Conduit Street

After three years of discussion in the General Assembly,  legislation providing for the statewide regulation of scrap metal dealers passed on the last day of the session.  As introduced, both the Senate and House bill would have preempted local jurisdictions from enacting their own more strict laws and turned back the progress made in Baltimore City and Baltimore County with respect to the regulation of these dealers.

The final bill was decided by a conference committee after the Senate chose to keep the pre-emption language intact and the House struck it.  The conference committee amendments maintain the pre-emption language, but amend the bill to strengthen the business to business reporting by allowing law enforcement to inspect contracts a scrap metal dealer may have with business entities, and to require a copy of the driver’s license of the individual from whom the scrap metal is acquired.

With the House of Delegates passing both SB 99 and HB 1174, two bills aiming to regulate scrap metal dealers, the controversial issue is once again heading for a late-session resolution of House/Senate differences. As the bills sit now, MACo supports the House versions — where the bills explicitly allow counties to enact tougher regulations locally to suit local needs.

Today’s Washington Post discusses the recent history of this issue, and observes that the late-session resolutions anticipated in each of the last two years have resulted in no legislation. From their coverage:

Sometimes it’s the bills right out in the open – the ones under your nose that appear to be moving smoothly toward passage – that are secretly in the most trouble in the final days of session in Annapolis

There may be no better example of that than SB 99 — and its twin, HB1174. The measures are popular with most police departments in the state and seem aimed at the clear public good of cracking down on illegal scrap metal sales, including those of sawed-off catalytic converters, indoor plumbing pipes, stadium bleachers, guard rails, manhole covers and more, which have disappeared with increasing regularity during the recession.

Yet, each of the last two years, the bills have died mysterious deaths in the final hours before the General Assembly adjourned. In 2008, a similar scrap metal bill was nullified after it was signed by the wrong lawmaker. And last year, after the kinks appeared to be worked out in a conference committee, the bill never resurfaced on the last night for a final vote.

MACo and local law enforcement will continue to advocate for the state law becoming a “floor” and not a “ceiling” for this important oversight issue. As the Post suggests, the effort may once again take until the final hours of the session.

According to an opinion item running in today’s Gazette, the scrap metal bill deserves close examination as it works its way through the General Assembly.  This article provides an interesting perspective of the discussion on this bill over the past three years, the provisions that have been included, and those that have not.

Much of what happens during a General Assembly session gets little or no attention from either the public or the media. Take for example a bill, now back for its third try, that would attempt to monitor and regulate the sale of scrap metal. For most people, scrap metal doesn’t sound like a very exciting topic, but in the shadows in which so much plays out in Annapolis, it’s attracted a number of high-priced lobbyists, some very unusual end-of-the-session drama, and advocates for the bill scratching their heads and wondering what happened.