Rep. Ed Osienski

This bill addresses an on-going problem relating to background checks for employees, volunteers, and contractors of child-serving entities. Currently, a person working a child-serving entity who obtains the required background check must undergo another background check when that person obtains employment at another child-serving entity even if that background check had recently been completed. This put an undue burden on the employee and the State Bureau of Identification who run the background checks. This bill would allow an employee, volunteer, or contractor who is required to obtain a background check to authorize a child-serving entity to share the results of a background check with another child-serving entity so long as the authorization is in writing and provided to the Office of Child Care Licensing. This bill also requires the Department of Education to establish a procedure to allow employees, volunteers and contractors to authorize the sharing of background checks between child-serving entities.

This act names the Delaware portion of U.S. Route 301 between Route 1 and the Delaware Maryland State line as First Responders Memorial Highway.

This Substitute differs from Senate Bill No. 24 by requiring a patient to apply for a compassionate use medical marijuana card when a doctor recommends medical marijuana to a patient who does not have a qualifying debilitating medical condition. To apply for a compassionate use card, this Substitute requires: 1. The patient, or it under age 18, the patient’s parent or legal guardian, submit a signed statement attesting to the patient's informed consent to try a treatment that does not have medical evidence of effectiveness. 2. The patient’s physician certify that the patient has a severe and debilitating condition, current standard care practices and treatments have been exhausted, and there are grounds to support that the patient may benefit from this treatment. The physician must periodically re-evaluate the efficacy of the medical marijuana treatment. This Substitute also requires that a registry identification card state the type of card that is issued to clearly identify qualifying adult patients, qualifying pediatric patients, designated caregivers, and compassionate use patients. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This Act prohibits the practice known as patient brokering, which is the practice where patient brokers are paid a fee to place insured people in treatment centers so that the treatment centers receive thousands of dollars in insurance claim payments for each patient. Increasingly, patient brokers fraudulently enroll patients in low-deductible health plans with out-of-network treatment benefits. Patient brokers target individuals with substance use disorders, who are told that they are receiving their treatment through a scholarship. Not only does this perpetrate fraud against insurers, when insurance plans are terminated for nonpayment of the premium, individuals are discharged from the treatment program with no services or housing and often in a state that is far from home.

This Bill modifies the impact of criminal history on an applicant’s eligibility for licensure. It gives the Board discretion to grant waivers for felony convictions for crimes committed against a person where more than 3 years have elapsed, and more than 2 years have elapsed for other felonies. The Board is precluded from considering a conviction where more than 10 years have elapsed since the date of conviction.

This Bill modifies the impact of criminal history on an applicant’s eligibility for licensure and thereby removes certain barriers to employment. It gives the Board the discretion to grant a waiver of a felony conviction for a crime committed against a person where more than 3 years have elapsed since the date of conviction, and for all other felonies, more than 2 years have elapsed since the date of conviction. The Board will be precluded from considering a conviction where more than 10 years have elapsed since the date of conviction, if there have been no other criminal convictions in the intervening time. The statute already prohibits licensure to anyone that has a felony sexual offense conviction.

This Act modifies the impact of criminal history for applicants for licensure to the Board of Electrical Examiners (Board). Specifically, this Act: (1) Permits the Board to grant waivers for felony convictions for crimes committed against a person where more than 3 years have elapsed, and more than 2 years have elapsed for other felonies. (2) Permits the Board to grant waivers for felony and misdemeanor convictions if the applicant is on Level I or II probation. (3) Precludes the Board from considering a conviction where more than 10 years have elapsed since the date of conviction. (4) Requires an applicant to submit evidence that the applicant has not been convicted of a felony sexual offense. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

Unmanned aircraft systems are capable of introducing contraband into detention facilities without undergoing correctional officer inspections. This bill seeks to prohibit the use of unmanned aircraft systems (drones) to introduce contraband into detention facilities. This bill makes it a class F felony to deliver or attempt to deliver contraband by use of a drone.

This Act clarifies the rules for driving on Delaware roadways. It mandates the general rule that drivers operate vehicles in the right-most lane subject to some exceptions. It also mandates that, on the limited access portions of Route 1 only (currently from I-95 to south of Dover), trucks over 10,000 pounds of registered gross weight must drive in the right-hand land subject to some exceptions. Finally, it creates civil penalties for drivers on the limited access portions of Route 1 (currently from I-95 to south of Dover) who do not abide by the requirements of this Act. This bill addresses the problem of operators of vehicles driving below the designated speed limit in in the left-hand lane of State Route 1 and causing congestion thereon.

This Substitute Act modifies the Renewable Energy Portfolio Standards Act to do all of the following: (1) Adds a solar water heater to the list of eligible energy resources. (2) Defines “solar technology” to include both solar photovoltaic and solar thermal energy technologies. (3) Continues increasing the required minimum percentage of electrical energy sales to Delaware end-use customers from renewable energy sources through 2035. (4) Places the Director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control’s Division of Climate, Coastal, and Energy, and the Division itself, in charge of certain administrative aspects of the renewable energy portfolio standards program, replacing the State Energy Coordinator and the Delaware Energy Office. (5) Grants retail electricity suppliers and municipal electric companies a credit for installing eligible energy resources on a certified brownfield. (6) Makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. This Substitute Act differs from the Act by: (1) Lowering the minimum cumulative percentage for solar technology by .25% beginning in 2030. (2) Removing provisions that permitted a freeze of the minimum cumulative percentage from eligible energy resources and of the minimum cumulative percentage from solar technology under certain circumstances.