Delaware Bills

This Act establishes an independent and nonpartisan Office of the Inspector General (OIG) and the position of the Inspector General. The OIG will protect the health and safety of Delaware residents, assist in the recovery of misspent or inappropriately paid funds, and strengthen government integrity and the public trust in government operations by doing all of the following: 1. Investigate the management and operation of state agencies to determine if there has been waste, fraud, abuse, mismanagement, corruption, or other conduct that is harmful to the public interest. 2. Coordinate with other agencies, recommend corrective actions and statutory revisions, and, if necessary, make referrals to law enforcement. 3. Provide reports to the Governor, Attorney General, and General Assembly, and these reports will be available to the public on the OIG website. The Inspector General will be selected through a process that requires a Selection Panel to provide 3 names to the Governor for consideration. The Governor will select a nominee from these 3 names for appointment as Inspector General and submit the nominee for confirmation by the Senate. Under this Act, the Selection Panel work must begin upon enactment and the work of the Office of the Inspector General must begin by March 1, 2023.

This Resolution designates July 2022 as "Uterine Fibroids Awareness Month" and encourages public awareness of the effects of fibroids on many individuals' lives.

This Act is companion legislation to Senate Bill 270. Currently, state code requires all school districts to match state- appropriated minor improvement funds with 40% local funds, regardless of a district’s ability to do so. This bill changes the requirements for the school district match for minor capital improvement funds to use the more equitable formula in place for major school construction projects.

The ability of insured dependents and other insured members to receive confidential sensitive health care services without the knowledge of the insured policyholder is greatly impeded through traditional billing processes utilized by health insurers. The most frequent form used is an explanation of benefit (EOB) sent to the policyholder after anyone covered under the policy receives care. The lack of confidentiality for sensitive health care services can often result in insured members simply avoiding necessary health care. This Act amends Titles 18, 29, and 31 to require both individual and group health carriers, including those providing coverage under the State health insurance plans, to use a common summary of payment form, developed by the Department of Insurance, for defined sensitive health care services. The Act prohibits the health carriers from specifying any defined sensitive health care services in the form, allows health carriers to address the form to the insured member, allows insured members to choose their preferred method of receiving said form, and precludes health carriers from sending the form when there is no payment liability for the visit or service provided. The Act also amends Title 31 to provide that any carrier providing health insurance to Medicaid recipients may not divulge defined sensitive health care services without the recipient’s express written or telephone recorded consent. The Department of Insurance is required to issue guidance to health insurers within 1 year of enactment. The Division of Public Health is required to establish a plan to educate health care providers and staff of hospitals, medical offices, community health centers and school-based health centers to promote compliance with this Act within 1 year of enactment.

Currently, Delaware law permits the display of a flag of the United States of America on a flagpole attached to a residential structure. The law also permits display on a flagpole on the premises, but only if the flagpole was installed prior to the termination of developer control. This bill would remove that restriction, such that an individual would be permitted to display a flag of the United States of America on a flagpole even if the flagpole was installed after termination of developer control and regardless of other community association restrictions, deed restrictions, or other restrictions to the contrary.

This Act imposes an increased penalty for certain already illegal activity involving animal fighting by increasing the classification of felony for individuals engaging in the organization of animal fights or are directly involved in the act of carrying out or causing animal fighting by reclassifying this activity as a Class D felony.

This Act is the first leg of a Constitutional Amendment reflecting the recommendations of the Advisory Panel to the Delaware Economic and Financial Advisory Council (DEFAC) on Potential Fiscal Controls and Budget Smoothing Mechanisms established as per House Joint Resolution 8 of the 149th General Assembly (Panel). This Act would build upon the State’s existing appropriation limit methodology by moving the Budget Reserve Account into a newly defined Budget Stabilization Fund, defining rules for deposits to and withdrawals from said Budget Stabilization Fund, and adding a check of the appropriation limit against an index comprised of relevant indicators of growth of the State’s economy. The Panel further recommended that any final adoption of the structural budget reforms included in this Act be accompanied by statutory enactment of structural reforms to the Personal Income Tax by broadening the tax base as initially recommended by the DEFAC Advisory Council of Revenues report dated May 2015 and further detailed in the Panel’s report dated June 1, 2018.

