featured – Page 13 – Sandy Rosenberg

If your Task Force recommendation can make it there, it can make it anywhere…

The New York Times reports:

Governor Cuomo’s “aides worked with several advocacy groups, including the Brady Campaign in Washington, New Yorkers Against Gun Violence and the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence in San Francisco, to develop a package of measures that would be comprehensive but also politically achievable. They looked to other states; a provision in the new law to require mental health professionals to report possibly violent patients was similar to a recommendation by a task force created last year by Gov. Martin O’Malley and state legislators [Delegate Lu Simmons and I were the sponsors] in Maryland.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/24/nyregion/cuomo-used-all-his-means-to-pass-gun-control-package.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

That is a first. My legislation leads to a law being enacted in another state before we do so in Maryland.

As we draft our bill, Delegate Simmons and I will include all of the recommendations of the Task Force so that they can receive a full hearing by the legislature.

We will also introduce legislation outlining the preventive programs the State should fund so that people don’t reach the stage where they pose a threat to others.

Translating into bill language

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

All verbal or physical actions threatening suicide or serious violence toward a reasonably identifiable victim or victims should be reported to local law enforcement. Mandated reporting should apply to psychiatrists, psychologists, physicians, social workers, addiction treatment counselors, educators, case managers, and probation agents.

That is a recommendation of the Task Force to Study Access of Mentally Ill Individuals To Regulated Firearms.

Delegate Simmons and I will try to translate those words into bill language. Along the way, we will also have to make some decisions.

If we include suicide, will people be less likely to tell one of those professionals of their concerns?

Which educators should be covered by the law? Teachers, supervisors, office staff?

Our decisions will not be the last word. They will be reviewed by the House committee to which our bill is referred

That’s what I told the members of the Task Force at its meeting this afternoon.

Some of them wanted us to delay introducing a bill until the group reached a consensus.

“With all of the attention focused on gun violence this session, now is an opportune time to begin consideration of these issues by the General Assembly,” I stated. “My colleagues may decide that, like you, they need more time to do this right.”

What I didn’t work on yesterday

January 23, 2013 | by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2013 Legislative Diary | No Comments

Today was a day to work on the legislation that I didn’t work on yesterday.

I emailed the drafts of several bills to supporters and asked for their comments.

Their suggestions could improve the bill. Better to incorporate them into the bill before it’s introduced than to present a long list of amendments at the bill hearing.

The latter is a sign that your bill needs lots of work, which can be fatal.

I also learned of my first bill hearings of the session.

My early voting legislation will be heard on February 7. My staff and I need to discuss potential witnesses and what data will bolster my argument that Sunday voting will increase turnout, without interfering with the preparations for Election Day two days later.

This summer, I read that the federal government offers phased retirement for its workers. On February 5, there will be a hearing on my bill to create a task force to study doing the same in Maryland. We need to find state government employees to testify on how they and their successors would benefit.

Meeting a deadline and the votes for passage

January 22, 2013 | by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2013 Legislative Diary | No Comments

I’m old enough to remember when the clock was literally turned back at midnight to provide additional time for the General Assembly to conclude its business on the last day of the session.

To avoid that time travel, we are now guaranteed a bill hearing if we submit our bill requests to our drafting staff by the close of business today. The overwhelming majority of House bills will be introduced by the next deadline on February 7, and all of that legislation will have a public hearing by the second week in March.

No matter how well I think I’ve planned ahead, there’s a rush of requests today – seven to be exact.

I realized that I’m old enough not to remember the email address for the bill drafting office. I had to settle for CtrlC(copy).

In some cases, some of the details of your proposed legislation may be lacking. So you request that last year’s bill be reintroduced with the intent of making changes to gain support before the bill is introduced.

An advocacy group may be unaware of the deadline. So at a meeting yesterday, you offer to make a bill request, giving the group the time to find another sponsor who’s on the committee that will hear the bill.

—-

My name will be on one bill that was introduced today.

I am one of 66 co-sponsors of the Governor’s legislation to repeal the death penalty. As I sought support on the House floor, additional members also indicated they would vote yes but not co-sponsor.

We have the votes for passage.

First Bill, Long Arc

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

I introduced my first bill of the session.

House Bill 217 would extend early voting to the Sunday before Election Day and double the number of early voting locations in every jurisdiction before the general election.

Baltimore City, for example, would have ten, instead of five.

For the bill hearing later this session, I hope to have data that compare the turnout and the time voters spent waiting in line in the states that have voting on that last Sunday (mostly blue) and those that don’t (mostly red).

We will also need to address the concerns raised by our State Board of Elections that there would not be enough time to prepare for Election Day after Sunday voting.

I’m also looking for a Senator to sponsor this legislation.

The prospects for my bill will be better in the Senate if its provisions have had a full hearing, instead of the brief review that a House bill often gets in the last two weeks of the session.

When I testify on HB 217 in the House (and hopefully, the Senate), I will quote from President Barack Obama’s Inaugural address:

“Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote.”

