Rep. Mike Smith

Transportation infrastructure is critical to the safe and efficient movement of people as well as goods and services throughout the State. The Delaware Strategies and Spending identifies various investment levels to help prioritize State infrastructure funding, with investment levels 1 and 2 representing the areas of highest priority. However, there are many transportation facilities within these areas which do not meet the current standards and rely on development projects to construct improvements resulting in unpredictable costs and fragmented infrastructure. This act creates a transportation impact fee for areas within state strategies and spending levels 1 and 2 that are not currently within an approved Transportation Improvement District. The impact fee ensures that development contributes a reasonable, responsible share of the transportation impact to fund off-site improvements including but not limited to bringing substandard roads to current standards, improving pedestrian facilities, and upgrading deficient intersections while allowing the Department of Transportation to implement the improvements in a more cohesive way. The fees are to be utilized within the counties where they are collected.

This Senate Concurrent Resolution recognizes March 29, 2023, as "National Vietnam War Veterans Day" in Delaware.

This Act directs DelDOT and DNREC to develop a program to allow for the expedited review of entrance plans and stormwater and sediment plans associated with new development. Under this process a consultant pre-approved by DelDOT and/or DNREC would conduct the review and the costs would be paid directly by the developer. The state agencies are charged with developing policies and procedures to protect against potential conflicts of interest in the use of private consultants.

This Concurrent Resolution recognizes March 8, 2023, as "National Women-Owned Small Business Day" in Delaware.

In 2021, the General Assembly enacted a law, Chapter 249 of Volume 83 of the Laws of Delaware (Senate Bill 169 of the 151st General Assembly) to update and expand the definition of child care to include early education programs for children below the grade of kindergarten that are operated by public or private schools, including sectarian or religious institutions. This law takes effect on July 1, 2024. This Act exempts sectarian or religious institutions from the Delaware Child Care Act.

This resolution designates March 26, 2023, as "Epilepsy Awareness Day" in Delaware and calls upon State agencies and the people of Delaware to undertake suitable efforts to increase epilepsy awareness.

This resolution recognizes March 25th as “Greek Independence Day” in Delaware.

This resolution recognizes the Easterseals/CAI Volleyball Challenge occurring March 25 at William Penn High School and March 26 at Delaware State University, an event that raises funds for an organization providing services and support to Delawareans with disabilities and senior citizens and their families.

This bill authorizes coverage for the spouse of a survivor who qualified to receive a deceased pensioner's retirement benefits prior to May 15, 2012.

This amendment to the House Rules requires a three-fifths vote of the members of the House in order to suspend the House Rules. The primary purpose of the House Rules is to establish a reasonable and orderly process for the consideration of legislative proposals to be addressed by the House of Representatives. Suspension of Rules should only be necessary in unusual situations. This change will require a broad consensus (three-fifths) of all members of the House of Representatives in order to suspend rules. Since a three-fifths requirement cannot be done via a simple voice vote, and must be performed with a roll call, this change will also increase transparency by ensuring that every legislator will have their vote on the action recorded and available for public review.