This Act is the first leg of an amendment to the Delaware Constitution to make necessary technical corrections identified by the General Assembly's Division of Research. Specifically, these technical corrections consist of the following: Section 1 and Section 12 of this Act work in concert to transfer the date of the commencement of the terms of the members of the General Assembly from the Constitution’s Schedule to Article II (relating to the General Assembly) to avoid confusion and for ease of locating this information. Section 2 of this Act deletes § 24 of Article II of the Delaware Constitution to remove antiquated language to conform the Delaware Constitution to existing practice. This Section dates back to the Delaware Constitution of 1792 when the State Treasurer was also considered what we now know as the State Accountant, the Budget Director, the Director of Revenue, and the Secretary of Finance. The purpose of this Section was to provide the General Assembly with one, detailed report indicating that the State’s books were balanced and finances were being managed properly. Over time, as other, more specific roles were created within State government, the State Treasurer’s role in these aspects were shifted to other executive branch officers. Today, this constitutional requirement is now being met by several different state agencies in several different forms, all culminating in final products overseen by entities like the Delaware Economic and Financial Advisory Council (DEFAC), the Cash Management Policy Board, and the General Assembly itself, and take the form of final reports issued to the General Assembly, administrative paperwork, and legislation like the annual appropriations act and annual capital improvement act. Section 3 of this Act corrects a codification error. The sentence stricken in Section 3 of this Act was originally to be struck by Chapter 607, Volume 50 of the Laws of Delaware in 1956. However, the sentence remains in the Delaware Constitution to this day. See Opinion of the Justices, 405 A.2d 694, 697 fn. 6 (1979). Section 4 of this Act updates the name of the State officer and State agency involved in determining whether the Governor is able or unable to discharge the Governor’s duties, which has changed since the adoption of this Section in 1969. Section 5 and Section 13 of this Act work in concert to transfer the date of the commencement of the terms of certain State and County elective executive branch officers from the Constitution’s Schedule to Article III (relating to the Executive) to avoid confusion and for ease of locating this information. Section 6 of this Act designates § 2 of Article V to make an internal reference clear. Section 7 of this Act makes changes to ensure the accurate adoption of an amendment to the Constitution proposed in 1998 by 71 Del. Laws, ch. 398. The amendment proposed in 1998 was proposed by Senate Bill No. 277 of the 139th General Assembly, which was later replaced by Senate Substitute No. 1 to Senate Bill No. 277. Senate Substitute No. 1 to Senate Bill No. 277 passed the General Assembly. When the 140th General Assembly concurred in the proposed amendment, the General Assembly used the language of Senate Bill No. 277 instead of Senate Substitute No. 1 to Senate Bill No. 277. See 72 Del. Laws, ch. 437 (Senate Bill No. 394 of the 140th General Assembly). This change ensures the original intent to concur in the language of Senate Substitute No. 1 to Senate Bill No. 277 is achieved. To properly achieve this change, the version of § 6 of Article V that existed before the passage of 72 Del. Laws, ch. 437 is shown as struck through in this Section. Section 7 of this Act also makes additional technical corrections to conform existing law to current practice and to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. Sections 8 and 9 of this Act hyphenates “three fourths” to ensure consistent hyphenation of the supermajority vote requirements throughout the Constitution. Section 10 also makes additional technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual; specifically, to ensure use of the serial comma in two places in this Section. Section 10 of this Act corrects an incorrect reference to another provision of the Delaware Constitution. The reference to “Section 30” has existed in Section 7 of Article XV of the Delaware Constitution since its adoption in 1897; however, in 1951, a constitutional amendment was adopted to reorganize Delaware’s Judiciary. See 48 Del. Laws, ch. 109. That reorganization resulted in deletion and renumbering of Sections originally contained in Article IV of the Delaware Constitution, as adopted in 1897, but did not account for the internal reference to Section 30. Section 11 of this Act hyphenates “two thirds” to ensure consistent hyphenation of the supermajority vote requirements throughout the Constitution. House Bill No. 130 of the 151st General Assembly proposes an amendment to this Section and makes a technical correction to the first “two thirds” but not the second. This Section is intended to ensure that, on the 152nd General Assembly’s concurrence in House Bill No. 130 and this Act, the correct hyphenation of “two thirds” is achieved throughout this Section. This Act requires a greater than majority vote for passage because § 1 of Article XVI of the Delaware Constitution requires the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the members elected to each house of the General Assembly to amend the Delaware Constitution.

This Act prohibits a seller from imposing a surcharge on a cardholder who elects to use a credit card in lieu of payment by cash, check, or similar means.

This concurrent resolution recognizes the month of June 2022 as Caribbean American Heritage Month in the State of Delaware.

While the consumption of marijuana while driving is an unclassified misdemeanor under § 4764(d) of Title 16 of the Delaware Code, this Act also makes the consumption of marijuana while driving a motor vehicle violation, like alcohol currently is. Thus, this Act enables law enforcement officers to charge a lesser offense and to use a traffic ticket rather than a criminal summons or warrant. This would enable an individual to avoid a conviction for a misdemeanor, as well as provide a better understanding to the general public that marijuana usage while operating a motor vehicle has the same dangers of impairment as drinking an alcoholic beverage. Section 2 of this Act eliminates the definition of “consume” to remove the requirement that the officer observe the act in order for the act to be a crime since “consume” should be given its ordinary meaning for consistency with other provisions in the Delaware Code. Section 3 of this Act provides for a license loss for the consumption of marijuana by those under the age of 21 who drive, operate, or have actual physical control of a motor vehicle. This places the consumption of marijuana in this context on par with the consumption of alcohol. This Act requires a greater than majority vote for passage because § 28 of Article IV of the Delaware Constitution requires the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the members elected to each house of the General Assembly to create a new crime within the jurisdiction of the Court of Common Pleas, Family Court, or Justice of the Peace Court or to expand the scope of an existing crime within the jurisdiction of the Court of Common Pleas, Family Court, or Justice of the Peace Court.

This concurrent resolution recognizes and honors the young women of Delaware participating in the 2022 session of Delaware Girls State.