Rep. Bill Carson

This Resolution honors the Delaware Department of Transportation for winning first place and fourth place in the ten-wheel truck competition and second and eleventh place in the six-wheel truck competition at the 2022 APWA National Snow Roadeo, which was held from September 28 to September 30, 2022 in Loveland, Colorado.

This Senate Concurrent Resolution designates June 9, 2023, as "Freshwater Wetlands Day" in the State of Delaware.

This Act promotes increased capital investment at Delaware casinos by restructuring the table games licensing fee reduction currently received by video lottery agents to allow capital investments greater than the minimum amounts required under § 4815(b)(3)a. of Title 29 of the Delaware Code to count toward the allowable license fee reductions. For ease of administration, this Act also aligns time periods for both table games and video lottery calculations.

Delaware’s capital and surplus requirements for insurers have been in place for over fifty years and are currently among the lowest in the country. This bill increases the minimum amount of capital stock and free surplus an insurer must possess and maintain in order to transact business in the State of Delaware, making them more in line with other jurisdictions.

This Concurrent Resolution recognizes May 20, 2023, as Armed Forces Day in Delaware.

This Senate Concurrent Resolution recognizes the month of May 2023 as "Healthy Vision Month" in the State of Delaware.

This Senate Concurrent Resolution supports a forthcoming federal resolution recognizing Thomas Garrett as a heroic abolitionist.

This Act raises the permissible service charge for a boat registration from $5 to $10 and the permissible service charge for a boat ramp certificate from $1.50 to $5.00.

Under Senate Substitute No. 2 for Senate Bill No. 78 (151st), the Commissioner of Elections (Commissioner) must determine that an individual does not have any disqualifying convictions before the individual can be a candidate for election to a school board. This Act clarifies that an individual who meets the filing deadline for candidates for a school board election are provisional candidates until the Commissioner determines if the individual is eligible to be a candidate and requires the Commissioner to disclose the names of provisional candidates.

First responders, including law enforcement officers, firefighters, emergency medical services (EMS) clinicians, and public safety telecommunicators, are crucial to ensuring public safety and health. First responders are at elevated risk for suicide because of the environments in which they work, their culture, and stress, both occupational and personal. This stress can be associated with a specific incident or an accumulation of day-to-day stress. Occupational stress in first responders is associated with increased risk of mental health issues, including hopelessness, anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress, as well as suicidal behaviors such as suicidal ideation (thinking about or planning suicide) and attempts. Even during routine shifts, first responders can experience stress due to the uncertainty in each situation. During emergencies, disasters, pandemics, and other crises, stress among first responders can be magnified. Relationship problems have also been linked to a large proportion of suicides among the general population (42%). Because first responders can have challenging work schedules and extreme family-work demands, stress caused by relationship problems may also be magnified in this worker group. Suicide is ranked second for causes of death for law enforcement officers. As of December, 2022, there were 133 law enforcement suicides, and in 2021, there were 160. In November, 2022 alone, there were 9 police officer suicides in this country, including one from Delaware. Law enforcement officers face a 54 percent higher risk of suicide than the general population. An officer involved in a high stress event has a 70% chance of suicide following the next incident if intervention is not sought, but with intervention, the number drops to 3%. Police officers are also at an elevated risk for depression, substance abuse, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Law enforcement officers and firefighters are more likely to die by suicide than in the line of duty. A study of more than 1,000 firefighters found that nearly 50% had suicidal thoughts at some point during their career, and about 16% reported one or more suicide attempts. A survey of EMTs and paramedics in the United States round that 37% had contemplated suicide, and 6.6% had attempted it. EMS providers are 1.39 times more likely to die by suicide than the public. Studies have found that between 17% and 24% of public safety telecommunicators have symptoms of PTSD and 24% have symptoms of depression. A study in Massachusetts found that the suicide rate for corrections officers was at least 7 times higher than the national suicide rate. Another study showed that 10% of corrections officers considered taking their own life, and about 1 in 3 are dealing with PTDS and depression. For the National Guard, there were 117 suicides in 2021 compared to 121 in 2020. This bill makes clear that suicide is a death in the line of duty for Delaware’s first responders, police officers, firefighters, correctional officers and probation officers, and the National Guard.