Rep. Nnamdi Chukwuocha

The purpose of the Bill is to allow for the modifications to the Disability Insurance Program for state employees that were included in the Governor’s Twelfth Modification to the COVID-19 State of Emergency to continue until December 30, 2020 in the event that the State of Emergency ends prior to that date.

This Act requires that individual, group, and State employee insurance plans cap the amount an individual must pay for insulin prescriptions at $100 a month and must include at least 1 formulation of insulin on the lowest tier of the drug formulary developed and maintained by the carrier.

This Act provides for voting by mail for the 2020 primary and general elections and special elections held under the provisions of Chapter 73 of Title 15 due to the emergency caused by COVID-19, a highly contagious virus. Voting by mail is an alternative to, and not a replacement for, in-person voting, which remains an available option to those electors not voting by absentee or mail ballot. This Act establishes procedures for voting by mail which mirror the procedures for absentee voting. The Act makes clear that, like in absentee voting, no ballots can be tabulated until Election Day. The authority to implement voting by mail stems from the Delaware Constitution. Article XVII of the Delaware Constitution mandates that in order to insure continuity of State and local governmental operations in periods of an emergency resulting from disease, the General Assembly shall have the power and immediate duty to adopt measures that may be necessary and proper for insuring the continuity of governmental operations including nonconformity with the requirements of the Constitution when in the judgment of the General Assembly to do so would be impracticable. With this Act, the General Assembly finds that due to the highly contagious nature of COVID-19, and the need to protect Delaware voters and polling workers from the virus, voting by mail is necessary and proper for insuring the continuity of governmental operations, and conformity with the constraints of Article V, § 4A would be impracticable.

This bill is intended to advance sustainable energy goals and initiatives in Delaware and to restore Delaware as a leader in renewable, sustainable energy. First, this Act builds on the Renewable Energy Portfolio Standards Act, which was first enacted into law in 2005, by setting new standards for the minimum percentage of electric energy sales from eligible energy resources and solar photovoltaics. Second, this bill contains the “Community Sustainable Energy Authorities Act,” which authorizes incorporated municipalities, towns, and counties and the Delaware Sustainable Energy Utility to create authorities to develop, promote, and operate community sustainable energy projects.

Since the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868, with Delaware ratifying it in 1901, at least 15 states have added a provision to their state constitution that prohibits the denial or abridgement of equal rights under the law based on race, color, or national origin. In 2019, Delaware amended the state constitution to prohibit the denial or abridgement of equal rights under the law based on sex, but no such prohibition exists as to race, color, or national origin. This Act is the first leg of a constitutional amendment to add race, color, and national origin to the Article I, § 21 of the Delaware Constitution to explicitly declare that protection against discrimination based on race, color, and national origin is one of Delaware's fundamental rights. This Act requires a greater than majority vote for passage because Article XVI, § 1 of the Delaware Constitution requires the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the members elected to each house of the General Assembly when the General Assembly amends the Delaware Constitution.

This Bill amends Title 11 to require that custodial interrogations of children, at a place of detention, by a law enforcement officer, be electronically recorded. The Bill requires the law enforcement officer to prepare a written explanation if the interrogation is not electronically recorded. No electronic recording is required if the child refuses to be interrogated if the interrogation is recorded. The Bill contain an exception if the safety of the child, law enforcement officer or informant would be jeopardized. The prosecution has the burden of proving one of the Bill's exceptions for the admission of a child's statement that was not electronically recorded. Both law enforcement officer and agency have civil immunity for implementing and enforcing provisions of Bill. This Bill will become effective 6 months after enactment.

This Concurrent Resolution recognizes the class of 2020’s challenge faced due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Delaware

In January of 2015, the Office of Civil Rights & Public Trust was created by the Attorney General to establish a centralized office within the Department of Justice for the investigation of matters concerning civil rights enforcement and the prosecution of matters concerning violations of the public trust. This office must remain an independent entity within the Department of Justice to avoid conflicts with other Department of Justice duties and thus effectively enforce laws protecting the public trust and civil rights. Thus, this Act creates the Division of Civil Rights and Public Trust within the Department of Justice which will be separate from the other Divisions within the Department of Justice and have a Director who reports directly to the Chief Deputy Attorney General, to avoid conflicts of interest with the work of the other Divisions. This Act also clarifies the current scope of the Department of Justice’s ability to investigate and bring civil rights actions to protect the civil rights of all Delawareans.

This Act allows any qualified voter evidencing a desire to vote by mail in writing to the State Elections Commission to vote by mail in primary, general, and special federal elections. The State Elections Commission shall administer the program, creating rules and regulations that allow processing and scanning of mail ballots ahead of Election Day without tabulation until Election Day, dropping off mail ballots at any polling place on Election Day and dropping off mail ballots in a secure drop box of each county Department of Elections office before and leading up to Election Day.

This Act permits a school district to conduct on the last day of January an optional unit count of pupils who enrolled after the actual unit count was conducted and certified by the Department of Education. A school district will qualify for one-half of the value of the Division I and Division II state financial support for each additional unit under the optional unit count.