Sandy’s 2013 Legislative Diary – Page 2

Many decisions were made

“Things went very smoothly for the death penalty this session,” a reporter began an interview with me this weekend.

`“In retrospect, it seems that way after a bill passes,” I replied, “but along the way many decisions were made that turned out to be right.”

I hope that comes as no surprise to you.

I hope that this diary has given you some insight into the process by which a bill becomes a law or does not.

Last night, for instance, the Senate version of one of my bills needed to be enacted.

Around 9 pm, it passed the Senate. I wanted to make sure it didn’t get lost in the pile of bills on the Speaker’s rostrum.

I spoke to one of his aides about it. The bill was on the rostrum. She knew it was the crossfile (Senate version) of my bill.

Soon thereafter, it was taken up and passed.

—-

My end-of session summary can be found at http://www.delsandy.com/2013-session-summary/

Last bill hearing and walking with the bases loaded

I had my last bill hearing of the session today.

I didn’t read my testimony, but it took a minute (It seemed much longer) before I saw that look of recognition on the chair’s face.

I had successfully summarized what the bill would do.

For my bills that have already passed the Senate, the next step is to “make sure the legislation gets implemented,” as I said to an advocate on the phone.

—

I could very well be on the House floor when the first pitch is thrown at Camden Yards Friday afternoon.

However, I will begin the session with this prayer:

Baseball as a Road to God is the title of a new book written by the President of New York University, John Sexton.

It “uses the secular sport of baseball to explore subjects ordinarily associated with religion—prayers, altars, sacred space, faith, doubt, conversion, miracles, blessings, curses, saints and sinners,” wrote Doris Kearns Goodwin in her review.

Baseball is also analogous to the legislative process. There’s someone at every base ready to tag your bill out, trying to prevent your legislation from reaching home, returned passed to its house of origin.

Whatever your faith, hope springs eternal at the home opener. This year, for the first time in many years, with justification for Orioles fans.

Tribute will be paid to Earl Weaver before today’s first pitch.

Religion was not on Earl’s mind on Opening Day. His focus was on bringing the best 25 players north from Florida.

But one season, Pat Kelly informed his skipper that there would be a prayer service in the clubhouse on Sunday mornings.

“Join us and walk with the Lord,” Kelly urged his skipper.

Weaver replied, “I’d rather have you walk with the bases loaded.”

Reading testimony after a meeting beforehand

April 4, 2013April 4, 2013 | by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2013 Legislative Diary | No Comments

Don’t read your testimony.

Know what you’re talking about (Why we need this bill) and don’t worry if you pause or stumble occasionally.

That’s better than not making eye contact with the committee members because you’re reading what’s below you on the witness table.

I preach that to my law students and follow that rule myself.

Except when I get an email that my bill on the allocation of slots revenues among the neighborhoods near Pimlico Race Track is about to be heard in 10 minutes in the Budget and Taxation Committee and we’re nowhere near the end of the floor debate on the gun bill.

“You’re going to testify for the bill,” I told my staffer, “and you can read the testimony.”

An hour later, he responded, “I didn’t read it verbatim. I had enough time to prepare oral remarks. No question. A few nods.”

“I will talk to committee members when I can,” I responded.

There was no need to do so, he informed me. “Senator Jones asked for them to move it quickly after the hearing.” It got a favorable report.

Before the hearing, I had met with the senator, who represents Baltimore City, and gained her support.

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My floor speech about the 2^nd Amendment on Tuesday is discussed in The Free State Press, with a link to my remarks.

http://thefreestatepress.com/bullying-partisanship-assault-on-the-bill-of-rights-dominate-house-gun-debate/

Not unlimited or speechless

April 2, 2013April 3, 2013 | by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2013 Legislative Diary | No Comments

I was ready to quote Justice Scalia liberally.

During tonight’s floor debate, one of my colleagues said, “The rights protected by the 2^nd Amendment are inalienable. They can’t be restricted by the governor, the legislature, or the courts.”

Justice Scalia ruled otherwise in the majority opinion in Heller v. District of Columbia.

“Like most rights,” he wrote, “the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited.”

“Should I respond?” I asked my seatmate, Delegate McIntosh.

“Wait til tomorrow when the final vote on the bill will be taken,” she advised.

I agreed.

—

I wrote too soon.

Shortly after I posted the above, one of my colleagues said that our Second Amendment right came from God and is unalienable.

I had to speak.

“None of the protections in the Bill of Rights is absolute. The first Amendment says that ‘Congress shall make no law’ but there are limitations on the rights of free speech and a free press.”

And I did quote Justice Scalia.

Batting .500 in the Budget

April 1, 2013 | by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2013 Legislative Diary | No Comments

You win some and you lose some.

I’m talking about the Governor’s supplemental budget, not the baseball season.

There’s money for expanded services for the mentally ill but no money for the Race to the Tots grant program for pre-Kindergarten classes.

Shortly after the Newtown shootings last December, I met with advocates for the mentally ill.

