General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Thurs., March 17, 2011

The leprechauns are still at play in the General Assembly’s session reports–as apparently are the Legislative Council staff assigned to update them. We know that action took place yesterday, but we’ll just have to use sources other than the official record to tell you what that activity was. I understand why House committee reports are not part of the official daily record for Wednesdays, as the House does not reconvene following committee meetings, meaning that the committee reports are not read into the record until Thursday before the official ‘changing of the legislative day’. However, Senate roll calls and Senate activity should already be online, and have been in the past. By past, I mean until this week. The site has automatically been updated after midnight, but, so far, not yet. It remains to be seen if this is yet another DeLuca flipping of the bird at FOIA, or if there are issues in Legislative Council.

Speaking of leprechauns, read all the way to the end of this article, and I promise you a Saint Patty’s Day special treat!

We know that the Senate unanimously passed SB 19 (Sokola), which ‘will allow districts to make offers of employment to new teachers in the late spring and early summer’. This bill will now move to the House, and I expect approval there before the Easter break.

We also know that several bills cleared commttees in the House and Senate. I will cover most of the ones we know about under the pre-game show portion of this magnum opus, as many of them are on today’s agendas. However, I simply can’t allow the release of HB 47 (B. Short) to pass without comment. First, read the News-Journal story here. Now, let’s see what has gotten House Rethugs in high dudgeon:

Short’s bill immediately came under fire by Republicans on the Health and Human Development Committee who said it is reactive, not proactive. Short said a second bill will be introduced that would require not only inspections, but accreditation of such medical facilities by national organizations. But Republicans on the panel balked at passing two bills, arguing for a comprehensive approach.

And I couldn’t agree more.  Why didn’t the Democratically-controlled House and the Democratic AG do anything about this back in the mid-1990’s when the horrific conditions at the Dover clinic ‘run’ by Eric Harrah were exposed? Why? Why??

I’ll tell you why. Because the Rethugs controlled the House, and Rethug M. Jane Brady was the AG. Are the House R’s really arguing that somehow the House D’s and the AG should have anticipated this when they did nothing on this issue during the 24 years they controlled the House? The Democratic AG who preceded Brady, Charles Oberly, fined the clinic $43,000 in 1994. Brady was elected in 1994 and proceeded to do…nothing. Same as the Republican-controlled House.

Their other argument seems to be that every aspect of this matter should be addressed in just one bill, not two. You know, like they did when it came to ‘reactive’ legislation growing out of the scandal at the Delaware Psychiatric Center. How many bills did they have in that package? 15? More? Perhaps they have a new environmental awareness and are concerned about killing e-trees. If that’s the case, I would simply point them to some of their own wild-eyed resolutions urging the Delaware Congressional delegation to stop that socialist Obama.

Bottom line: While this legislation is not complete, while it will have a companion bill, and while it may need tweaking, the objections by Rethug house members are politically-driven, not policy-driven. I do, however, welcome their new-found interest in this issue, an issue that they never addressed when they ran the show.

OK, time for today’s Pre-Game Show. The Senate agenda consists of one item, a bill just released from committee. SB 9 (Blevins) ‘prohibits the Department from accepting as dedicated a road that makes a connection to a dedicated road within a 55 or over community. It also directs the Department not to permit a connection to a dedicated road within a 55 or over community’.

I support the bill. Communities limited to an exclusive population should not be able to transfer the onus to the state for ongoing street repair when the vast majority of the state’s population are expressly forbidden from residing there.

Today’s House Agenda is more ambitious. Those bills that interest me the most:

HB 49 (B. Short): Requires door-to-door solicitors to have ID ‘includ(ing) the person’s name, employer, employer telephone number, employer address and the State of Delaware business license number.’ Sadly, proselytizers of the religious or political ilk (I’ve now satisfied my weekly Ilk Quotient) are not included.

HB 3 (Kowalko): Johnny LaRue finally got his crane shot. Will John Kowalko get his trans-fats bill? Eight-Ball sez: Signs point to ‘yes’.

HB 36 (Mitchell): Extends the driver’s license issuance period from 5 to 8 years. This is designed to address congestion at Motor Vehicle. Al Mascitti and I did identify one question pertaining to this bill, a question that reading the full body of the bill did not answer: Will this mean that senior citizens be subject to driver’s tests  every eight years instead of every five years? I’m not sure that’s in the best interests of anybody. Anyone out there have an answer?

Check out the entire agenda b/c, as always, YMMV.

Finally, as promised, my St. Patrick’s Day gift to you, the greatest version of Danny Boy ever:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvITGrZqWCk[/youtube]