The General Assembly left many bills unheard, any may take some of them up next year.
Since this year’s General Assembly session opened in January, hundreds of bills have passed, from marijuana legalization to climate change regulations.
Plenty are still waiting for the second half of the 152nd session of the Assembly, which begins in January.
Minority Leader Mike Ramone, R-Pike Creek, said Republicans had several tax bills that they are going to introduce at the start of next year’s legislature that didn’t get heard this year.
“We have four or five that are all going to be prefilled as soon as we get back into session, and that’s going to be our primary focus,” Ramone said. “But we’re gonna watch the money…We’re realistic. We’re not going to ask for tax reductions if there’s no money, but I have a strong feeling that we’re going to have monies that we could focus towards those who need it most.”
Ramone didn’t name the tax bills to which he was referring.
Senate President Pro Tempore Dave Sokola, D-Newark, said he expects Senate Substitute 1 for Senate Bill 2, House Bill 155 and House Bill 215 to be among the bills that will be back.
Sen. David Sokola
SS 1 for SB 2, sponsored by Sen. Elizabeth Lockman, D-Wilmington, would require Delawareans to get a permit before they can buy handguns. It passed the Senate 15 to 6, but it didn’t get out of the House Appropriations Committee before the 2023 session ended June 30.
Related Story: Hurry up and vote: Handgun permit bill passes through Senate
HB 155, sponsored by Rep. Krista Griffith, D-Fairfax, would create more penalties if firearms aren’t properly stored. While it passed both the House and Senate, an amendment change in the Senate requires it to be passed again in the House.
HB 215, sponsored by Rep. Stephanie Bolden, D-Wilmington, would change Delaware’s primary date for statewide office elections from the first Tuesday after the first Monday in September to the fourth Tuesday in April, the same day as the primary for the presidential election.
That bill passed the House but didn’t pass the Senate with three voting no and 18 not voting. It will still be live in 2024.
Bills from 2023 that are not passed in 2024 will have to be re-introduced for the 153rd session, which begins in January 2025.
Sokola said all three of those bills will need greater discussion by the legislature before they are able to pass, including moving the date of the state primaries.
“A lot of us want to move it up,” Sokola said. “But a lot of us are really concerned about the idea of a lame duck legislature with people who lost in primaries…because you can have people who all of a sudden are not going to be serving and they may be doing things that they wouldn’t otherwise do if they were still going to be serving.”
Ramone said Republicans didn’t get very many bills passed but are happy for the few bills that they did get passed.
“[I]t’s like 20 to one. They’ll let one of ours run and 20 of theirs, and I think most of the ones that they let run, we did our best to minimize the unintended consequences,” Ramone said. “Obviously I’m very happy that we finally got through the EV initiative on the House side. I think the amount of people that are frustrated and disappointed with this initiative from the secretary are astounding.”
Rep. Mike Ramone
That electric vehicle bill, House Bill 123 sponsored by Ramone, would require the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control to get approval from the legislature before it restricts the sale of gas-powered vehicles.
Related Story: Republicans make one more try to limit DNREC on EV mandate
A similar bill, Senate Bill 96, sponsored by Sen. Brian Pettyjohn, R-Georgetown, would prevent DNREC from putting out rules that would prohibit the sale of gas-powered vehicles.
Ramone was also happy the House passed House Substitute 1 for House Bill 121, sponsored by Rep. Daniel Short, R-Seaford. It would approve a charter change for the town of Seaford allowing an LLC that owns a business in town to have a single vote in municipal elections, even if the owner lives outside the city.
Sokola said he hasn’t heard much support for either bill from Senate Democrats, but that while HB 123 hasn’t had much support, there was some interest in SB 96.
“We also have a Senate version of that. Sen. Pettyjohn introduced it,” Sokola said. “We had looked at the two bills and some of us liked Senator PettyJohn’s more than Ramone’s…I don’t want to misstate something, but I seem to remember that [Hansen] thought Senator Pettyjohn’s bill version was better, was less damaging.”
Ramone said that ultimately Republicans are trying to reduce the damage of Democrat bills.
“So you’ll see the Republican amendments to the bills, some which we weren’t successful in modifying or adding amendments to,” Ramone said. “It’s just one bill at a time and we’re just doing our best to just help us not blow ourselves up.
“It’s the old adage, do no damage. That’s all we’re trying to do right now. Make sure that the legislature does no damage and one party is working very hard to make sure that continues to take place.”
Sokola said he’s surprised something like paid family medical leave, sponsored by Sen. Sarah McBride, D-Wilmington, was passed last year when that would have been unheard of 30 years ago.
“It’s really interesting to see people who are running, doing things kind of as a matter of fact, where 33 years ago when I was first elected, somebody saying, ‘Oh, we can’t do that,’” Sokola said. “It’s one of the things that’s OK, we did that, now let’s go on and let’s do the next thing.
“So it’s kind of an exciting time to be here. Certainly, there’s a lot of good things happening and certainly a lot of new things happening.”
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