General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Weds., June 6, 2018

I think they’re just trolling Rep. PAL Longhurst now. Yes, the Senate passed the bump stock bill. And, yes, they placed yet another amendment onto the bill, making eight in total. Meaning, the bill goes back yet again to the House. Will the House’s most blatant self-dealer simply bring the bill up for final passage, or will she try to amend the bill? Who cares at this point? If any other legislator had sponsored this bill, the governor would have signed it two months ago.

Here’s Tuesday’s Session Activity Report.  The Senate also passed SB 113, which we discussed yesterday.  Four amendments were added to the bill, which made this bill sufficiently palatable to the Senate. The bill ‘authorizes the creation of a Delaware Voluntary Property Assessed Clean Energy (D-PACE) program to establish a clean energy financing program for the installation of energy efficiency technologies and clean energy systems for qualifying commercial real properties statewide’.

Now we come to the busiest, and possibly most momentous, committee day of the year so far. We might as well start with the assault weapons ban, which is scheduled to be considered in the Judicial and Community Affairs Committee. The bill ‘prohibits the manufacture, sale, offer to sell, transfer, purchase, receipt, possession, or transport of assault weapons in Delaware, subject to certain exceptions’. If President Pro-Tem Dave McBride wanted to kill this bill, he scarcely could have done a more effective job. By placing SB 163 in this particular committee, he ensured that one of the following three gun control opponents would have to vote for its release: Bruce Ennis, David Lawson, and Greg Lavelle. Neither Ennis nor Lawson will vote to release it. And don’t blame Bruce Ennis. I know that he has suggested some options to the President Pro-Tem, but w/o success. Dave McBride is as stubborn as a mule, with common sense to match. That leaves Greg Lavelle. If he sides with the mass murderers, then it’s up to the Sturgeon campaign to call him to task for it. The lit pieces practically write themselves.

Buried at the bottom of the same committee agenda is one of the best bills of the session that has little chance of passage. SB 60 (Bonini) places significant limits on civil forfeiture. (Yes, the word ‘private’ is misspelled in the title of the bill. Hey, it’s Bonini.) I see that Sen. Lawson is one of the bill’s sponsors. If he votes to release, along with Henry and Marshall, the bill could reach the floor. It’s a disgrace that state-sanctioned stealing has gone on for so long. It’s tough for everyday citizens to respect law enforcement when law enforcement just steals stuff from everyday citizens.

Other Senate committee highlights:

*SB 211(Townsend) authorizes the creation of ‘Business Development Banks’. The bill ‘would allow Business Development Banks, or “BDBs,” to concentrate their resources in the commercial lending space, leverage technology and expertise, and partner with existing banks to serve a broader spectrum of small to medium-sized businesses’. Banking, Business & Insurance.

*SB 227 (Townsend)  ‘promotes the use of primary care by doing the following: 1. Creating a Primary Care Reform Collaborative under the Delaware Health Care Commission. 2. Requiring all health insurance providers to participate in the Delaware Health Care Claims Database. 3. Requiring individual, group, and State employee plans to reimburse physicians for Chronic Care Management and primary care at no less than the Medicare rate for the next 3 years’.  I recommend that you read the entire synopsis.  Health, Children & Social Services.

*SB 197 (Lavelle)  ‘provides mandatory expungement eligibility to individuals who were convicted of the possession, use or consumption of marijuana prior to Delaware’s decriminalization of these offenses. To be eligible for the mandatory expungement, the marijuana conviction must be the applicant’s only criminal conviction’. Health, Children & Social Services.

*HB 366 (Lynn)  deems that ‘a crime is committed when a person intentionally or recklessly stores or leaves a loaded firearm where a minor or other person prohibited by law, or “unauthorized person,” can access the firearm, and the unauthorized person obtains the firearm.’  Dave McBride has also placed this piece of legislation in jeopardy by assigning it to an inhospitable committee. Patti Blevins would never have been this willfully obstinate. Judicial & Community Affairs.

House Committee highlights:

*HB 421(Lynn) ‘changes when the interception of certain communications is lawful. Currently, if one party to the communication gives consent to the interception, such interception is lawful. This bill requires that both parties to the communication give prior consent before the interception is lawful.’ Judiciary.

*OK, kids, time for a little educatin’. HB 3 (Hefffernan), which ‘requires that all full-time employees of the State, including employees of school districts, continuously in the employ of the state for at least one year, shall be eligible for 12 weeks of paid leave upon the birth or adoption of a child 6 years of age or younger’, will be considered in the House Appropriations Committee.  The reason why it is only finally being considered now is b/c passage of the bill was contingent on funding from the Joint Finance Committee. The funding was provided during the JFC markup, which is why the bill will now be considered.

*Well, THIS sure looks like special interest legislation.  HB 417 (Matthews) ‘prohibits a tax rate greater than 50 cents per cigar upon the sale and use of premium cigars’.  Revenue & Finance.

*HS1/HB 440 (Bentz) ‘allows the Secretary of the Department of Health and Social Services to establish stabilization centers that can receive overdose patients from Emergency Medical Services and designate acute health care facilities, freestanding emergency departments, and hospitals that meet established requirements as an overdose system of care centers. This Act also establishes a standing Overdose System of Care Committee to assist in the oversight of the overdose system of care and provide recommendations for its implementation and maintenance.’ Health & Human Development.

There is a Senate Agenda today.  I guess the highlight is the latest incarnation of Sen. Lopez’ ‘Get Off My Lawn’ bill, which has been significantly downsized. The bill, not the lawn. The latest bill requires that DNREC ‘must obtain written consent prior to physically entering onto private property for the purpose of collecting Natural Resource Data’. 

Well. That should give you something to chew on. Come back tomorrow to see what the General Assembly spits out.