Rep. Val Longhurst

This Act removes the sunset provision in Chapter 453, Volume 83 of the Laws of Delaware relating to the program established under §9011A of Title 29 to assist individuals who are in or have experienced foster care in Delaware with driver education, driver licensing, and motor vehicle insurance and associated barriers and costs. The Act also amends §9011A of Title 29 to clarify the scope and administration of the program, and amends the definition of “youth in foster care” under §3921 of Title 18 to maintain consistency with 29 Del. C. §9011A(g)(1).

Maddy summaryThis bill updates Delaware's rules for inspecting long-term care facilities, requiring the Department of Health and Social Services to examine each facility at least once every 15 months. To maintain a statewide average inspection frequency of every 12 months, the department can charge extra fees to cover the costs of additional inspections needed when violations are found. Inspectors have the authority to enter facilities without prior notice, interview residents and staff, review records, and verify that previous issues have been fixed. The law also prohibits former employees or relatives of facility staff from participating in inspections of their former or current workplaces to ensure impartiality.

This Act is a substitute for Senate Bill No. 150. Like Senate Bill No. 150, this Act requires included facilities have sufficient staff to meet the needs of each resident and requires dementia care services training for staff. This Act differs from Senate Bill No. 150 in the following ways: (1) it removes the definition of activity services; (2) it defines direct care, secured memory care unit, and memory care services; (3) it requires that assisted living facilities providing dementia care services to residents in a secured memory care unit create a staffing plan that ensures the facility has sufficient staff to meet the scheduled, reasonably foreseeable unscheduled, and evolving needs of residents and; (4) it charges the Department of Health and Social Services with reviewing the staffing plan during each annual inspection and during any other inspection in which the Department deems it relevant; (5) it revises initial dementia care services training requirement by limiting the requirement to individuals that provide care in a secured memory care unit of an assisted living facility, creating separate training requirements, both in terms of duration and content, for individuals that provide direct care and non-direct care to residents receiving dementia care services in secured memory care units of assisted living facilities; (6) it revises the annual dementia care services training requirement to mirror initial dementia services training requirements; (7) it establishes dementia care services training requirements for individuals employed by temporary staffing agencies; (8) it gives the Department of Health and Social Services the discretion to accept other required dementia care services training to satisfy the dementia care services training requirements; (9) it details the transferability of training between facilities and temporary staffing agencies; and (10) it narrows the scope from all long-term care facilities to only assisted living facilities.

The United States Space Force was established on December 20, 2019 as part of the National Defense Authorization Act. The Space Force became the 6th branch of the United States Armed Forces. This Act inserts the Space Force in those sections of the Delaware Code where the other 5 branches of the armed forces are specifically enumerated This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

The United States Department of Agriculture runs a voluntary program that provides risk management coverage to dairy producers that pays out based on the difference between the national price of milk and the average cost of feed. This Act enables the Delaware Department of Agriculture, subject to the availability of funding, to reimburse eligible dairy operators in the state for the cost of the premium to enroll in the USDA program.

This Act establishes the Delaware Agricultural Production Assistance Program. The Program will provide a subsidy of up to 30% of the premium for eligible producers’ multi-peril crop insurance premium, or whole farm revenue protection premium up to a maximum of $10.00 per acre. The subsidy would be directly paid by the Delaware Department of Agriculture to the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation on behalf of Delaware eligible producers. The Department would administer the Program. The Act requires the Department to provide an annual Report to the Chairs of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees.

This Act creates the Affordable Housing Production Task Force (“Task Force”). The purpose and mission of the Task Force is to investigate and make findings and rcommendations to the Governor and the General Assembly on how the State and local governments can increase the production of affordable rental units and homes in Delaware. The Task Force shall consist of 20 members some appointed by the Governor, some appointed by the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, some appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and some will serve as a member by virtue of their official position. The Co-Chairs of the Task Force will be (1) the member of the Delaware Senate appointed by the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, (2) the member of the Delaware House of Representatives appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and (3) the Director of the Delaware State Housing Authority. The Task Force must create, at a minimum, the following Sub-Committees: (1) Regulating and Permitting, (2) Finance and Development, (3) Construction, (4) Manufactured Housing, (5) Community Focus Groups. The Chairs of the Sub-Committees must be members of the Task Force but the members of the Sub-Committees do not have to be on the Task Force. A Sub-Committee may have a maximum of 9 members. This Act establishes the duties and responsibilities of the Co-Chairs of the Task Force and the requirements that will govern the administration of the Task Force. The first meeting of the Task Force must be held no later than 60 days after enactment of this Act. The Task Force must provide its Final Report by March 1, 2025. This Task Force will expire on the date it submits its Final Report unless its existence is continued by a subsequent act of the General Assembly.

This Act creates the Delaware Artificial Intelligence ("AI") Commission. This Commission shall be tasked with making recommendations to the General Assembly and Department of Technology and Information on AI utilization and safety within the State of Delaware. The Commission shall additionally conduct an inventory of all Generative AI usage within Delaware's executive, legislative, and judicial agencies and identify high risk areas for the implementation of Generative AI. The Commission will terminate 10 years from enactment unless extended by the General Assembly.

This bill: (a) extends the expiration date for any new issuance or renewal of an ADA placard from 3 years to 8 years for a specific person with a diagnosis of a permanent disability and changing the minimum age from 85 to 80 years or older, (b) extends the validity for a temporary disability from 5 weeks to 180 days, and (c) defines additional medical professionals acceptable to certify a disability application.

This Act allows a licensed brewery-pub located within the premises of a public golf courses to apply to the Commissioner for a license to sell alcoholic beverages to patrons of the golf course if the brewery-pub and public golf course share common ownership.