In 1995, the General Assembly directed the Code Revisors to gender neutralize or otherwise ensure that a solely masculine or feminine designation never occurs unless it could only apply to one gender. The Code Revisors followed this direction and worked to ensure that laws enacted after 1995 were gender neutralized during the codification process. The Code Revisors also began working through the Delaware Code in existence in 1995 to gender neutralize existing law, a process that is not yet complete. Since 1995, the more common legislative drafting technique is to draft laws so that they are gender silent. Gender silent drafting techniques include substituting the noun for which the masculine or feminine pronoun refers. Thus, instead of drafting a law to say, “The Governor may appoint an individual if he or she deems him or her qualified”, following gender silent techniques the law would say, “The Governor may appoint an individual if the Governor deems the individual qualified.” This technique has the added benefit of providing clarity as many times use of multiple masculine or feminine pronouns can result in confusion as to which noun the pronouns refer. This Act serves two purposes. First, Section 1 of this Act directs and authorizes the Code Revisors to use gender silent techniques to ensure masculine or feminine pronouns are not used in Delaware Code unless the usage requires otherwise. Second, the goal of Sections 2 through 141 of this Act is to complete the process of removing purely masculine pronouns by using gender silent techniques, except in instances where it could not be determined which noun the masculine pronoun applied to.
This act designates rescue dogs as the official state dog.
This bill reflects the National Association of Insurance Commissioner’s revisions to the Model Credit for Reinsurance Act giving the Commissioner express regulatory authority to address the handling and treatment of reinsurance agreements entered into, directly or indirectly, with life and health insurer-affiliated captives, special purpose vehicles or similar entities, including the authority to promulgate model regulations adopted by the NAIC that are required for the Department to meet accreditation.
This Act promotes increased capital investment at Delaware casinos by restructuring the table games licensing fee reduction currently received by video lottery agents to allow capital investments greater than the minimum amounts required under § 4815(b)(3)a. of Title 29 of the Delaware Code to count toward the allowable license fee reductions. For ease of administration, this Act also aligns time periods for both table games and video lottery calculations.
Delaware’s capital and surplus requirements for insurers have been in place for over fifty years and are currently among the lowest in the country. This bill increases the minimum amount of capital stock and free surplus an insurer must possess and maintain in order to transact business in the State of Delaware, making them more in line with other jurisdictions.
Currently, all health insurance plans subject to requirements under Delaware law must include at least 1 formulation of epinephrine autoinjectors on the lowest tier of the carrier's drug formulary for individuals who are 18 years of age or younger. This Act expands this requirement to all covered individuals, regardless of age, by January 1, 2024. This Act also makes a technical correction to §§ 3571Y of Title 18 to add standard language about applicability, which is already in § 3370D of Title 18.
This Act eliminates the requirement of a daily average of no less than 25 full time employees to operate a beer garden. Beer gardens are presently the only liquor establishments that have a statutory staffing requirement. This Act also includes beer gardens along with taprooms and taverns as establishments the Commissioner may deny a license if an existing same establishment is within 1200 feet, by accessible public road in an incorporated city or town, or 9/10 of a mile in an unincorporated or rural area.
This bill expands record retention requirements for licensed producers, adjusters and appraisers from 3 to 5 years. The bill also makes technical changes to conform to the Legislative Drafting Manual.
On March 1, 1875, the federal Civil Rights Act was enacted. Following the end of the Civil War and the adoption of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments, the goal of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 was to guarantee Blacks equal treatment in places of public accommodation and on public transportation. On March 25, 1875, the General Assembly enacted Chapter 194 of Volume 15 of the Laws of Delaware to permit places of public accommodation and public transportation to exclude individuals “whose presence there would be offensive to the major part of the proprietor’s customers and thereby injure the proprietor’s business”. Newspaper reports from the time indicate that this law was specifically designed to “neutralize the effects of” the Civil Rights Act of 1875. Almost 100 years later, in December 1963, the 122nd General Assembly enacted the Delaware Equal Accommodations Law, Chapter 45 of Title 6 of the Delaware Code, to prevent in places of public accommodations practices of discrimination against any person because of race, creed, color, or national origin. As part of this legislation, the 122nd General Assembly provided that “§ 1501 of Title 24, § 902 of Title 28, and § 703 of Title 26 of the Delaware Code of 1953, and all laws or parts of laws inconsistent with the provisions of this Act are hereby repealed insofar as such inconsistency does occur.” Despite the General Assembly’s intent, these provisions were not repealed at the time and, with the exception of § 703 of Title 26, which was repealed in 1974 with the rest of Chapter 7 of Title 26 as part of reorganization of Title 26, have continued to persist to this day. This Act explicitly repeals § 1501 of Title 24 and § 902 of Title 28, fulfilling the intent of the 122nd General Assembly that § 1501 of Title 24 and § 902 of Title 28 be repealed as inconsistent with the purposes of the Delaware Equal Accommodations Law that General Assembly adopted. This Act also serves to repudiate the State’s past involvement in racial discrimination that occurred in reliance on and under color of laws adopted by this State.
This Act raises the permissible service charge for a boat registration from $5 to $10 and the permissible service charge for a boat ramp certificate from $1.50 to $5.00.
This Act makes clear that a school district may deny a request from a charter school to have the school district where the charter school is located to transport students residing in that district. If the school district denies the request, the charter school is to receive the payment provided by the State under existing law.
This Act corrects a technical error in SB 227 (149th General Assembly) by establishing requirements for group and blanket health insurance plans that align with existing requirements for individual and State employee health insurance plans. As introduced, SB 227 specified that coverage for chronic care management under all 3 of these health insurance plan types cannot be subject to patient deductibles, copayments, or fees. Senate Amendment 1 to SB 227 made various intentional changes to SB 227 but also accidentally deleted the line that applied this chronic care management requirement to group and blanket plans. SB 227, as amended, passed both chambers unanimously. As a result, since January 1, 2019, there has been an unintentional difference in the requirements between the plan types. This Act corrects that divergence. This Act applies to policies, contracts, or certificates issued, renewed, modified, altered, amended, or reissued after December 31, 2023.
