Rep. Danny Short

This Act facilitates the interstate and intrastate shipping and delivery of alcoholic liquors. Section 2 of this Act does all of the following: (1) Authorizes the direct shipping of wine, beer, spirits, mead, or cider to consumers in this State if the alcoholic liquor is manufactured by a person licensed as a farm winery, microbrewery, or craft distillery in this State or by a person located in another state that would qualify as a farm winery, microbrewery, or craft distillery under the laws of this State. (2) Requires the direct shipper to be licensed by the Alcoholic Beverage Control Commissioner (“Commissioner”). (3) Establishes a yearly limit on the amount of wine, beer, spirits, mead, or cider that may be shipped directly to a consumer for the consumer’s personal use. (4) Requires the licensed direct shipper to provide notice that an individual who is 21 years of age or older must receive the shipment. Sections 1, 3, and 4 of this Act do all of the following: (1) Authorizes a liquor store, farm winery, brewery-pub, microbrewery, craft distillery, and wine auction (“a seller”) to sell alcoholic liquor for delivery by a delivery service. (2) Authorizes the delivery of alcoholic liquor from a seller in this State to a consumer in this State by a delivery service. (3) Requires a delivery service to be licensed by the Commissioner. (4) Requires a delivery service’s delivery drivers to meet certain requirements. (5) Requires a delivery service to ensure that before transferring possession of a shipment of alcoholic liquor that the delivery service’s delivery drivers verify the identity of the recipient of the shipment and that the recipient is at least 21 years of age. Section 5 of this Act adopts the Uniform Alcohol Direct-Shipping Compliance Act, which was approved by the Uniform Law Commission. The Uniform Law Commission “provides states with non-partisan, well-conceived and well-drafted legislation that brings clarity and stability to critical areas of state statutory law.” The Uniform Alcohol Direct-Shipping Compliance Act (“the Uniform Act”) enhances each state’s capability to detect and stop unlawful direct to consumer shipments of alcoholic beverages to the state’s residents. The Uniform Act incorporates the state’s existing law as to the industry participants and types of alcoholic beverages for which direct to consumer shipping is allowed and does not create any new or additional authorization to ship alcoholic beverages directly to a consumer. The Uniform Act provides state regulators with new tools to distinguish between direct to consumer shipments that originate from shippers licensed under the state’s existing law and direct to consumer shipments that do not, and aids state regulators in enforcing their existing laws governing direct to consumer shipments of any type of alcoholic beverage. The Uniform Act requires fulfillment providers, a person acting on behalf of a licensed direct shipper to ship wine, beer, spirits, mead, or cider to a consumer and arranges for transport of the wine, beer, spirits, mead, or cider by a carrier to the consumer, to be registered with the Commissioner and regulates fulfillment providers. Section 6 of this Act does all of the following: (1) Authorizes a carrier to transport wine, beer, spirits, mead, or cider from a licensed direct shipper or a registered fulfillment provider to a resident of this State. (2) Requires a carrier to be licensed by the Commissioner. (3) Requires a carrier to ensure that before transferring possession of a shipment of wine, beer, spirits, mead, or cider that the individual delivering the shipment for the carrier has verified the identity of the recipient of the shipment and that the recipient is at least 21 years of age. Sections 7 through 9 of this Act makes conforming amendments to Title 4 of the Delaware Code to permit the activities authorized by Sections 1 through 6 of this Act. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. This Act requires a greater than majority vote for passage because § 11 of Article VIII of the Delaware Constitution requires the affirmative vote of three-fifths of the members elected to each house of the General Assembly to impose or levy a tax or license fee.

This resolution recognizes the week of March 17 through March 23, 2024, as “National Agriculture Week” in Delaware

This bill seeks to correct a current bias in Delaware’s election law impacting the outcome of countless races throughout the state. Numerous academic analyses have concluded that there is a considerable benefit to a candidate’s name appearing first on the ballot. In one noteworthy legal proceeding on ballot position bias, the California Supreme Court held that “a significant advantage accrues to a candidate by virtue of a top ballot position.” The High Court further concluded that without incumbents running, approximately 5% of a candidate’s vote share could be attributed to their position on the ballot. California took action in 1975 to eliminate this flaw by randomizing the listing of candidates on its ballots. The Golden State uses a system where a randomized drawing of letters of the alphabet is conducted, with the resulting order of letters constituting a "randomized alphabet" that is used for determining the order of candidates' names on the ballot. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 15 states have enacted reforms to deal with ballot position bias. Delaware law currently mandates that one political party always appear in the first column on the machine ballots or on the first line of absentee ballots. This bill proposes eradicating ballot position inequity by adopting a randomized system modeled after the one successfully employed in California for nearly five decades.

