Showing posts with label Journalists Poinski Megan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Journalists Poinski Megan. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Megan Poinski MarylandReporter.com: Smigiel dominates early legislation — again



December 30, 2011

By Megan Poinski Megan@MarylandReporter.com


The General Assembly already has a pile of 47 bills that have been prefiled so members can get right to work when they convene next month.
On the House of Delegates side, nobody has prefiled more than Del. Michael Smigiel.

Smigiel, R-Cecil, is well known for being a prolific pre-filer. For the 2012 session, 12 bills that Smigiel has sponsored are already prepared for consideration.

“I do it for tactical and practical reasons,” he said.

A pre-filed bill is one that is drafted and submitted for consideration early. These bills are already numbered and available to be read on the General Assembly website. Any sitting member of the legislature could prefile for this session, but according to the Maryland Code, drafting requests were due by Nov. 15, and the bills had to be submitted by Dec. 2.

Smigiel’s prefiled bills are all over the map in terms of what they would do. They vary from amending the Maryland Constitution to establish a Victims’ Bill of Rights to automatically presuming that a person applying for a handgun permit has a good reason to wear, carry or transport the weapon.
He is also the House of Delegates’ torchbearer for several well-publicized Republican bills, like requiring PlanMaryland to receive legislative approval before it becomes law, and increasing public notice and comment for toll increases. The majority of them are new to this legislative session.