Rep. Val Longhurst

This Act mandates that the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control and the Division of Public Health establish maximum contaminant levels for specific contaminants found in drinking water in this state. Such contaminants include PFOA and PFOS, which are man-made chemicals. In certain studies, these chemicals were found to be associated with increased risks of chronic diseases. The Environmental Protection Agency, thus far, has not established a maximum contaminant levels, but have issued health advisories. The establishment of maximum contaminant levels is essential in order to protect the health and safety of all Delawareans from contaminants in drinking water.

This Act is called the Jamie Wolfe Employment Act in recognition of Jamie Wolfe, a powerful disability rights advocate who worked tirelessly on behalf of people with disabilities for equal rights and equal access to education, housing, competitive and integrated employment, transportation and community-based services. The Act requires that authorization to pay individuals with disabilities less than the minimum wage required to be paid to other employees will be phased out by July 1, 2023. It is consistent with the goals of the Employment First Act enacted by the 146th General Assembly and with national trends. In September 2020, the United States Commission on Civil Rights recommended that 14(c) certificates be phased out. The Employment First Oversight Commission created in the Employment First Act is charged with the responsibility of developing and implementing a plan for the phase-out and insuring that the needs of affected providers and employees with disabilities working at less than minimum wage are considered as the phase-out is implemented.

This Act prohibits a person who is the subject of a Protection from Abuse Order of the Family Court and who knows or has reason to know, that the Order has been issued from purchasing, owning, possessing, or controlling a deadly weapon or ammunition for a firearm in this State. This Act also prohibits the subject of an outstanding arrest warrant, active indictment or information related to a felony or misdemeanor crime of domestic violence from purchasing a firearm. The subject of the pending criminal process must know or have reason to know that the process is pending in order for the prohibition to apply. This Act also makes technical changes to the existing law to make it conform to the Legislative Drafting Manual.

Section 1 of this bill establishes the crimes of possession of an unfinished firearm frame or receiver with no serial number, possession of and manufacturing a covert or undetectable firearm, possession of and manufacturing an untraceable firearm, and manufacturing or distributing a firearm using a three-dimensional printer. This bill also makes it a crime to possess a firearm frame or receiver with a removed, obliterated, or altered serial number. This bill makes very limited exceptions to the requirement that certain guns have serial numbers which are: (1) Firearms manufactured before 1968; (2) Muzzle loaders that only use black powder, and antique replicas. Finally, this bill makes clear that § 1463 of Title 11 concerning untraceable firearms does not apply to members of the military forces or members of a police force in this State duly authorized to carry an untraceable firearm, and does not apply to the manufacture or importation for sale to a law-enforcement or military entity in this State. Section 2 is a severability clause. Section 3 provides that Section 1459A of Title 11, which is possession of an unfinished firearm frame or receiver with no serial number, takes effect 90 days after the Act's enactment into law.

The purpose of this act is to open up The Delaware Student Excellence Equals Degree Act (SEED Act) to adult Delaware residents, who are not recent high school graduates. Currently, about 56% of Delawareans age 25-64 lack a post-secondary degree. This expansion of the SEED grant program will encourage adult learners to return to school to enhance their knowledge and skills and increase their job opportunities. Adult individuals with a high school diploma or less education were significantly impacted by Covid-19-related job loss. This legislation can help to mitigate the effects of the pandemic on those adults. Tennessee has instituted a similar program called the Tennessee Reconnect Act.

This Act creates the Korey Thompson Student Emergency Housing Assistance Fund for the benefit of housing insecure undergraduate students at any college or university in Delaware and appropriates $90,000 to the Fund for FY2022. DSHA is charged with administering the Fund and reporting to the Governor and the General Assembly how the funds are spent.

This bill will allow all surviving spouses of persons killed in the course and scope of employment to receive the same level of death benefits as the surviving spouses of those persons defined as “covered persons” in Section 6601(2), Title 18 of the Delaware Code, in the event that the surviving spouse remarries. This expansion of the death benefit beyond the surviving spouses of those persons specified in Section 6601(2) will result in all surviving spouses, who decide to remarry, being treated equally under Delaware’s Workers’ Compensation laws.

This bill removes the training minimum wage and youth minimum wage, which takes effect 90 days after enactment.

This Act provides a phased in approach to further the reduction of single-use plastic bags. This Act increases the minimum thickness for a plastic bag to qualify as a reusable bag from 2.25 mils to 10 mils effective January 1, 2022 and makes the restrictions applicable to stores regardless of size effective July 1, 2022. This Act also makes corrections to existing law to make it conform to the standards of the Legislative Drafting Manual.

This Act implements the procedure for the notice of a proposed amendment to the Delaware Constitution authorized by the amendment to § 1 of Article XVI of the Delaware Constitution proposed by House Bill No. 130 by doing the following: (1) Making the Secretary of the Senate ("Secretary") and Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives ("Chief Clerk") responsible for ensuring that a proposed amendment by their respective house is disseminated to the public as required by § 1 of Article XVI of the Delaware Constitution and this Act. (2) Requiring the notices be published in at least 1 newspaper of general circulation in each county and posted on the Department of Election's and General Assembly's websites. (3) Requiring the Secretary, Chief Clerk, State Election Commissioner, and Director of the Division of Research to review and approve the notice to be disseminated. (4) Requiring the Secretary and Chief Clerk to provide notice of, and certain information about, the dissemination of the notice of a proposed amendment. Because the next General Assembly must concur in the proposed amendment to the Delaware Constitution, this Act does not take effect until the passage of the second leg of the constitutional amendment in the 152nd General Assembly.