General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Wednesday, June 18, 2025

By far the biggest story in Dover yesterday did not take place in the legislative chambers.  Thanks to some relentless reporting, we’re seeing the entire scheme to disenfranchise the voters of the 20th RD come into focus. Rep. Wilson-Anton has now filled in more of the picture.  Bottom line: From the beginning of session, House leadership was well aware that Rep. Stell Parker Selby was not likely to return to Dover. Not this year, probably not ever.  They covered up the fact that she had had a massive stroke until March.   More and more, it looks like a scheme to keep the seat from falling into Republican hands.  Rather than firm up her constituent services support staff, they apparently opted for malign neglect.  Here’s the latest:

Epic Fail On Constituent Services:  You just have to watch this one.  I know there are competent people on staff in the House.  Why couldn’t the Speaker have assigned one of them to at least provide decent constituent services for the voters in RD 20?

Madinah Wilson-Anton Breaks With Leadership:

When asked directly who benefits from Stell Parker Selby’s seat staying absent, Wilson-Anton didn’t mince words. “I think leadership benefits from this. And I think there are people in my party who think this is best because they want the seat to stay Democrat, which I think is disgusting.”

I’ll simply add that every member of the Democratic Caucus who voted for this Speaker has some soul-searching to do.

BTW, there was a legislative session yesterday, a pretty darned productive legislative session at that.  Here is yesterday’s Session Activity Report.  Should you scroll through the report, you will note that it was a great day for Rep. Gorman’s civil liberties bills.  And for our civil liberties.  Every bill I’d highlighted in yesterday’s report passed, often on straight party-line votes.

Big committee day today.  Thankfully, the Senate, at least, has cleared most of the Senate bills out of committee already.  Only a couple of stragglers.  Today’s stragglin’ Senate committee highlights:

SB 137 (Mantzavinos).  You’ve all seen those commercials about people who can access their paycheck ‘early’, right?  Looks like this bill tries to regulate the financial instrument that enables those transactions.  It is called an EWA (Earned Wage Access).  From the synopsis:

As an innovative financial product with distinct characteristics that do not fit within existing regulations, EWA requires a distinct regulatory framework. Currently, more than 100,000 workers in Delaware have already used Earned Wage Access services, which are mostly unregulated in the state. This bill helps ensure that responsible EWA providers can operate under the supervision of Delaware’s banking regulator and continue to serve users in the state of Delaware. Moreover, this bill codifies a regulatory framework that recognizes the distinct characteristics of EWA products and will keep Delawareans protected from bad actors who might seek to use the “Earned Wage Access” moniker, while instead offering a predatory product.

I might just listen to this discussion in the hopes of, you know, learning something.  Banking, Business, Insurance & Technology.

SB 187 (Sturgeon) appears to remove confusion for those who use the following Delaware Department Of Education programs:  “High Needs Educator Student Loan Repayment Program, the Speech-Language Pathologist Student Loan Repayment Program, and the Mental Health Services Student Loan Repayment Program.”  This bill, which appears to have originated with the Department of Education, seeks to make the process easier for the 600 or so Delawareans who participate in the programs.  Education.

As someone who was involved in the creation of the Delaware Nursing Home Residents Quality Assurance Commission,  I really like the updates proposed in SS1/SB 155 (Mantzavinos).  I especially like this provision:  “Adds to the Commission’s duties proposing legislation, regulations, and policies relating to monitored facilities.”  But every item I see in this bill appears designed on behalf of residents and their families.  Elections & Government Affairs.

Oops, almost forgot (truth is, I did forget, this is a late addition), the Senate has an Agenda today.  Mostly pro-forma nominations and reappointments.

A little more java, a lot more writing.  Today’s House Committee highlights:

HS1/HB 70 (Harris) ‘requires that all rental units constructed before January 1, 1978, are certified as lead free or lead safe by a specific deadline.’  I’m puzzled by the paucity of co-sponsors–especially since I know that several legislators have been working on this issue.  Appropriations (which means that money has been allocated in the budget bill to pay for any costs incurred by the State).

HB 182 (Gorman) ‘prohibits law-enforcement agencies from entering into agreements with federal immigration enforcement authorities to enforce immigration violations or share immigration enforcement related data.’ Judiciary.

HB 150 (Gorman) ‘prohibits civil arrests from being made in courthouses without a judicial warrant.’  Judiciary.

HR 14 (Romer) ‘directs the Department of Health and Social Services to prepare reports on the Purchase of Care Program.’  I could be wrong, but I think this needs to be a House Concurrent Resolution.  A simple resolution can ‘request’ that a state agency do something, but I think that both the House and the Senate have to sign off on a resolution ‘directing’ an agency to do something. Shouldn’t be difficult to have this redone as an HCR.  Health & Human Development.

HS1/HB 13 (Lynn).  Why not?  Just because the insiders once again rejected this doesn’t mean it shouldn’t at least make its way out of committee.  This is the bill that adds new tax brackets and requires Delaware’s wealthiest earners to pay a tiny bit more in income tax.  Hey, might as well at least get it out of committee so that if/when our budget goes south thanks to Trump, this bill will be a step or two closer to reality.  Revenue & Finance.

HB 204 (Romer) ‘establishes a dedicated Child Care Complaint Investigation Unit within the Office of Child Care Licensing, under the Department of Education’.  Education.

Another stoopid election bill from Rep. Bolden.  Pretty sure she ‘borrowed’ this idea from Philly.  HB 206 ‘is the first leg of a constitutional amendment that requires a person holding elected office to resign from office before being eligible as a candidate for a different elected office. Elected office includes the office of the Governor, the Lieutenant-Governor, the General Assembly, and any other state, county, or municipal position that is selected by voters in an election in this State.’  Now, kids, just stop and think how Bolden’s bill to hold the primaries in April instead of September would impact this.  Why doesn’t she introduce something that, you know, helps her district?  House Administration.

Oh, forgot to mention,  even by House D standards, their caucus before they finally came in to session was extremely lengthy.  Gee, wonder what they were talking about…