Day 3 - Gentlepersons, Start Your Engines!

There’s a lot to be said for the sense we had today - a sense of getting down to business. Of course, I can only speak from my perspective, and that’s from having sat through my first three committee hearings of the session and a brief floor session where I got to refer my first bill to a committee, but it was a fast-paced day to say the least.  We seemed to be on the grand prix race track, ready to go.

My day started out with the Commerce and Labor Committee, chaired by Senator Spearman. Senator Spearman is a fiery preacher who started off offering the prayer on the floor on our first day. She’s primarily focused on two things: systemic racism and promoting veterans. And she runs a tight ship. I enjoy working in her committees and she’s pretty levelheaded. As long as you don’t offend (and are not easily offended), you tend to really like her.

We heard one bill, one of Senator Spearman’s committee bills, on the licensing and regulation of employee leasing companies. This seemed like a simple, small administrative change, moving the regulation and oversight of employee leasing companies from the Division of Industrial Relations (DIR) to the Commissioner of Insurance. The logic was that DIR doesn’t have the expertise in reviewing and understanding the financial reports and applications of these companies, but the Commissioner of Insurance does.

At the very end of the presentation, however, the Department of Labor stepped in proposing a “friendly amendment.” (These are amendments that are not opposed by the drafter or sponsor of the bill.)  That amendment proposed to move the regulation of employee leasing companies to the Department of Labor since their wheelhouse is all about labor and employees.  Makes sense.  Yet they don’t have the expertise to review the financial documents either, so they would have to rely on the Commissioner of Insurance to do that.  But wasn’t that the problem they were trying to fix at DIR in the first place?  (There’s more work to do.)

Next was the Judiciary Committee.  We were given cute little paddles with handwritten “yes” on one side and “no” on the other (along with our names so we’d know who’s it was) so we could waive them whenever we were asked to vote on something.  Then came a hard ban on anything plastic in the committee hearing.  It was a full-on lecture on plastics in the ocean (there soon will be more plastic in the ocean than fish, or so we are told).  Mom told us we’d get a stern scolding if she saw any of us using anything plastic during a hearing – a water bottle, a pen, polyester pants, other things? – and we were on notice.  She wrapped up the committee rules with a second lecture, this time on decorum. We are to use strictly gender-neutral terms – no Madam Chair, Chairwoman, etc.  Just Chair Scheible.  That’s fine.  The funny part was that she was the first person to break that new rule.  She’s learning.

Finally, Growth and Infrastructure – or “upper G.I.” as it is often known.  We only introduced ourselves and went over the rules, which were pretty normal.  We also heard about the Committee Brief, a document that explains what the committee does and doesn’t do.  Good start.

What was shocking to me, however, was reading at 5:00 pm or so about the Governor’s plan to allow tech companies to establish their own independent county and local governments, presumably fully owned and operated by the company, who will then be able to establish their own laws, taxes, and other rules of the road.  Hey now, really - what bad things could happen with that idea?

Yes, this session is shaping up to be one for the record books. The engines have started and some are ready to peel out and go. I just hope we have enough people paying attention to call out the truly scary things and keep us on the pavement.