Delaware Bills

passed both · Delaware · House Jun 30, 2022

HCR 111: RECOGNIZING THE MONTH OF JUNE AS NATIONAL HOMEOWNERSHIP MONTH IN DELAWARE.

This resolution recognizes June 2022 as National Homeownership Month in Delaware.

Kendra Johnson (D) Bryan Townsend (D) · 18 co-sponsors

passed both · Delaware · Senate Jun 30, 2022

SCR 126: RECOGNIZING TITLE IX'S 50TH ANNIVERSARY AND ITS POSITIVE IMPACT ON STUDENTS.

This Resolution commemorates the 50th anniversary of the enactment of Title IX and recognizes the impact it has had on improving equality in educational institutions and the workplace, while committing to build upon its foundation to continue to expand the protection of equal rights.

passed · Delaware · House Jun 30, 2022

HR 26: REQUESTING THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE AND DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES TO ISSUE REPORTS REGARDING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE RED FLAG LAWS AND OTHER RELEVANT STATISTICS.

This Resolution requests the Attorney General’s Office, the Director of the Delaware Justice Information System (“DELJIS”), and the Secretary of Health and Social Services to provide reports to the General Assembly that will provide information regarding the effectiveness of the current “Red Flag Laws”, as well as other statistics that may provide more insight so that in the future, the General Assembly might refine said laws, further protecting Delaware citizens from violence due to firearms.

passed · Delaware · Senate Jun 30, 2022

SCR 129: CREATING THE SCHOOL VIOLENCE PREVENTION TASK FORCE TO MAKE FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS TO ENSURE STUDENTS AND TEACHERS ARE SAFE FROM VIOLENCE AT SCHOOL.

This concurrent resolution creates the School Violence Prevention Task Force to make findings and recommendations to ensure students and teachers are safe from violence at school.

passed both · Delaware · Senate Jun 30, 2022

SB 11: AN ACT PROPOSING AN AMENDMENT TO ARTICLE I, § 12 OF THE DELAWARE CONSTITUTION RELATING TO CRIMINAL PROCEDURES.

This Act is the first leg of a constitutional amendment that will modernize the bail provisions within the Delaware Constitution and clarify the power of the General Assembly to define either certain offenses for which, or circumstances under which, pretrial release on bail may not be available. The current provision allowing that only “capital offenses” are not bailable first appeared in its present form in the Delaware Constitution of 1792. At that time, “capital offenses” included many more offenses than the term does today. For example, manslaughter, rape, robbery, burglary, and assaults with weapons were capital offenses, and therefore included as crimes for which a court could order pretrial detention. Thus, over time, other crimes that the Framers intended to include as those for which bail might be restricted no longer are. Today, a Delaware state court judge cannot order preventive detention in any non-capital case. Instead, the judge can only attempt to set the bail so high that a defendant cannot make it, which means that any defendant, no matter how dangerous and no matter the circumstance, can obtain release if the defendant can fund the bail—even if that defendant poses a certain flight risk or a known threat of harm to the public or to a specific person, such as a witness or victim. This Act is one step toward completing a pretrial release-detention continuum requiring specific evidence-based detention decisions that seek to maximize public safety and minimize pretrial detention for those less serious crimes for which it is not required. Upon enactment of the second leg of this constitutional amendment, § 12 of Article I of the Delaware Constitution as proposed will do all of the following: (1) Retain the express declaration of a general right to have bail set in a criminal case. (2) Provide that the crimes for which bail may be withheld are capital murder, where the evidentiary proof is positive and presumption of the accusation great, and other identified felony offenses determined by and under procedures prescribed by law where the evidentiary proof for the need of detention is clear and convincing. (3) Ensure that one condition precedent to bail being withheld in non-capital cases is a finding that no bail condition or combination of bail conditions other than detention will assure the safety of any person or the community, that the person will appear for future proceedings, or that the detention is necessary to prevent the person from obstructing or attempting to obstruct justice. This constitutional amendment, by itself, would not allow that a person charged with a non-capital crime could be held without bail. Rather, no person could be subject to a detention hearing in a non-capital case until the General Assembly revises Chapter 21 of Title 11 of the Delaware Code and the General Assembly and courts “prescribe by law” the specific felonies, circumstances, and procedures under which detention without bail may occur. With this change, though, Delaware can progress toward the type of modern bail system that has been increasingly adopted by our sister states through amendment of their state constitutions, when needed, and the development of statutory procedures that provide, in appropriate cases, pre-trial detention without bail. And this change does so by adopting the standards favorably recommended by authoritative sources including the National Conference of State Legislatures, the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, the National Center for State Courts, the American Bar Association, and the numerous state legislatures and court systems that have studied pretrial detention and retained or incorporated them in their own state constitutions and laws. Any legislation subsequently enacted or court procedures adopted under the passage of the second leg of this constitutional amendment would have to require individualized, fact-governed decision-making by any court considering preventive detention to pass muster under the United States and Delaware State Constitutions.

