General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Thurs., March 29, 2018
The bill raising the minimum age for purchasing deadly weapons was voted out of Senate committee yesterday and is scheduled for today’s Senate Agenda. 3 of 5 members voted to release it, but the committee report doesn’t specify who the third vote was. The third person who voted to release the bill clearly opposes the bill, as he voted to release it with an ‘unfavorable’ ranking. Which brings us to a brief Teaching Opportunity. Yay! A legislator can either vote to release a bill from committee or against releasing a bill from committee. Once a legislator votes to release a bill from committee, they must sign the backer of the bill and release the bill with a vote of ‘favorable’, ‘on its merits’, or ‘unfavorable’. Whichever choice they make doesn’t matter as long as they vote to release the bill. In this case, someone opposing the bill agreed to allow it to move forward. My guess is that it was Sen. Ennis, since he’s a definite no. Had Lavelle opted to vote to release it, he likely would have signed it out ‘on its merits’, since he likely doesn’t want to commit to a no vote on the floor. I think the bill will pass, as only Ennis is likely to vote no on the D side, Cloutier is a yes, and Lopez, DelCollo, Lavelle, and Simpson are all in play.
Oh, here’s something interesting. Sen. Marshall introduced a new minimum wage bill yesterday. More steps through 2021 with a minimum wage of $10.25 by then. Rep. Paradee is a sponsor of the bill, meaning that, once Sen. Bushweller leaves, there will be one more vote for minimum wage in the Senate. I wonder if there’s a method to what Marshall is doing beyond an electoral one.
Here is yesterday’s Session Activity Report. The Senate approved several nominees. Other than that, all the action was in committee.
Number One With A Bullet on today’s House Agenda is the School Impenetrable Fortress Act. Oh, the bill has a fiscal note. I looked at it. Fiscal notes project out for three years. The official cost projections for those years if the bill becomes law? ‘Indeterminable’. For all three years. I will refrain from insulting your intelligence by stating/asking the obvious. We’ve previously discussed the other notable bills on the agenda.
Except…HB 349(Keeley), which ‘creates a Delaware Commission on Irish Heritage and Culture’. I don’t think the State should be in the business of underwriting these ventures into ethnic triumphalism. It’s not as if anybody needs a state-sanctioned body to promote Irish heritage and culture. Yes, I know that there have been other similar bodies created by the General Assembly, and they are equally devoid of the need for state-sanctioning and funding. BTW, you can be sure that this ‘Commission’ will be stuffed with pols, ex-pols, and hangers-on. A social club, in other words. Of which there are already plenty in Delaware.
In addition to the deadly weapons bill, the Senate Agenda also features HS1/HB 287 (K. Williams), which passed the House but not without some controversy. We’ll see if any amendments are forthcoming.
Following today’s session, the General Assembly takes a two-week break. Giving me time to focus on what’s really important in my life…fine-tuning my fantasy baseball team.
In the last census, IIRC, 34% of Delaware’s residents identified as Irish-American, making it the largest ethnic group in the state. It will pass on a voice vote.
Just read the snyopsis of HB 49. Somebody must have read my recommendations the other day!
I particularly like the idea on a bullet/blast proof vestibule. Personally I think every student should have to pass through a high-security checkpoint styled after the Erez Crossing in Gaza to enter the library. All staffed by retired Mossad.
It’s just makes sense, folks.
Fun fact. Bill sponsor Rep EG Jaques (D-27) is a graduate of the US Air Force War College.
Only solution is hammer so all problems are nails sort of situation, eh?
There are about 140,000 school buildings in the U.S. If we spend $100,000 to fortify each of them — a modest sum that is probably below what it would actually cost — we would have to spend $14 billion, not counting staffing costs, on buildings instead of students. The price of freedom!
Also, too, Sandy Hook Elementary had many of these safety features. There’s no guarantee the outlay would produce the desired result.
You are correct. Ennis was the unfavorable.
So, are any of you going to run for any of these open seats in Dover?
I know that Ennis gets a bad rap here. However, he consistently supports traditional D economic policies, including minimum wage, protections for manufactured housing residents, and health care for the most vulnerable. He is not a Chamber DINO.
Yes, he’s pro-gun. But you see what he did here? He made sure that the increase in the minimum age requirement for purchasing weapons made it out of committee and onto the Agenda even though he opposes the bill. You really can’t ask more from him, considering his views and the district he represents.
The same cannot be said of Lavelle though.
You are correct, sir. According to this article in the Delaware State News, Lavelle voted AGAINST releasing a bill that raises the minimum age to procure deadly weapons:
https://delawarestatenews.net/news/senate-to-vote-on-bill-raising-age-to-buy-rifles/
Sturgeon campaign, take note. Then take aim.
HB 330 3/29/18 Laid On Table in Senate
WRDE says “Democrats seem to be split on an amendment exempting 18-, 19-, and 20-year-olds with hunting licenses.” (the Simpson amendment). I have no real objection to someone who we can send to war being exempted but at least there is a hunting license that one must take.
If we were to put in a place a science-based age limit, it would be 25 which scientists say is the point where the brain is fully formed.
But I do care that we seem to want the perfect to be the enemy of the good. The good being to pass legislation that does something, no matter how small of step it is to demonstrate that there can be limits.