Pre-Game Show: State Legislative Committee Day-Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010

First, a brief primer for newcomers. On Wednesdays when the General Assembly is in session, virtually the entire legislative day is devoted to committee meetings. For the House, other than ceremonial business, it is entirely devoted to committees. The Senate may conduct some business, but committee meetings usually are the main, if not sole, focus.

Since we are in the second year of the two-year legislative cycle, which begins and ends on Election Day, all of the legislation that was ‘in play’ at the conclusion of session last June remains in play.

And, of course, new bills can be introduced, some of which have already been discussed here at DL.

With the ground rules firmly laid out, let’s proceed to our Pre-Game Show.

There are some pretty darn interesting bills on House Committee agendas this week. In addition, some committees will be briefed by key state decision-makers. All committee meetings are open to the public. Here is the complete schedule of House Committee meetings this week. Once you connect to the link, you can just click on the location/time for the committee(s) that you’re interested in, and the agenda for the meeting will appear. Here’s what piqued my interest:

House Corrections Committee-HB 284 (Rep. J. Johnson)–Would eliminate the ‘chilling effect’ on reporting rapes in prison by “…impos(ing) criminal liability solely on employees, visitors, contractors and volunteers at detention facilities. Prisoner-on-prisoner sexual assaults remain prosecutable pursuant to already existing criminal statutes.” Previously, and incomprehensibly, the victim of the assault was also deemed culpable.

House Education Committee-Dr. Lillian Lowery, Secretary of the Department of Education, updates the committee on Race to the Top and other educational initiatives.

House Health & Human Development Committee-DHSS Secretary Rita Landgraf will address the committee.

House Judiciary Committee-Now, here’s where we’ve got some interesting pieces of legislation, including:

House Bill 247 (Rep. Keeley)–Seeks to streamline and strengthen consumer protection statute. This basically rewrites existing Delaware Code provisions in entirety. Will bear watching to make sure that the finished product matches the purported intent.

House Bill 302 (Rep. B. Short)–Seeks  “to encourage the reporting of suspected financial exploitation of the elderly and infirm adults by providing immunity from criminal and civil liability for making such reports.” I support the intent of this bill, but just have one cautionary concern. Sometimes it is hard to tell the protective and greedy family members apart when families fight over who has the best interests of their elderly/infirm relatives at heart (as opposed to who gets to handle their assets). Sometimes, both parties are equally greedy and equally vindictive. I hope the bill doesn’t provide immunity for greedy relatives seeking to game the system by filing false reports against rival family members. It’s happened more than you might think.

Senate Bill 169 (Sen. Ennis)-I don’t recall reading or hearing about this bill passing the Senate, but it’s one that I suspect all the DL contributors might strongly support. SB 169 makes “obstructing ingress to or egress from a health care facility a Class B misdemeanor.” Reading the bill in its entirety here leaves no doubt as to its intentions. There were 3 ‘no’ votes in the Senate: Bonini, Simpson and (surprise, not) Venables. I told you that Bruce Ennis was a huge improvement over Jim Vaughn, and he is.  Hmm, I wonder how Monsignor Lavelle will vote on this one. Lotsa pro-choice people in his Brandywine Hundred district…

There are no Senate committee meetings scheduled. Really, I’m not sure why the Senate is even bothering to show up this week since, to date, they haven’t done anything.