passed · Delaware · Senate Jun 30, 2022

SR 34: DIRECTING THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES TO PREPARE REPORTS ON THE PURCHASE OF CARE PROGRAM AND DIRECTING THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION TO PREPARE REPORTS ON CHILD CARE CAPACITY.

This resolution directs the Department of Health and Social Services to prepare reports on the Purchase of Care Program and directs the Department of Education to prepare reports on child care capacity.

passed both · Delaware · House Jun 30, 2022

HCR 107: SUPPORTING THE ADOPTION OF RULES BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AND THE SENATE REGARDING IMPLICIT BIAS AND CULTURAL COMPETENCY TRAINING.

This House Concurrent Resolution seeks to have both the House of Representatives and Senate consider amending their respective Rules , once the 152nd General Assembly assembles and convenes, for purposes of adding mandatory training, for all members, in evidence based implicit bias and cultural competency, similar to both Chambers’ current Rules in regard to sexual and workplace harassment.

passed both · Delaware · Senate Jun 30, 2022

SCR 125: PROCLAIMING THE DAY OF FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2022 AS “NATIONAL FIRST RESPONDERS DAY” IN THE STATE OF DELAWARE.

This concurrent resolution proclaims Friday, October 28, 2022 as “National First Responders Day” in the State of Delaware.

passed · Delaware · House Jun 29, 2022

HB 387: AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 16 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE MEDICAL CARE OF POLICE DOGS INJURED IN THE LINE OF DUTY.

This Act is made to authorize Paramedics and other Emergency Medical Services Personnel to provide medical care to Police Dogs injured at the scene of an emergency. This Act also grants civil and criminal immunity to such Emergency Employees who provide medical services to Police Dogs, so long as their efforts to assist the Police Dog were in good faith. However, it does clarify that in a situation where a person and a Police Dog need Emergency Medical Care at the same time the Medical Services Personnel are prohibited from providing care to the Police Dogs over the Individual Person, if the care of the Police Dog would hinder the Person’s Care.

passed both · Delaware · Senate Jun 29, 2022

SCR 118: DESIGNATING OCTOBER 17-23, 2022 AS "FREE SPEECH WEEK" IN THE STATE OF DELAWARE.

This resolution designates October 17-23, 2022 as "Free Speech Week" in the State of Delaware

passed · Delaware · House Jun 29, 2022

HB 152: AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 11 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO CRIMINAL IMPERSONATION.

In a case of first impression, the Superior Court ruled, contrary to "common knowledge" of Delaware Criminal laws, that criminal impersonation requires proof that a real person (a human being who has been born and is alive) has been impersonated; in other words, one cannot impersonate a fictitious person. Evans v. State, Del. Super., June 5, 2019. This Act provides that criminal impersonation occurs when one impersonates a real or fictitious person.

passed · Delaware · House Jun 29, 2022

HB 472: AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 9 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO NEW CASTLE COUNTY BIDDING THRESHOLDS.

This Act raises the public bidding thresholds for procurement of goods, contractual services, professional services, and public works contracts by the government of New Castle County to match the bidding thresholds established by the State’s Contracting and Purchasing Advisory Council.

Bill results