More Bill Filings in the General Assembly

We have some more bill filings that are interesting but not interesting enough on their own to warrant an individual post.   So I grouped them all together below.

HB343 – POSSESSION OF DEADLY WEAPONS BY THOSE ON THE TERRORIST WATCH LIST
SPONSORS – Hudson, Marshall, Hensley, Potter, Ramone, Schwartzkopf, Wilson, Sokola, Brady, Briggs King, Keeley, Kowalko, Paradee, B.Short, D.Short
YES –
NO –
ABSENT –
NOT VOTING –
HISTORY – House Administration 3/20/18
STATUS – Waiting on a hearing in committee

Modeled after legislation passed in New Jersey on August 8, 2013, this legislation prohibits a person named on the federal terrorist watchlist from purchasing, owning, possessing or controlling a deadly weapon or ammunition for a firearm within the State.

This is one of those issues that you cannot believe has not ever been addressed until now.   Republicans on the national level oppose this type of bill.  I am heartened that some Republicans in Delaware do not feel the same.

HB344 – REMOVING EDUCATIONAL BARRIERS TO REHABILITATION FOR OFFENDERS WITH LOW IQ OR LEARNING DISABILITIES
SPONSORS – Briggs King, Poore, Cloutier, Hansen, Hocker, Lavelle, Sokola, Baumbach, J.Johnson, Keeley, Osienski, Paradee, Postles, D.Short
YES –
NO –
ABSENT –
NOT VOTING –
HISTORY – House Education 3/20/18
STATUS – Waiting on a hearing in committee

This bill would remove barriers that offenders with learning disabilities and low IQs face when being considered for parole or a sentence modification. Requiring an offender with learning disabilities or a low IQ to complete a GED or high school diploma, unless ordered by the courts, is counter-productive to the treatment and programming of this segment of the prison population and prohibits them from seeking the same benefits of parole or sentence modification afforded to the general population. This amendment to the law allows an offender the opportunity to earn a high school diploma of modified performance standards upon successful completion of their Individualized Education Plan.

HB345 – INCREASING FEES FOR ENVIRONMENTAL LICENSE PLATES
SPONSORS – Schwartzkopf, Lopez, Henry, Hocker, Townsend, Baumbach, Brady, Briggs King, Collins, Gray, J. Johnson, Mulrooney, Osienski, Outten, Potter, Wilson
YES –
NO –
ABSENT –
NOT VOTING –
HISTORY – House Public Safety & Homeland Security 3/15/18
STATUS – Waiting on a hearing in committee

This bill increases the 1-time fee from $35 to $50 for Delaware’s environmental license plates in order to increase revenue to improve the capacity of the Delaware Center for the Inland Bays and The Partnership for the Delaware Estuary to fulfill their responsibilities to the protection and restoration of Delaware’s estuaries.

I guess this bill is needed because we cut funding to the Delaware Center for the Inland Bays and the Delaware Estuary last year.

SCR46 – REINSTATE GLASS STEAGALL ACT
SPONSORS – Ennis, Kowalko, Hansen, Baumbach, J. Johnson, Mitchell
YES –
NO –
ABSENT –
NOT VOTING –
HISTORY –
STATUS – Before the Senate for consideration.

This Senate Concurrent Resolution urges the Congress of the United States to enact legislation that would reinstate the separation of commercial and investment banking functions that were in effect under the Glass-Steagall Act (Banking Act of 1933). Federal legislation based on the Glass-Steagall precedent is needed in order to prohibit commercial banks and bank holding companies from investing in stocks, underwriting securities, or investing in or acting as guarantors to derivative transactions, in order to prevent American taxpayers from being called upon to fund hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out financial institutions.

We need the reinstatement of Glass Steagall as a result of our supposedly Democratic Senators Chris Coons and Tom Carper’s betrayal in weakening the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform bill that regulated banks.

HB339 – JUVENILE DETENTION
SPONSORS – J.Johnson, Townsend, McDowell, Baumbach, Heffernan, Longhurst, Potter, Ennis, Henry, Bentz, Bolden, Brady, Lynn, Paradee
YES VOTES –
NO VOTES –
ABSENT –
NOT VOTING –
HISTORY – House Corrections 3/15/18
STATUS – Waiting on a hearing in committee

This bill allows juvenile delinquents under the age of 18 to be transferred to the Department of Corrections only after adjudication and an imposition of a sentence of incarceration. Currently, Delaware permits juveniles charged with adult offenses to be held in default of bail in the custody of the Department of Corrections. The trend nationwide is to hold juveniles charged with adult offenses in juvenile facilities pretrial as these facilities provide educational and rehabilitative programs.

Seems like common sense.

HB341 – CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT PROVIDING FOR A TWO DAY DELAY BETWEEN RELEASE OF BUDGET BILLS AND VOTE
SPONSORS – Briggs King, Pettyjohn, Lavelle, Collins, Dukes, Hensley, Hudson, Kenton, Postles, D. Short, Wilson
YES –
NO –
ABSENT –
NOT VOTING –
HISTORY – House Administration 3/15/18
STATUS – Waiting on a hearing in committee

This Act is the first leg of a constitutional amendment that requires the General Assembly to wait 48 hours from the introduction of the budget appropriation bill, bond and capital improvement act, and act making appropriations for certain grants-in-aid bill, or any substantive amendment or substitute bill to such bills, before voting on such legislation unless the General Assembly by a three-fourths vote waives this requirement. The purpose of this provision is to allow all interested persons, including legislators, a reasonable amount of time to review the three significant financial legislative acts before voting on such legislation. This restriction can be waived if three-fourths of each House of the General Assembly agrees to act in a shorter time period.

This may be a Republican bill, but I like it. This isn’t really a liberal or conservative issue. It is a power issue. Minority Democrats in the Congress hate Majority Republicans led by Speaker Ryan and Mitch McConnell springing bills on them at 8 pm and then having a vote at 1 am. I imagine Republicans feel the same. Democrats should vote for this so long as Republicans agree to vote unanimously on a Resolution calling on their Republican brethren in Washington to do the same.