Delaware General Assembly Pre-Game Show: May 8, 2018

OK, we need to do a post-game wrap-up from last Thursday as it was an eventful day.  Underage marriage is on the way out as the bill is on the way to the Governor. 

Rep. J. J. Johnson continues his incredible juvenile justice reform efforts, as these three bills all passed the Senate and now head to the Governor:  HB 306; HB 307; and HB 339.  Only Karen Peterson can rival his success in passing progressive legislation. One of the finest legislators to ever grace the Hall.

Kids, let me show you what special interest legislation looks like: HB 53 (Miro).  Not a big deal or anything, but the bill permits ‘ground-based and hand-held sparklers and certain other nonexplosive, nonairborne novelty items regulated by the federal government to be sold and used in the State’.  The only constituents who want this bill are those who sell this stuff. Just a little teaching opportunity. The amended bill passed the House and heads to the Governor.

Here’s Thursday’s Session Activity Report.

The big story in Dover continues to be what’s NOT on the Agenda, and what’s NOT even being scheduled for consideration in Senate committees.  Yes, I’m talking gun control legislation. The NRA/Delaware Sportsman’s Association strategy is clear: Run out the legislative clock. Aided by an incompetent and/or complicit President Pro-Tem, they may well succeed.  And that will be it until the next massacre.  Other than burying Dave McBride’s office in calls demanding that he act like a Democrat who gives a shit about his constituents (no, not his Sussex County neighbors),  you can contact your senators if they’re in the recalcitrant camp.  Oh, and you can work like hell to help Laura Sturgeon defeat Greg Lavelle.  That would be a game-changer in so many ways. In the mean time, we wait until Sen. McBride deigns to put the bump stock bill up for a final vote and/or until he puts the assault weapons ban in a committee that will release it to the Senate floor.  No doubt that Patti Blevins had her faults, but she made sure that progressive legislation did not get buried.  Sen. McBride has gone out of his way to make sure that it does.

Meanwhile, it’s ‘Waiting For Godot’.  Which reminds me. I can’t go on. I must go on.

Today’s Senate Agenda features little that interests me. Well, maybe HB 314 (Mulrooney), if only to see how many Rethugs want to bury public employees even deeper than six feet under.  This bill anticipates a Supreme Court decision that would decimate public employee unions. With Gorsuch having been placed on the Court for precisely this purpose, it’s likely just a matter of time until this bill takes effect.  

The first bill on today’s House Agenda harkens back to legislation that was passed some six years or so ago to ensure that those who performed abortions did so in a sanitary and safe manner. That legislation, if memory serves, was enacted primarily due to a Dover-area facility that was operating in the most unsanitary manner possible. HB 219 (Bentz) appears to codify ‘best practices’ and update terminogy and accreditation procedures. We’ll just have to see if this becomes yet another anti-abortion proxy for the self-proclaimed ‘pro-lifers’.

Rep. Smith’s HB 310 looks like the Bullshit Bill Of The Year. Which is presumably why it has so many co-sponsors. It, and I quote b/c I can’t make this up, ‘establishes a voluntary disclosure regime to foster dialogue around sustainability and responsibility among participating Delaware business entities and their various stakeholders. Because issues relating to sustainability and responsibility are fact-specific and fact-intensive and may vary greatly depending on, among other things, the size of the entity, the nature of its business and operations, and the industry in which it operates, the Act does not prescribe specific standards, measures of performance or criteria for evaluating performance’.  In other words, it depends on what ‘is’ is. Just read that entire synopsis and please tell me WTF this bill is supposed to accomplish. It looks like it enables ‘business entities’ to claim sustainability achievements w/o having achieved anything.  Instead of passing this bill, couldn’t we just give ’em special license plates or something?

Here’s a nice little bill designed to keep kids from killing themselves with weapons they find just lying around.  Wonder if those who spend sleepless nights in fear of ‘jackbooted Storm Troopers’ will object.

Here’s a little ‘revenue enhancer’ for County government. 

I’m done. Back tomorrow with a committee preview. Oh, wait. I forgot something. Dave McBride’s phone number is (302) 744-4167. Call him and tell him to do his fucking job.