All Posts Tagged With: "Delaware General Assembly"
Legislative Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Thurs., Jan. 28, 2010
Last Pre-Game Show for 6 weeks, as the General Assembly recesses for budget hearings.
That means that today will be busy, with certain bills being fast-tracked for final passage before the recess.
Yesterday’s activity sets the stage for today, meaning it’s time for the…
POST-GAME WRAP-UP
The General Assembly’s latest sop to Del-Tech, SB 202 (or more precisely, SS1 [...]
Legislative Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Wed., Jan. 27, 2010
POST-GAME WRAPUP:
Lotsa brand new bills and brand new committee assignments for them. I’ll discuss the ones I find interesting (and/or worrisome) in my Pre-Game Show report below.
As noted here yesterday, the Senate considered and passed a series of non-controversial house bills. Perhaps the most notable of the lot is HB 249 (Keeley), which requires pharmacists [...]
Legislative Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Tues., Jan. 26, 2010
Last week that the General Assembly meets until breaking for about a 6-week recess to enable the Joint Finance Committee to conduct budget hearings.
POST-GAME WRAP-UP
A few bills previously discussed here were passed on Thursday. In the Senate:
SB 81 w/SA5(Sokola)-Requires nutritional information to be prominently displayed in fast food restaurants. 15 yes, 5 nos. Who voted [...]
Legislative Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show-Thursday, Jan. 21, 2010
Post-Game Wrap-Up
I interrupt this report to start out today with a raging screed. To the surprise of absolutely nobody.
Yesterday, the Delaware State Senate unanimously approved the nomination of Diane Clarke Streett to become a judge on Superior Court. I know this because the Governor’s office sent out a congratulatory release about this. However, not a [...]
Legislative Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show-Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Post-Game Wrap-Up
A complete record of yesterday’s activity is here.
The House of Representatives, with the notable exception of Rep. Earl Jaques, had no problem putting a registered lobbyist on a medical advisory board, and approved HB 3, discussed here in detail yesterday. Any member of the House is welcome to come here and explain why this [...]
Legislative Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show-Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2010
The entire record of the previous legislative session (Thursday, January 14) can be found here.
Key legislation that was passed, most of it previously discussed here, included:
HB 202 (Rep. B. Short)-Designed to protect policyholders when a health or life insurance company is liquidated. Pretty sure that this bill was a Matt Denn proposal from his time [...]
Legislative Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show-Thursday, Jan. 14, 2010
According to the Legislative Record, nothing happened yesterday.
Of course, in the case of the House of Representatives, we know that committee meetings took place.
So, El Somnambulo, you may ask, why does the record not reflect this? Glad you asked as it gives me yet another teaching opportunity. Yay!
Once the House breaks for committee meetings, it [...]
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 [...]
Legislative Pre-Game Show-Jan. 12: Demagoguery On 1st Agenda of Session
What do you do if you’re a politician and you’ve got nothing but bad news to run on and you’re facing re-election?
Simple. Conjure up potential ‘horribles’, create simplistic legislation attacking said ‘horribles’, and run as if you bravely stood up to said ‘horribles’, even if what you did was simply to create horrible legislation to [...]
Rep. Thornburg Also Retiring, According to Celia
This is also really big news from Celia Cohen. Rep. Pam Thornburg (R-Dover West) also announced her retirement at the same Caucus meeting where Bill Oberle announced his. She will become administrator of the Delaware Farm Bureau, a position from which she will no doubt lobby her former colleagues.
This is huge b/c Thornburg barely won [...]
Anita Van Sant: Rest In Peace
I was truly saddened to read of the passing of Anita Van Sant.
While the low-key obituary was typically self-effacing, Anita was one of the best political campaign managers I’ve ever met. She and her husband, former State Representative John F. Van Sant, were the perfect political team. As the candidate, John knew that his job [...]
A Preview Of Next Year’s Legislative Battles
Speaker Bob Gilligan spoke to the Progressive Democrats of Delaware last night to preview next year’s legislative battles. There are really two big issues we’ll see next year: the budget and the 2010 election.
Budget
Gilligan told us that they expect at least a $300M-$400M budget gap next year (that’s before the additional job losses in [...]
Sex Offender Registry: Good Politics=Bad Policy?
On Sunday, Read All About It In the Sunday Papers featured this as its lead story:
“LEAD STORY-The (UK) Economist: Unintended Consequences of Sex Offenders’ Laws?
It is easy for politicians to push for tougher laws on sexual offenders. It is even easier to demagogue against anyone who would dare suggest that, in many cases, there is more [...]
