Rep. Ron Gray

This Act removes Delaware from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (“RGGI”) as the state has already exceeded its CO2 reduction goals, cutting emissions by 45%. Despite this progress, Delaware faces high electricity costs and slow economic growth, ranking 46th in GDP growth. RGGI compliance costs are passed on to consumers, making energy more expensive for families and businesses. States outside RGGI have maintained lower energy prices while still reducing emissions. Exiting the program will allow Delaware to pursue policies that support both economic growth and energy affordability.

This Act prohibits gender transition surgery for children due to the potential for an irrevocable procedure occurring when there is a significant probability that children will come to identify with their biological gender. This Act prohibits the use of public funds and insurance coverage for gender transition surgery for children. This Act provides for enforcement of the Act as follows: (1) By providing for compensatory damages, injunctive relief, declaratory relief, or any other appropriate relief. (2) By making a referral for or provision of gender transition procedures to a child unprofessional conduct for which a physician or healthcare professional making the referral for or provision of gender transition procedures to a child is subject to discipline by the appropriate licensing entity or disciplinary review board with jurisdiction over the physician or healthcare professional in this State.

This Act amends the Fiscal Year 2025 Bond and Capital Improvements Act to (1) authorize local bond shares to adjust for William Penn High School in the Colonial School District. Further, this Act amends Fiscal Year 2025 Bond and Capital Improvements Act to (2) authorize the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, with concurrence of the Controller General and the Co-Chairs of the Joint Committee on Capital, to transfer any necessary spending authority from the Cultural Access Fund; (3) revise allocations to the City of Dover and Downtown Dover Partnership; (4) revise the allocation for the University of Delaware for Deferred Maintenance from Laboratories to Campus Improvements; (5) revise the State and Local share allocations for the Smyrna Roof Replacement project and authorizes School Construction Market Pressure to be transferrable between Fiscal Years 2023 and 2024 to achieve allocations; (6) adjust School Safety and Security funding from the Department of Safety and Homeland Security, Delaware State Police, Special Investigation to reflect State Bureau of Identification; (7) removes the requirement of school districts and charter schools to obligate prior fiscal year MCI funds prior to utilizing Enhanced MCI; (8) authorize the transfer of any remaining funds from Legislative Hall major and minor capital improvement appropriations to be used for the Legislative Hall Garage/Expansion project; (9) authorize the transfer of any remaining funds from the Domestic Violence Coordinating Feasibility Study to the Criminal Justice Council for Family Justice Center startup costs; (10) authorizes the transfer of funds allocated for the Scannell Readiness Center and up to $500,000 of available Minor Capital Improvements to cover the project for the Bethany Beach Training Barracks; (11) authorizes funds from Capital School District’s Certificate of Necessity (CN 2113A) to be used to support new facilities for the Kent County Community School and Kent County Secondary ILC; (12) authorize the Department of Transportation to use Community Transportation Funds for one-time reimbursements for various projects; (13) reprograms funding from the Community Redevelopment/Reinvestment Fund from Downtown Milford, Inc. to the Delaware State Fair, the Milford District Fee Public Library Commission, and Kent Sussex Industries; (14) authorize the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to perform an adaptive reuse study for the Delaware State Police Troop 7; and (15) remove the deadline date requiring Sussex County Council to adopt § 6961, Title 9 of the Delaware Code.

Maddy summaryThis resolution designates January 2025 as "National Mentoring Month" in Delaware, symbolically recognizing the value of mentoring programs. It does not create new laws, allocate funding, or change existing programs - it simply encourages Delawareans to support mentoring efforts that benefit youth. The bill cites research showing mentoring improves youth mental health, academic performance, and life skills, particularly for vulnerable groups like foster youth. As a symbolic gesture, it directly affects all Delaware residents by urging community engagement with mentoring initiatives, though it has no binding policy impact. The resolution was introduced by Senator Lockman and passed unanimously by both legislative chambers in early 2025.

This resolution recognizes the Easterseals/CAI Volleyball Challenge occurring March 8 at University of Delaware Carpenter Sports Building, an event that raises funds for an organization providing services and support to Delawareans with disabilities and senior citizens and their families.

