Sandy’s 2012 Legislative Diary – Page 4

Prepared for Opening Day

April 5, 2012 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

“I don’t think that bill is moving,” another delegate answered when I asked if she supported my proposed amendment.

“Best to be prepared,” I responded.

We agreed to act like Boy Scouts.

Not everyone is, unfortunately.

A bill I thought was uncontroversial is still sitting in committee.

I learned which committee member was the likely culprit. Then I asked the lobbyist for the affected Cabinet department to find out why the bill is being held.

No word yet.

—-

We expect the House will be in session until late tomorrow afternoon.

That means I won’t be going to the Orioles game.

However, I will again be offering the opening prayer for the House of Delegates on the Opening Day of the baseball season.

On Opening Day in 1947, the rookie first baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers went hitless. By season’s end, Jackie Robinson hit .297 and led the National League in stolen bases and sacrifice hits. He was named Rookie of the Year.

Robinson told the crowd at the 1972 World Series, “I’d like to live to see a black manager, I’d like to live to see the day when there’s a black man coaching at third base.” Nine days later, he died of a heart attack. Three seasons later, Frank Robinson broke a different color barrier as manager of the Cleveland Indians.

Perhaps a future Hall of Famer is making his major league debut this afternoon. Or an obscure utility player may get the big hit or make the play in the field that wins the game. A parent may take a child to their first game together.

It will all begin when the umpire says, “Play ball!”

None is dead

April 4, 2012 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

Of the 14 bills or issues I’m working on that have passed the House of Delegates, none is dead.

My bond bills have been funded.

Budget bill language about involving absent fathers with their child and the mother has been agreed to.

The House and Senate bills creating the Grasmick teacher scholarship have each passed one house.

Two of my bills have gotten favorable committee action in the Senate. Approval by the full body should be routine.

No distress signals that I’m aware of for any of my other bills that are in the upper house.

Ten days ago, I had five bills waiting for House action so that they could cross over to the Senate.

None made it. They’ll be wandering in the desert for the next nine months.

Until next year.

Policy and power

April 3, 2012 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

The other people in the room were busy discussing policy.

I was participating, but then I said to myself, “We can talk endlessly about policy among ourselves, but how are we going to make it the law of Maryland?”

So I got to work.

I emailed someone who works for an advocate whose input should be persuasive with an important legislator.

That someone called me right away and agreed to ask the advocate to call the legislator tomorrow.

The levers of power are in motion…

Lobbying in the home stretch

April 2, 2012April 4, 2012 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

I’ve been lobbied at the race track before.

This time, however, it was about the slots bill, not a “can’t miss” horse running in the next race.

I had already made my wagers on the 10th race Saturday when I had a brief conversation with a representative of the horse breeders.

The lobbying continued this afternoon.

I met with two registered lobbyists for different players in the racing industry one after the other.

1 and 1A, I called them.

—

No action has been taken on one of my bills.

I asked the lobbyist for the Cabinet department that supports my legislation if his Secretary could call the committee chair on behalf of my legislation.

“Will do,” was the reply. “We also have bills in that committee.”

Substituting early childhood education

March 31, 2012April 4, 2012 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

No one would mistake a voting session of most committees in Annapolis for a New England town meeting.

The bills have been discussed and decided by the committee leadership beforehand.

But there are exceptions.

Yesterday, Ways and Means was considering legislation to raise the compulsory age for public school attendance from 16 to 18.

“The amendments we are adding to this bill require a comprehensive study of how our schools can best meet the needs of these kids who are dropping out,” declared Delegate Anne Kaiser, chair of the education subcommittee.

Delegate Kaiser continued, “I asked Nancy Grasmick [the former State Superintendent of Education] what is the one thing that we could do for our students that would have the greatest impact. She replied, ‘Early childhood education.’”

Senator Bill Ferguson and I have introduced legislation to do just that. It would make a full-day program available for four-year olds whose parents’ income is below a certain level.

But where was the reference to pre-kindergarten in the bill before us today?

I couldn’t find it. So I asked.

It requires the State Department of Education to report on “successful early interventions at the elementary school level.”

“Does that include pre-K?” I said.

I was about to offer an amendment, but Del. Kaiser spoke first.

Let’s delete “elementary school” and substitute “early childhood.”

This mission accomplished.

Hostage taking, technical amendment, asking and thanking

March 29, 2012 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

I began my day by reading through the list of House bills that would be considered by the full Senate today.

I learned that a Senate committee acted favorably on some of the bills it heard yesterday but not mine.

Does that mean something?

Has my bill been taken hostage, to be freed only if legislation supported by the committee receives favorable action in the House?