However, this portion of his speech moved me the most:

“We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths – that all of us are created equal – is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall.”

At those locations, historic events took place in the history of women’s rights, voting rights, and gay rights, respectively.

“The arc of the moral universe is long,” declared Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “but it bends toward justice.”

Counting to 25

January 20, 2013 | by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2013 Legislative Diary | No Comments

“The most important decision you make each year is which 25 guys to bring north from Florida,” Earl Weaver told us at Fantasy Camp.

As he chose his roster, Weaver envisioned the role each player would have.

In his only season as an Oriole, there was no doubt about Reggie Jackson’s status.

Tim Nordbrook, a utility infielder, sat at the other end of the scale.

Jackson frequently taunted Nordbrook, “What do you do on this team?”

In a rare start, Nordbrook saved a run with an inning-ending play at shortstop.

After the players returned to the dugout, Weaver confronted Jackson, “That’s what he ——- does on this team.”

Knowing my own name

January 17, 2013 | by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2013 Legislative Diary | No Comments

“I found my father on Facebook before Catholic Charities did.”

Thomas Diepenbrock decided at age 40 to try to find his birth parents.

He was testifying on House Bill 22, which, according to its supporters, would “expand the rights of adopted adults to know their original identities, as well as their medical and ancestral histories.”

He continued, “I desperately wanted to know what my birth name was on the original birth certificate. I am legally barred from knowing my own name.

“It was shocking and revealing to learn that my children have ice blue eyes because my birth father does.

“I just wanted to know where I came from.”

I always try to have a witness who personalizes the issue my bill addresses. You can’t do it better than this one did.

In this instance, the technology outran the law, as Facebook rendered obsolete the statute, the product of a compromise in 1999.

Praising the NRA, Quoting Justice Scalia

January 17, 2013 | by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2013 Legislative Diary | No Comments

“The NRA is very good at what it does,” I declared.

I was a guest on the Marc Steiner show.

“The existing law is riddled with loopholes, thanks to the NRA,” I continued. “For instance, agents of the federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms can make only one inspection per year of a licensed gun dealer.”

Some of the other points I tried to make.

“President Obama and Governor O’Malley are not claiming that their legislation would be a panacea [as another panelist had asserted]. What they’re seeking are reasonable limitations on access to certain firearms and magazines that will reduce the risk of deadly violence upon innocent children and others.”

“Chiefs of police overwhelmingly support gun control laws.”

In response to the claim that the 2^nd Amendment would be violated by these restrictions, I read from Justice Scalia’s opinion in the case striking down a District of Columbia statute because it violated an individual’s right to possess and use a firearm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home.

“From Blackstone through the 19th-century cases” the law was understood to mean that the Second Amendment “was not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose…Nothing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.”

—-

I had this dialogue with a veteran lobbyist who was about to seek co-sponsors for a bill we are working on.

“It’s good to have a champion on the committee,” said the lobbyist.

“No, it’s essential,” I replied.

“I’m getting too old to get a lot of co-sponsors.”

“Young or old, seeking co-sponsors who are not on the committee hearing the bill is the biggest waste of time in Annapolis.”

January 15 – Broken from birth

January 15, 2013 | by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2013 Legislative Diary | No Comments

“The death penalty was broken from birth,” declared Benjamin Jealous, president of the NAACP.

He spoke at the press conference where Governor O’Malley announced that he would sponsor the bill repealing capital punishment.

The Governor’s action is a big deal. He brings the power and resources of his office to our effort. So has Ben Jealous.

Nonetheless, I still felt uncomfortable when several people congratulated me.

“That’s appropriate for the bill signing,” I responded.

When I spoke, I congratulated “our two leaders, Governor O’Malley and Ben Jealous, for their moral courage and political leadership.”

“Weather permitting, this event was supposed to be held outside, next to the Thurgood Marshall statue,” I said.

“That statue honors Marshall for bringing the lawsuit that integrated the University of Maryland Law School. As a young lawyer, Marshall also handled death penalty cases.

“Eighty years ago, he knew that the death penalty was broken at birth. Over the next eighty days, we will remove this blight from our laws.”

Avoiding fatal fiscal notes

January 10, 2013 | by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2013 Legislative Diary | No Comments

Every bill has a fiscal note.

It estimates the cost to state government if the legislation is enacted.

A bad fiscal note can kill your bill before you speak the first words of your testimony.

I know. It happened to me once.

The customary culprit is a state agency that doesn’t like your bill and submits an overly generous estimate of its cost to the legislative staffer who’s preparing the fiscal note.

But a legislator or advocate doesn’t have to wait until the fiscal note is distributed the day of the bill hearing to offer alternative numbers.

That’s what I advised at my 9 a.m. meeting, where the individual was seeking a tax credit. The more businesses that receive the credit, the greater the loss to the state. To avoid an agency estimate on the high side, I suggested meetings with the agency and the fiscal note writer.

At my noontime meeting, the proposed bill would save the state money. Make sure the agency doesn’t underestimate the savings, I counseled.

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