There were 139 traffic fatalities in Delaware in 2021, the highest number of traffic fatalities since 2006. Senate Concurrent Resolution 94 of the 151st Delaware General Assembly set a goal of no more than 100 traffic fatalities per year and tasked state agencies to meet that goal by 2025. Instead of moving towards meeting the General Assembly’s goal, however, traffic fatalities increased to 165 in 2022, deepening the crisis on Delaware’s roads. To reverse this situation, the “Everyone Gets Home Act” makes changes to the Delaware Code to sharpen the Department of Transportation’s focus on the three most common types of fatal crashes: intersection (including driveway); roadway departure; and mid-block pedestrian. This Act clarifies the Department’s authority to designate controlled-access facilities as a safety countermeasure for both intersection and midblock pedestrian crashes and, when the facility designation has received the consent of county government, requires counties to use their own authority to assist the Department in consolidating vehicle entrances and exits to and from the facility. In addition, this Act authorizes the Department to designate roadways as low-speed streets and low-speed local roads in order to address fatal roadway departure crashes related to vehicle speed, and permits counties to request such designations to meet their own traffic safety goals. Finally, this Act expands the Department’s discretion to deploy new traffic-control devices in order to reduce fatal crashes. This Substitute Bill differs from HB 247 in that it does the following: (1) Clarifies that designated low-speed local streets and roads must be designed and operated with a Safe System Approach, as adopted by the United States Department of Transportation. (2) Includes “implementing corridor access management” as a safety countermeasure on designated low-speed local streets or roads. (3) Requires the Department to receive approval from the local law-enforcement agency with jurisdiction over a road before the Department designates such road a low-speed local street or road pursuant to a county or municipal government request. (4) Clarifies that the Department has discretion to adopt various standards for traffic-control devices or applications, even if they are different from uniform state standards, so long as they reduce fatal or serious injuries or are in accordance with a Safe System Approach. (5) Authorizes the Department to acquire property rights along highways to consolidate commercial entrances or to create new commercial interconnections when the Department determines such consolidation or interconnection would likely improve safety. (6) Removes Section 1 from the bill, which required counties to withhold permits for buildings abutting a controlled-access facility if necessary to obtain consent for vehicle access to and from adjacent properties. (7) Removes language that defined “full” and “partial” controlled-access facilities, and removes these terms from the rest of the bill. (8) Removes Section 7 of the bill that authorized the Department to designate and establish partial or full controlled-access facilities in any unincorporated area where there is a high incidence of fatal crashes related to the presence of highway entrances or exits. (9) Makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This Act creates a new license for the use of trotlines in commercial crabbing. This Act prohibits a person from possessing a commercial crab pot license and trotline license at the same time. This Act requires a 3/5 vote by each chamber because it creates a license fee pursuant to Section 11(a) of Article VIII of the Delaware Constitution.

This Act changes how the Insurance Commissioner and the State Treasurer provide for distributions from taxes collected by the Insurance Commissioner to be made to fire companies or departments in Delaware. The current method for reporting, calculating, and making distributions to fire companies or departments is complex to administer and can lead to incorrect payments. This Act simplifies the reporting process and provides a new method for calculating the funds distributed to fire departments and companies in the City of Wilmington, New Castle County outside of Wilmington, Kent County, and Sussex County. Specifically, it reduces the number of payments per year from two to one, gives the Insurance Commissioner more time to ensure the accuracy of insurer-reported financial data, and establishes detailed guidelines for how the funds should be distributed to the various fire companies or departments. This Act also makes changes to the reporting requirements related to payments made by the State Treasurer to the State Insurance Coverage Office. In addition, this Act amends the requirement related to the Delaware Volunteer Firefighter’s Association (“DVFA”) annual report to the Insurance Commissioner. This requirement is being amended because contrary to what the current statute states, the Insurance Commissioner does not use the report to calculate funding under this section. DVFA is now also required to send its annual report, which details the locations, apparatuses, and equipment maintained for its member fire companies or departments, to the State Fire Prevention Commission. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. This Act is effective January 1, 2025.

Senate Bill No. 288 of the 151st General Assembly (Chapter 371 of Volume 83 of the Laws of Delaware) created a pilot program whereby motorcyclists are permitted to use pulsating headlights as a way to alert other drivers of their presence, without allowing the use of flashing lights that would otherwise be used on emergency vehicles. SB 288 contained a sunset clause providing that the pilot program would expire on January 1, 2025, unless the General Assembly took action to extend or remove the sunset clause. This Act extends the sunset clause until June 30, 2030. The main reason for the extension is that many motorcycle owners have and are continuing to replace their lights with LED technology... up until 2024 the technology of a modulating device was not available for the LED lights only standard lighting had that option. To be able to better see if the pulsating lighting is effective the pilot program should be extended to adequately gauge what the new LED systems effectiveness is.

To address the significant spread and impact of Lyme Disease in Delaware, this bill creates a Lyme Disease intervention fund. The fund shall be overseen by the Department of Agriculture and shall have the goal of reducing the prevalence of Lyme disease and potential for contracting Lyme disease on State owned lands. The Department shall investigate the best ways to do that, focusing on ones that are the most effective, environmentally sensitive, and innovative. The Department of Agriculture will coordinate its efforts in the administration of the fund with the Division of Public Health and the Department of Natural Resources. The Joint Finance Committee shall determine the yearly amount of the fund.