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.
[20111230 Poinski Smigiel dominates early leg
again]
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