Live-Blogging the House-Vol. 2
Anyone wishing to catch up with El Somnambulo’s timeless prose from earlier today can link here.
When the House recessed for an arm-twisting session around 5:30, ‘bulo doubted that it would eventually turn into the dinner break. Apparently, ‘Bulo was wrong, not for the first time today, nor certainly for the last time tonight. Clearly, the [...]
What to Expect From Delaware Liberal Tonight
This is the last day of the legislative session in Dover. Unstable Isotope and I (at a minimum) will be in attendance and passing along reports. Many of our reports will be available via Twitter (@liberalgeek and @UnstableIsotope), Nemski and DelawareDem will be monitoring the tweets. El Somnambulo will be listening to the audio stream [...]
30Jun2009 | liberalgeek | 7 comments | Continued
General Assembly Pre-Game Show-Monday, June 29
2 days to go. Based on press reports, the white smoke has yet to be seen from the Legislative Hall chimney. The state’s finances, of course, being the foremost subject facing the Delaware General Assembly. Lots of ‘whipping’ is gonna have to go on, especially in the House Republican Caucus, for a balanced budget to [...]
29Jun2009 | El Somnambulo | 3 comments | Continued
Cutting of Legislators’ Transportation Funds Misguided
A proposal to seriously reduce legislative funds designed to repair roads is ill-considered and will not save money in the long run. It will delay repairs of suburban streets, many of which, by DELDOT’s own grading of the roads, need to be done ASAP. The delays will only lead to increased repair costs when and [...]
29Jun2009 | El Somnambulo | 11 comments | Continued
The Delaware State Senate Is Changed Forever
With the passing of Thurman Adams, the Delaware State Senate will never be the same.
And the State of Delaware will be much the better for it. While one wishes Adams’ family best wishes and mourns their loss, it must be said that, in the last few years, Adams almost singlehandedly kept the Senate’s tradition of [...]
Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show-Thursday, June 25
‘Bulo apologizes that this will be both late and short, but he just got back from hiking the trail.
Well, the big news is that SB 121 has passed both houses and has been sent to the Governor. Here is the House roll call. Anyone considering running against Greg Lavelle in his Brandywine Hundred district will [...]
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up and Pre-Game Show: Wednesday, June 24
Most of yesterday’s abbreviated sessions were given over to tributes to Thurman Adams. Sen. Nancy Cook reportedly led a group of about a dozen of Adams’ family onto the House floor (Sen. Venables was also with them). Several shared their memories. When it was all over, the session was adjourned for caucus with the announcement [...]
24Jun2009 | El Somnambulo | 3 comments | Continued
The Governor’s Tax Package-Bill By Bill
Here is a summary of, and link to, each bill in the Governor’s tax package. As required by law, all revenue enhancers must start in the House, and a 3/5 majority is needed for passage.
Please note that all are sponsored by the Democratic leadership as the Rethugs seem determined to simply play political Russian Roulette [...]
What Adams’ Death Might Mean in the Short-Term
Yes, it is unseemly, and, yes, El Somnambulo wishes he didn’t have to write this.
But there are real and immediate potential impacts to Senator Adams’ death, and they must be dealt with very quickly.
First, it is essential that the Senate select a new President Pro-Tempore. Unlike the positions of majority/minority leader and majority/minority whip, the [...]
SB 121 First On Tuesday’s Senate Agenda
Some things just can’t wait for Tuesday’s pre-game show. SB 121, which would outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation, is #1 on the Senate agenda for Tuesday. Predictably, Sen. Bob Venables (D-Mars) has lobbed in three amendments, only one of which has even a passing acquaintance with sanity. He’s probably got a few more being [...]
19Jun2009 | El Somnambulo | 6 comments | Continued
General Assembly Post-Game Wrapup/Pre-Game Show-Thurs., June 18
Yesterday’s Action:
In the Senate, the big news was the release of SB 121 to the floor by unanimous committee vote, surprising no one save the News-Journal’s headline writer, who used the term ’surprising’ to describe this development. Nor will it be ’surprising’ when this long-overdue civil rights measure becomes law, probably by the end of [...]
General Assembly Post-Game Wrapup and Pre-Game Show-Wed., June 17
Here’s what happened yesterday.
Commentators have already discussed the demise of the Jake Brakes bill. It looks like Bob Venables was trying to argue that local and county noise ordinances could handle any issues, presumably b/c they had done such a great job previously. Not. No, this was a sop to the truckers, pure and simple, [...]
FOLLOW DL
