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April 29, 2011

Fun Facts of the Week: Are you at all curious at how inefficient the congressional review period for D.C. laws is? Did you know that a cab driver could be find $125 if their A/C doesn’t work? Keep reading.

D.C. Laws

>> You know what’s funny about the District? When the D.C. Council passes a law, it’s not really yet a law. It only becomes a law in the most basic sense of the word when Congress gives it the ol’ 30-day look-see and sends it back with the go-ahead. This week alone, 24 pieces of legislation passed by the D.C. Council finally become enforceable, including laws making more government meetings open to the public, limiting strategic lawsuits against public participation (known as SLAPP suits) and outlining what political activities city employees can engage in. Beyond having Congress check over all of our laws, you know what’s somewhat foolish about this whole process? They’re not particularly efficient about it. Those 30 days are really 30 legislative days, which means only those days that Congress is formally in session. These 24 laws were sent to the Hill on February 2, meaning that those 30 legislative days turned into 62 business days. Just imagine how long the laws passed by the Council during the summer would take to come back, what with the August congressional recess and all. Sheesh.

D.C. Acts

>> Act 19-45, “Public Safety Legislation Sixty-Day Layover Congressional Review Emergency Amendment Act of 2011”: Speaking of annoying congressional delays, any laws pertaining to changes to the city’s criminal code stay on the Hill for 60 days. Legislative days, of course. So the D.C. Council tends to lump a bunch of changes into single pieces of legislation that span many pages and many issues. This one, for example, lays out new penalties for false fire alarms, requires healthcare facilities to reimburse D.C. Fire and EMS for non-emergency ambulance rides, makes protesting outside a person’s residence in certain conditions a crime, and makes it mandatory for people who sell more than five vehicles a year to submit certain types of information to the city. As a consequence of the usual congressional delays, the council passes these laws as emergency measures, which can be in effect for up to 120 days. And then they’ll do it again. And again. Efficient, huh?

Council Hearings

>> On Friday, June 10, Councilmember Phil Mendelson (D-At-Large) will hold a hearing on the “911 Purity Amendment Act of 2011,” which would require the mayor to publicize the fact that 911 is only to be used for emergency calls. Not sure what makes us sadder — that this isn’t already obvious, or that the mayor has to be prodded by the council to do something about it.

>> On June 1, Mendelson will host a roundtable to figure out why exactly the city’s breathalyzers were never properly calibrated, effectively causing hundreds of DUI/DWI cases to be dismissed.

>> On May 19, Councilmember David Catania (I-At Large) will host a roundtable of his own, this one on the local implementation of President Obama’s healthcare overhaul. The roundtable will apparently focus on how insurance companies operating in the District are dragging their feet on the establishment of a health insurance exchange, one of the legislation’s key elements.

Public Hearing

>> After this week’s brush-up over whether or not Jimmy Valentine’s Lonely Hearts Club had lost its liquor license or not (it hasn’t), the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration has scheduled a hearing for anyone that wants to argue about it. June 27, 10:00 a.m., 2000 14th Street NW, 4th Floor.

Final Rulemaking

>> Do you want to practice polysomnography? If so, there’s some final rules for you to look over. (It’s the study of sleep, for those of you that didn’t know. I sure didn’t.) From this point on, it’s forbidden to study people’s sleep unless you’re licensed by the city.

Proposed Rulemaking

>> What with D.C. Taxicab Commissioner Leon Swain’s dismissal this week, it’s interesting that there are two sets of proposed rules relating to taxicabs. The first set of rules outlines the role of Hack Inspectors, which police the city’s cabs for license and regulatory violations. These rules also would impose an expiration date on all cabs — once the cab is five-years-old or hits 300,000 miles, it has to be taken out of service. (Older cars would be grandfathered in.) The second set of rules repeals the $19 fare cap, outlines when snow emergency fare periods are to start and end (during that time, you’ll pay an extra $5 flat fee), states that shared rides for different groups of passengers are only allowed from Union Station and the MCI Center (yep, it says “MCI Center”), establishes a code of conduct for drivers (including a prohibition on them refusing rides to any because of “race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age or marital status, personal appearance, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, family responsibility, political affiliation, disability, source of income, or place of residence or business”), and lays out civil infractions and fines ($125 if the A/C doesn’t work, $50 if the cab is “dirty”).

Mayor’s Orders

>> Lots of appointments and re-appointments to senior posts this week that the city already knows about, including General Manager of two board members for D.C. Water, the Fire/EMS chief, the director of the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, the director of the Department of Health Care Finance, the director of the Department of Health, and the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development.