—-

We drafted a technical amendment dealing with foreclosure to my bill imposing a penalty on people who improperly obtain the homestead tax credit.

In this instance, technical means it deals with property law, a subject about which I have retained very little from the little that I learned in my first-year law school class.

I reminded my staff this morning: “It is essential that the industry official whom we worked with on the technical amendment be at the witness table with me later today – in case someone asks a question about this language.”

—-

“People like to be asked, and people like to be thanked,” Tip O’Neill advised.

A staffer told me that another legislator needed to hear from me about an issue of mine before his subcommittee.

I explained my proposal to my colleague, asked for his support, and got it.

Then I thanked the staffer.

Counting, on the bench and in the House

March 28, 2012 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary, Uncategorized | No Comments

At the Supreme Court today, much of the discussion dealt with what I do for a living.

The legal question was this: If the Court finds that the individual mandate is unconstitutional, what is the effect on the other provisions of the health care law?

Are all of the other parts of the law nullified? Some? None?

Phrased another way, should the judiciary revise the legislation or should the Congress, which wrote it in the first place?

None of the justices has ever run for office or had to count to a number higher than five to reach a majority.

The late Justice William Brennan reportedly said that counting to five is the most important principle of constitutional law because five votes constitute a majority on the Supreme Court.

Several of the Justices spoke today of their need for a test, an objective standard that would apply to similar cases in the future. (They also made clear their less than favorable view of the legislative process, as today’s transcript demonstrates.)

In Annapolis, our guiding principles are our assessment of sound public policy and how to address the ideological and political needs of 71 members, a majority of the House of Delegates.

Amending an amendment

March 27, 2012March 28, 2012 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

“EXPAND EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION PROGRAMS IN THE STATE.”

Legislation that Senator Bill Ferguson and I introduced had that purpose.

It would be one of the permitted uses of money in the Education Trust Fund.

No action has been taken on either of our bills.

However, that language was amended onto the slots bill that just passed the Senate. (Amendments are in ALL CAPS.)

Now it’s our job to try to strengthen that amendment in the House so that a certain amount of the money in the Education Trust Fund must be used for this purpose.

—-

Before another of my bills was heard in the House, a representative of an affected interest group shared with me some concerns.

No amendment was proposed by this group, and my bill has passed the House.

I don’t want an amendment to be offered at the Senate hearing on my legislation without knowing about it in advance.

So I called the representative. I was promised language to discuss by day’s end.

It’s better to be informed than surprised.

No joke and crossing over to dry land

March 26, 2012 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary, Uncategorized | No Comments

This is how our debate began on the bill to create a health exchange, where consumers can evaluate health insurance policies. The exchange would implement the Affordable Care Act.

“When I was driving here, I heard something on talk radio,” stated a Republican delegate.

“Many people consider that entertainment,” responded the Democratic floor leader for the legislation.

What followed was entertainment only if you’re amused by excessive and misleading rhetoric.

My Republican colleagues declared:

“This bill takes us down the dark night of socialism.”

“This won’t solve our uncompensated care problem because the people in emergency rooms are not lawfully present in this country.”

People will still be buying their health insurance from private companies. The Congress did not nationalize the industry.

Far too many of the people seeking care at an emergency room don’t have health insurance on the job. The vast majority of them are citizens of this country.

That’s no joke.

—-

I now have two file cards in my breast pocket.

One lists the 14 bills or issues I’m working on that have passed the House of Delegates and will avoid the delay of the Rules Committee.

The other has my five bills still waiting for the Red Sea to part in the House so that they can cross over to the dry land of the Senate.

Making choices

March 22, 2012 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

“A majority of low-income women oppose abortion.”

When one of my colleagues said that during the floor debate on her amendment to further restrict Medicaid funding for abortion, I rose to respond.

“It’s not a question of what a majority of poor women may or may not believe,” I declared. “It’s a decision for each individual woman to make with the people she chooses to consult.”

“For poor women, that choice is already limited by the existing language. We should reject this proposal.”

The amendment failed, 48-82.

The same number opposed a similar amendment last year. I know that because we had discussed it at our strategy meeting this morning.

—

During a discussion of the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act on Morning Joe today, Jeff Greenfield prefaced his remarks by saying, “It’s been a long while since I was in law school, and I never had a practice.”

My last semester in law school, Jeff was my co-professor for “Writing About the Law.” I was thinking about not taking the Bar and sought his advice.

“I had that conversation with my Jewish mother,” he responded.

He lived to tell the tale.

So did I.

Not taking the Bar was the best thing I never did.

My Key Issues:

Category: Sandy’s 2012 Legislative Diary