Circle the date: Maryland wine shipment bills to get dual hearings on March 5
A blog posting on The Wine Classroom about the direct wine shipping bill Senate and House hearings on March 5th:
Circle the date: Maryland wine shipment bills to get dual hearings on March 5
February 20, 2010, 11:49AM
Here's
the most recent development out of the legislature tussle going on in
Annapolis, Md., over the push to change the state's laws regarding the
distribution of wine and beer.
Adam Borden noted in a Friday e-mail to members and friends of the lobbying group called Marylanders for Better Beer & Wine Laws that Sen. Joan Carter Conway, has scheduled a hearing on Senate Bill 566, the direct wine shipping bill, on Friday, March 5. Sen. Conway is the chair of the committee that hears alcohol bills.
It caught Borden by surprise for two reasons. Sen. Conway was quoted as saying in a recent Baltimore Sun
story that the wine shipping bill “is not going anywhere” despite,
according to Borden, having a majority of her own committee and both
chambers supporting the legislation. And she scheduled it the same day
and time as the hearing on the issue in the House.
Reached late Saturday morning, Borden said that he
didn't know how to "interpret her choosing to do both on the same day."
He said the two hearings will give those who want to testify in support
of the measure more of an opportunity to get in front of the lawmakers
and state their case.
Bottom line, however, this is a bill that needs to
pass the House first. Right now, Borden said, they don't have enough
votes to get that done. "We've got to focus on the House right now," he
said.