Here’s a notable development which was made inevitable by the cloudy budget picture:
A delayed project to build a $33 million Legislative Hall parking garage for lawmakers and the broader public is set to move forward, pending an environmental permit that state officials expect to secure soon, according to testimony from a meeting of the state’s Legislative Building Committee on Monday.
But, controversial plans to build an underground tunnel between the new garage and Legislative Hall next door will not be part of the project, committee members said.
The committee – which is made up of lawmakers and legislative staffers – voted at the Monday meeting to formally pause plans for a parallel, $96 million renovation at Legislative Hall, which would have included the construction of a tunnel.
That’s a wrap for this week.