With the legislature?s final day looming two weeks from today, the House and Senate have been grinding out bills in long voting sessions in committee and on the floor.
Vetting by committees kills three out of four bills.
By the time legislation emerges, a rare bill stirs any discussion, debate or controversy.
That is why the media covers perhaps 5 percent of the legislation.
The rest may be important to a limited constituency, but in general, the rough edges have been sanded down.
Committees are where the legislature?s real work of addressing disputes and resolving problems is done.
Levity on a quirky bill occasionally interrupts the drone of the speaker?s parliamentary rat-a-tat, such as questions that came up on Saturday about a measure to prohibit transporting pets in an open truck.
This dog-in-the-back-of-a-pickup bill brought out pooch jokes and queries about the mammals affected: Does this bill cover whales, one delegate asked. How about gerbils, asked another.
After allowing a little bow-wow humor, House Speaker Michael Busch, D-Anne Arundel, quickly gaveled it to a final vote.
Witness intimidation
Del. Don Dwyer, R-Anne Arundel, is one of the most vociferous lawmakers on illegal immigrants.
He had his staff call federal immigration officials before a hearing on a bill that would require “proof of legal presence” to get a driver?s license.
According to Dwyer and others observing the scene, the delegate looked over the largely Hispanic audience and warned them: “If you are here illegally, you might want to leave … because there has been a request for a federal investigation.”
Not to worry, Judiciary Committee Chairman Joe Vallario, D-Calvert and Prince George?s, assured them ? everyone would be heard.
Vallario was recently depicted as wearing a sombrero on a wanted poster produced by supporters of another bill aimed at illegal immigrants.
The immigration agents begged off, telling Dwyer?s staff that they needed proof of a specific crime.
There was a crime, the delegate insisted.
“Undocumented aliens” have violated federal law and have no right to testify.
Bridge too far
It was not exactly “the bridge to nowhere,” said Sen. Roy Dyson, but the capital project in his St. Mary?s district was certainly a bridge too far.
The project was a $3.2 million pedestrian bridge over Route 5 at St. Mary?s College.
“What a bridge,” said Dyson, D-Calvert, Charles and St. Mary?s, in a floor debate.
Construction has been delayed for five years, but to take advantage of a federal earmark for the project, $800,000 had to be spent now.
“I understand this is federal money, but federal money is our money, too,” said Dyson, himself a former congressman.
“I protest this vehemently. This bridge is totally unnecessary.”
Dyson described unsuccessful attempts to get a pedestrian bridge built over Route 2 in Solomons, so senior citizens in a long-term care facility could cross the busy road safely to a shopping center. One resident had been killed crossing.
In contrast, the senator said the youth at St. Mary?s, a state-funded liberal arts college, ought to be able to “look both ways” on what he described as a lightly traveled highway that splits the campus.
But not dumb enough to try to take federal dough out of the capital budget.
More smart youths
The proposal to raise the age for compulsory school attendance from 16 to 17 produced some head-scratching debate in the Senate.
The problem with the plan was not the merits of making youths stay in school longer, but how much it would cost Maryland if its 10,000 high school dropouts stayed in school.
The most puzzling comments came from Sen. Ulysses Currie, chairman of the budget committee and a longtime Prince George?s educator.
With compulsory kindergarten, “youngsters are having to stay in school 12 years” or more.
“Kids are smarter today,” said the Democrat, and by their midteens, “they?ve pretty much maxed out what they?ve learned in school.”
Say what?
Had Currie seen test scores from Prince George?s school recently?
Of course he had.
“The bottom quartile of the students are really struggling,” he said ? educator-speak for one out in four students not making the grade.
“We think this bill we?ll help us move ahead.”
