“Now the race is on, and here comes pride down the backstretch, heartache is movin’ to the inside.” And the winner loses all? I report, you decide.
June in Dover is a race run in fits and starts–some of the fits thrown by legislators. Some of the starts false. Broken up by interminable caucuses (cauci?).
They’re breaking from the gate pretty fast today. Have I yet tortured this analogy sufficiently? We’ll see.
No, I haven’t. There has been a late post position change on the House Agenda. HB 148 (Minor Brown), the bill that hides nursing screw-ups from the public, had originally been assigned to the Consent Agenda. By ‘had been assigned’, I mean by the Speaker, Sponsor, Racing Director and Nursing Board licensee Mimi Minor-Brown. Don’t any of you speculate that the original assignment was inadvertent. Thankfully, a request by any legislator removing the bill from the Consent Agenda must be honored. And so it was scratched from the Consent Agenda.
I’m placing two bucks on HS2/HB 105(Ross Levin), which:
Pay range transparency empowers job applicants with crucial information to negotiate salaries and make informed career decisions. It also encourages businesses to proactively review compensation practices, address unjustified pay disparities, and strengthen their ability to attract and retain top talent. This Act requires that employers include salary or wage range information and a general description of benefits in all postings for job opportunities, and ensures that applicants have access to that information prior to any offer or discussion of compensation. Employers are required to maintain records relating to job descriptions and wage rates for employees for at least 3 years.
After stumbling out of the gate, Ross Levin is showing some late speed. Perhaps better at longer distances.
Challengers to HS 1/HB147 (Harris) appear to have lost their jockey. Although, perhaps Ciro Poppiti is skipping the Derby to prep for the Preakness. Make no mistake–this is a great bill, protestations to the contrary merely serving as a pretext for the (very few) opponents to make money instead of protecting the rights and property of the people who need this bill.
‘In The Wind’ is the heavy betting favorite over ‘Suxco Sad Sack’ in the SB 159 (Hansen) semi-main event. The purse is for:
…the permitting of an electric substation as an allowed conditional use in a heavy industrial zone under certain conditions set forth in the Act, including that the electrical substation is being constructed to support the operation of a proposed renewable energy generation project of 250 MW or greater. This Act is being given retroactive effect such that, if a county has previously denied an application for an electrical substation that would meet the requirements of this Act, then the application shall be deemed granted provided that the electrical substation meets the requirements of this Act.
Looks like the Suxco Council will be left holding losing tickets.
Here’s the full card for the Senate Agenda. You’ll note that SS2/SB 100 (Huxtable) is open to every variety of horseflesh.
I’ve beaten this proverbial dead horse as much as I can. Kinda like the jockey of the winning equine of the Kentucky Derby. And we still have committee meetings to discuss.
I will, for the most part, confine my listing of highlights to Senate bills still in the Senate and House bills still in the House. Since there is only one Senate committee meeting today, and since the only item is a House bill, let’s jump (but not in an equestrian steeplechase-type fashion) to today’s House committee highlights. We should first go to the House Appropriations Committee, because all the bills they will consider today have been funded in the draft State Budget, meaning they can now be released from committee. Accordingly, each bill has a fiscal note, projected for the next three Fiscal Years. I’m especially pleased that funding has been provided for an Office Of Suicide Prevention.
Other House committee highlights include:
HB 94 (Lynn) ‘restricts law enforcement from cooperating with federal agencies conducting immigration enforcement activities at schools or churches without permission from the attorney general.’ Great bill, questionable committee. Public Safety & Homeland Security.
HB 196 (Romer) ‘requires officers to enter the primary reason for a traffic stop into DELJIS at the time of the stop. The Statistical Analysis Center will have access to the data for the purpose of analyzing traffic stop practices.’ Great bill, questionable committee. In fact, I predict that this bill doesn’t make it out. Public Safety & Homeland Security.
We also have two Rethug bills, both sponsored by Rep. Yearick, designed to weaken Delaware’s Family & Medical Leave Act. They’re, um, not making it out of the Labor Committee.
In other words, they’re not making it out of the starting gate.
Time to place yer bets:
