The Senate will take up Senator Bryan Townsend’s SB25, which will increase the age to purchased tobacco and vaping products from 18 to 21. This is a good bill that protects the health of our young people. The bill has two Republican Senators, Delcollo and Cloutier, as sponsors. The only Democrat I can see voting against it is Bruce Ennis, so the bill should pass.
The Senate will also vote on Senator Harris McDowell’s SB12, which will help integrate new electric cars into our electric grid. This bill has Delaware adopt the Society of Automotive Engineers’ industrial safety standard, called J3072, which sets safety requirements for electric vehicles that provide power from their batteries back to the electric grid. Earlier Delaware laws concerning electric cars, passed and enacted in 2009, omitted the industry standard, mostly because the standard had not yet been developed then. This legislation corrects that. The Senate should pass this bill, though Republicans may vote against it because they enjoy climate change carbon.
Represenative Kim Williams’ HB11 make sure all school board and referendum elections have the same hours as normal elections, by changing the polls open time from 10 am to 7 am. It passed the House 41-0 already, and should get a similar 21-0 vote in the Senate today.
Today the House will vote on three bills, none of which appear on our Vote Tracker page, because we consider them to be perfunctory bills, non-controversial, or not of progressive interest.
For example, Ruth Briggs King’s HB54, increases a fine assessed to any criminal or traffic defendant from $1 to $3 to support the Delaware Justice Information System. Sounds good. It should pass. This is the kind of tax and government spending Republicans like.
Next is Ed Osienski’s HB64, which addresses the type of signage that can be installed along or within the control zone of a designated Delaware Byway and puts the state into compliance with federal regulations. Representative Osienski then has another bill, HB66, which This legislation changes a requirement for the Department of Transportation that it submit a Capital Transportation Program from annually to biennially. I have no real objection to any of that, nor do I think anyone else has.
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