Rep. Ed Osienski

This Act has the effect of renaming the Delaware Department of Transportation Welcome Center on Interstate 95 at 530 JFK Memorial Highway, Newark, Delaware as the "Biden Welcome Center" in honor of the Biden family. This gesture is made because of the exemplary service to the State of Delaware the Bidens have provided, and because of their lifelong promotion of this State.

This Act makes the Delaware equal accommodation law internally consistent, correctly organized, and aligned with the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"). This Act corrects the potential for confusion in Chapter 45 of Title 6 in the following ways: 1. The current law states that the purpose of Chapter 45 is to prohibit discrimination based upon physical disability but Chapter 45 actually prohibits discrimination against individuals with physical or mental disabilities. This Act corrects the purpose language in § 4501 of Title 6 by changing the term "physical disability" to "disability" so that it accurately states the scope of the protection provided by of Chapter 45. 2. The current law uses the term "support animal" while the ADA and other states use the term "service animal." This Act replaces the term "support animal" with "service animal" to use the same term as the ADA. 3. The current law defines "support animal" as assisting only individuals with physical disabilities and does not address service animals that assist individuals with nonphysical disabilities, even though Chapter 45 prohibits discrimination against individuals with physical or mental impairments. This Act uses the ADA definition of service animal, which requires that the dog be trained to do work or perform tasks for an individual with a disability. 4. The current law places the prohibition against discriminating against an individual with a support animal in the definition section rather than in the prohibited practices section. This Act moves the requirement that a service animal be permitted to accompany an individual with a disability in public places from the definition of disability to the statute that lists unlawful practices. With these corrections, this Act restructures and corrects the language in Chapter 45 of Title 6 so that it is consistent with the ADA and clear that an individual with any disability, including an individual with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or other psychiatric, intellectual, or mental disability, may be accompanied by a service animal in a public place. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This Bill updates the State of Delaware’s False Claims and Reporting Act to make it compliant with the requirements of Section 1909 of the Social Security Act. Section 1909 of the Social Security Act provides a financial incentive for States to enact laws that establish liability to the State for individuals and entities that submit false or fraudulent claims to the State Medicaid Program. This incentive provides for a ten percent increase in the share of a qui tam recovery or settlement apportioned to the State. For a State to qualify for this incentive, State law must meet certain requirements enumerated under Section 1909(b) of the Social Security Act, so that the State’s law is at least as effective as the Federal False Claims Act. After review by the Office of Inspector General for the United States Department of Health & Human Services (“OIG-HHS”), it was determined that Delaware’s current False Claims and Reporting Act fails to meet the requirements of Section 1909(b) of the Social Security Act. OIG-HHS has granted Delaware a two-year grace period, ending December 31, 2018, to address these deficiencies. This bill amends the False Claims and Reporting Act to bring it into compliance with the requirements of Section 1909(b).

This Act establishes the High Needs Educator Student Loan Payment Program. The Program allows qualified applicants to apply for a payment from the State to the applicant’s lending agency, to pay a portion of the applicant’s student loan debt. The purpose of the Program is to encourage Educators to work and remain working in certification areas in which Delaware has a shortage and to encourage Educators to work and remain working in Delaware’s hardest-to-staff Schools. The amount of the award shall be no less than $1000 and no more than $2000. This substitute redesignates the chapter where this language will be placed in the code.

This Act amends § 2532 of Title 29, in the Not-for-Profit Healthcare Conversion Act, to ensure that the Attorney General has sufficient time to review a proposed not-for-profit healthcare conversion and, if appropriate, take action to protect the charitable assets being held for public benefit. Due to an apparent drafting error, the Not-for-Profit Healthcare Conversion Act currently permits a not-for-profit healthcare entity to provide notice to the Attorney General of a proposed not-for-profit healthcare conversion as late as the day of the proposed transaction, which would prevent the Attorney General from performing the functions intended by the General Assembly when it enacted the Not-for-Profit Healthcare Conversion Act.

Since 1973, § 9605(b) of Title 9 of the Delaware Code (“§ 9605”) has prohibited the recordation of instruments that restrict the sale, gift, transfer, assignment, conveyance, ownership, lease, rental, use, or occupancy of real property to or by any person because of the person’s race, color, creed, sex, national origin, or ancestry. This Act provides a mechanism for owners of real property subject to an instrument that contains a provision that restricts property rights based on the list of characteristics included in § 9605, including the governing documents of a common interest community, to redact and strike the unlawful restrictive covenant language from instruments recorded with a county recorder of deeds before the original enactment of § 9605 or in violation of § 9605. This Act also amends the list of characteristics included in § 9605 that may not be used to discriminate in the sale, gift, transfer, assignment, conveyance, ownership, lease, rental, use, or occupancy of real property to make it consistent with Delaware’s fair housing laws. However, this Act makes clear that provisions that are permitted by the exceptions to the Delaware Fair Housing Act are not prohibited from being recorded by a recorder of deeds. Finally, this Act makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This bill creates regulations concerning the use, distribution and education of Benzodiazepine and Non-benzodiazepine Hypnotics. It require Practitioners to obtain consent from a minor’s parent or guardian prior to prescribing these drugs, and require pharmacist to include a cautionary statement explaining the risks associated with the long term use of these drugs.

The state is currently funding service providers at 75% of the market rate established in a 2014 study that was done by DHSS. This bill would mandate an increase in the rates paid to service providers according to the recommendations of the market study, so that by fiscal year 2021 the state would fund service providers at 100% of the benchmarked rate. These rate increases are necessary to increase the hourly wages of Direct Support Professionals (DSPs), to improve recruitment and retention of these positions, to decrease staff turnover, and to decrease position vacancies. Along with the corresponding costs for program oversight, direct supervision of DSPs, and training, stabilizing the DSP workforce with increased pay is essential to keep people with I/DD safe and integrated to the maximum extent possible in their local communities. The bill also requires that the adequacy of the rate system be evaluated against performance measures that are commonly used to assess program quality.

This legislation creates a fine for “Coal Rolling”, a practice that is often undetectable at the time of vehicle inspection due to the ability of an operator to change functions and increase emissions after passing inspection. Coal Rolling is the practice of modifying a diesel engine to increase the amount of fuel entering the engine in order to emit large amounts of black or grey sooty exhaust fumes into the air. It also may include the intentional removal of the particulate filter. Practitioners often additionally modify their vehicles by installing smoke switches and smoke stacks. In addition to the environmental concern of increased emissions, there is a safety component as the excessive emissions can impair a motorist’s visibility.

This Act amends Titles 14, 16, 17, 26, and 29 of the Delaware Code to prohibit the use of lead paints on outdoor structures such as bridges, water towers, playground equipment, highways, parking lots, and utility towers and poles, in order to protect public health from the dangers of such paints. More specifically, Section 1 of this Act substantively amends Title 16 to add a new Chapter 30M setting forth the general prohibition of use of lead paints on outdoor structures after specified effective dates. Section 2 of this Act amends Titles 17, 26, and 29 to reference back to the new Title 16 Chapter 30M prohibitions. Section 3 requires the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control to develop regulations governing the removal of lead paint from outdoor structures consistent with this Act.