School personnel report that school safety is a significant issue that affects whether or not they stay in the profession. This Act makes recklessly or intentionally causing physical injury to an employee, contractor, or subcontractor of a public or private elementary school or secondary school an assault in the second degree. This Act may be cited as “The School Personnel Protection Act”. This Act is a substitute for and differs from House Bill No. 22 by specifying that the person must recklessly or intentionally cause physical injury to the employee, contractor, or subcontractor while on school property or at a school-sponsored event in order for the provision to apply.

This Act permits the Division of Motor Vehicles to refuse to renew the registration of a vehicle that is operated in violation of the law requiring stopping for school buses as evidenced by School Bus Safety Cameras.

This is the first leg of a Constitutional Amendment to constitutionally authorize 10 days of early in-person voting in Delaware. Additionally, at least 21 in-person early voting places, with 1 being located in each State Senate District, are required. Further, this Constitutional Amendment requires all administrative or procedural laws, rules, policies, or regulations applicable to safeguarding the security of in-person voting that apply to the general election shall be applicable to in-person early voting days.

This Act creates penalties for misrepresentation of a service animal under the Delaware Equal Accommodations Law and misrepresentation of an assistance animal under the Delaware Fair Housing Act. The language of these penalties is different because under both federal and State law, a broader range of animals must be allowed as a reasonable accommodation in housing to an individual with a disability and more disability-related information may be requested, than in places of public accommodation. However, the penalties are the same: a first violation is a civil penalty in the amount of $500 and each subsequent offense is an unclassified misdemeanor. In addition, this Act updates the terms, definitions, and requirements for assistance animals under the Delaware Fair Housing Act to align with federal law and makes corresponding changes to the Residential Landlord-Tenant Code. This Act also makes corresponding changes and technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. This Act does not require a greater than majority vote for passage because Superior Court already has jurisdictions over all criminal violations under Chapter 46 of Title 6.

This Act updates and streamlines the State Nutrient Management Program within the Department of Agriculture. It expands and clarifies information required to be included in the Nutrient Management Plan, including, among other things: (1) Field maps as arial photographs showing field identification boundaries, acres, location of surface waters, irrigation systems, and location of designated sensitive areas with associated nutrient application restrictions or setbacks; (2) Results of approved risk assessment tools for nitrogen, phosphorus, and erosion losses; and (3) Animal information including types, number, average sizes, annual manure generation, and any manure import or export. This Act further clarifies Phosphorus application rules based on Delaware Phosphorus Site Index Scores. It also clarifies that Nitrogen application rates cannot exceed the application rates published by the University of Delaware of the specific crop, unless an adaptive approach is used to adjust in-season nitrogen application rates based on recommendations from a certified consultant or a Commission-approved nitrogen application model. Finally, this Act streamlines the complaint and enforcement procedures for the State Nutrient Management Program by doing the following: (1) Removing jurisdiction from the Justice of the Peace Courts and authorizing the Commission, rather than the Secretary, to impose fines for violations of the Nutrient Management Program; and (2) Authorizing the Commission to create a hearing panel that will be subordinate to the Commission to review and hear complaints and make proposed orders to be reviewed by the Commission for a final decision.

This Act creates a new offense of Aggravated Criminal Mischief with enhanced penalties (class D felony) applicable when an individual knowingly damages or tampers with critical utility infrastructure intending to disrupt utility services. In recent years, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the FBI have issued repeated warnings about domestic terrorists and extremist groups targeting critical utility infrastructure. Bulletins issued through DHS’ National Terrorism Advisory System in 2022 warned of a heightened threat environment based, in part, on “continued calls for violence directed at U.S. critical infrastructure.” Physical and computerized attacks on electric utility equipment have reached a 10-year high in 2022. Recent attacks in Washington and North Carolina have caused substantial outages and damage to the power grids in both states.

This Act creates a professional loan-to-grant incentive program to encourage Delawareans to pursue careers in nursing at long-term care facilities. Funding for the incentive program is to be appropriated annually by the General Assembly, in an amount not less than $1 million. Qualifying nursing students who agree to fulfill a 4-year service obligation at a long-term care facility may apply for loans to assist with expenses associated with (a) prelicensure education at a (i) State Board of Nursing approved nursing education program that is authorized to prepare persons for licensure as a registered nurse or a (ii) State Board of Nursing approved practical nursing education program, or (b) a graduate-level education at an advanced practice registered nurse program accredited by a national accrediting body. Individuals who have been employed for at least 1 year as a nurse in a Delaware long-term care facility and who have obtained qualified educational loans are eligible to apply for loan repayment under this Act. Loan repayment will be subject to the availability of funds and will be allocated at the discretion of the Delaware Higher Education Office. An applicant may receive only 1 loan payment per year, not to exceed $5,000, and may not receive more than 4 loan repayments under this program. The program will be administered by the Delaware Higher Education Office.