GOP lawmakers are introducing and reviving a series of bills to increase accountability over government spending within the General Assembly, including one to push for an Office of Legislative Ethics for the General Assembly.
Another bill, not yet filed, is an effort to prohibit organizations employing budget-writing legislators from receiving state money through key spending bills.
This would mean non-government organizations who employ members of the Joint Finance Committee (JFC) or Joint Capital Improvement Committee would not receive funding from the state capital budget or the Grants-in-Aid (GIA) bill.
Although the Delaware Code is specific in it's definition of conflict of interest, the bill’s sponsor, State Rep. Bryan Shupe (R-Milford South), says this bill would "eliminate a situation that dances on the edge of a conflict of interest and undermines public faith in the legislature."
He believes it will gain bipartisan support, but is more concerned that leadership may interfere with pushing the bill forward.
“There’s also this back-and-forth between individuals who have established leadership that have been here for a while, and then individuals who have come in the last couple of years — which are on both Republican and Democrat — that want to see more transparency and accountability within the system," he says.
Shupe says he tried to add an amendment with similar language to another bill in the past, but was met with stark opposition from a member of the Joint Capital Improvement Committee
“I think for the individuals that it involves, do not want to see it at all. But I think across the aisle, whether it’s a Democrat or Republican, the people that are not on these committees see it as a movement forward towards transparency and accountability.”
He references a liberal-leaning Blue Delaware blog article in his reasoning, claiming the Police Athletic League has received a 1300% increase in funding since House Speaker Valerie Longhurst became the non-profit’s executive director in 2018.
Senate Republicans are also attempting to revive a bill that would establish a Grants-in-Aid committee to review applicants for the GIA bill, instead of maintaining the Joint Finance Committee as the sole bill writer.
One of the bill's sponsors, State Sen. Brian Pettyjohn (R-Georgetown), says JFC has "always been understandably preoccupied with writing the multi-billion state operating budget, leaving little time to review GIA applicants or examine expenditures. As a result, there is less accountability of this spending than there should be."
The bipartisan bill has passed twice in the House but it has since sat in the Senate Executive Committee.