“We don’t want the discussion in Annapolis to be limited to when the mentally ill should be denied guns,” I said.

We decided to introduce legislation outlining the unmet needs for services, the Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Safety Net Act of 2013.

Three items from this bill were included in today’s budget: expanded crisis response services, crisis intervention teams, and mental health first aid.

The proposed appropriation is $3.5 million.

My bill was not the only factor that prompted the Governor to increase these vital services, but it played a part.

Race to the Tots, on the other hand, was not funded. However, we’ve already begun strategizing on how to make a better and more effective case for next year’s budget.

The best person to lobby the Governor

March 28, 2013 | by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2013 Legislative Diary | No Comments

“Is there someone who can make our last pitch to Gov?”

I sent that email to a colleague and a lobbyist first thing this morning.

We have a bill where the outcome is uncertain, and Governor O’Malley’s support would be very helpful.

We quickly decided on who would be the best person to lobby the Governor.

The highlight of today’s floor session was a visit from Ravens receiver Torrey Smith, the Lombardi trophy for winning the Super Bowl in his grasp.

Governor O’Malley joined him on the rostrum, then stepped aside for the picture taking.

“I’m the best person to lobby the Governor,” I audibled to myself.

I made my pitch and got a positive response.

Results to be known before the clock runs out on the session.

Rational basis and a proud student

March 27, 2013March 27, 2013 | by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2013 Legislative Diary | No Comments

Can a law prefer males over females in the administration of an estate to which they both have equal claims?

Bills dealing with trusts and estates are heard by my committee but not this one.

Idaho passed such a law in 1864.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was one of the attorneys who successfully argued before the Supreme Court in 1971 that the statute violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

I first read that case, Reed v. Reed, as a law student in 1974 in a class entitled Sex Discrimination and the Law. The professor was Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Much of the oral argument today on the Defense of Marriage Act dealt with whether DOMA violated the Equal Protection Clause because it treated same-sex marriages differently than heterosexual unions.

Justice Ginsburg reminded the Court that “in the very first gender discrimination case, Reed v. Reed, the court did something it had never done in the history of the court under rational basis” [the test for determining that a law is constitutional if there is a rational basis for its enactment]. “The Court said this is rank discrimination and it failed.”

I attended today’s oral argument.

It made me very proud to have been a student of Professor Ginsburg.

Running out of time

March 26, 2013 | by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2013 Legislative Diary | No Comments

Time is a very precious commodity, especially during the last two weeks of the legislative session.

Today, we held our first hearing on Senate bills.

After one senator had testified on his legislation, I asked, “Is your bill identical to the version that has passed the House?”

“Yes” was the reply.

I would have told the committee that before any questions were asked.

Another senator fumbled with his laptop before presenting a power point on a bill that had already passed the House.

“’If you have the votes, sit down and shut up,” I reminded my seatmate. “In this instance, sit down and keep your laptop off.”

An advocate came to me with a letter asking the Governor to fund a program in his supplemental budget, which he could submit as soon as tomorrow.

“Instead of spending time getting more members to sign the letter,” I advised, “get it up to the Governor’s office.”

Questions at the Seder

March 25, 2013March 25, 2013 | by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2013 Legislative Diary | No Comments

I gave this prayer at the start of today’s session of the House of Delegates.

During the exodus from Egypt, the Israelites wandered for 40 years in the desert.

Judiciary Committee hearings only seem that long.

During one lengthy afternoon, I came across this commentary about the seder, the oldest continually practiced ritual in Western civilization.

“Someone who knows all the laws of Passover is still required to ask questions, and scholars on their own at the Seder are required to ask themselves questions.”

The Four Questions are a highlight of every seder.

For young boys – and now girls as well, it is a milestone to be old enough and wise enough to read the questions in Hebrew – in front of all of your family.

“Why is this night different from all other nights?” the questions begin.

Because of what we eat – unleavened bread (the matzoh), and because of what we celebrate – freedom from bondage.

On the eve of this special occasion, when we welcome the stranger and the hungry, please join me in saying Amen.

Compromised positions

March 21, 2013March 21, 2013 | by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2013 Legislative Diary | No Comments

Compromise is the order of the 90 days.

Some examples from the 79^th day.

On the House floor, nobody raised concerns about my bill to criminalize certain conduct by either side of a referendum petition effort.

A Rosenberg bill on election law usually generates skeptical (but misguided) questions from my Republican colleagues.

This time, however, the bill had been amended to reflect the compromise reached by Delegate Parrott, a Republican, and myself.

I’m no scholar when it comes to the 4^th Amendment and search warrants.

But I do know that prosecutors and the police will be one side, the Public Defender and the American Civil Liberties union on the other.

I played a supporting role in a meeting where we tried to find common ground on a bill dealing with cell phones and search warrants.

Lastly, even after your legislation is dead, a compromise may be possible.

Can you get the bill’s opponents, who opposed requiring them to do something, to agree to do so voluntarily?

The support of the chair of the committee that killed your bill can bring that about.

My Key Issues:

Category: Sandy’s 2013 Legislative Diary