Rep. Danny Short

This Act renames the Claymont Regional Transportation at First State Crossing in Claymont, Delaware as the "Harris B. McDowell, III Transportation Center" after Senator Harris B. McDowell, III, the longest serving member of the Delaware General Assembly.

This act authorizes the application of funds from the Delaware School Safety and Security Fund, which is subject to available appropriations, for the retention of constables to be utilized by the LEAs.

This Act adopts the Uniform Law Commission’s (“ULC”) Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts (“Revised Uniform Law”). As our State continues to recover from COVID-19, chief among the changes in the Revised Uniform Law relevant to our State’s current situation are those that permit notarial acts to be performed for a remotely located individual, an individual who is not in the physical presence of the individual performing the notarial act. These revisions include recent amendments made by the ULC to respond to areas the law needed to address that were discovered during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the need to have tangible documents ink-signed and notarized and the administration of oaths taken by remotely located individuals. Adoption of this Act will expand on Governor Carney’s authorization for remote notarization to be performed by licensed Delaware attorneys, codified in § 3156 of Title 20, by allowing all notarial officers authority to perform remote notarization. In addition to retaining provisions that provide integrity in the process of performing notarial acts, the Revised Uniform Law does the following: (1) Provides the authority to notarize electronic documents on par with notarization of tangible documents, including authority for the Secretary of State to regulate notarization of electronic documents. (2) Requires a notary public to maintain a journal of all notarial acts the notary public performs. (3) Adopts new licensing procedures for notaries public, including minimum requirements for commissioning and grounds to deny, suspend, or revoke commissions. (4) Prohibits a notary public from acting in a deceptive or fraudulent manner. Current Delaware law on notarial acts is an adoption of the Uniform Law on Notarial Acts, approved by the Uniform Law Commission in 1982. This Act’s adoption of the Revised Uniform Law would bring Delaware law on notarial acts into conformity with at least 20 other states, including all of the states bordering Delaware (Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New Jersey), which currently allow remote notarization and notarization of electronic records and include the updated provisions that enhance the integrity of the process of performing notarial acts. This Act’s adoption of the Revised Uniform Law is delayed until January 1, 2023, to provide the Secretary of State and notaries public time to implement the Revised Uniform Law. In the interim, this Act continues the authority for Delaware attorneys to conduct remote notarization, codified in § 3156 of Title 20, until the Revised Uniform Law takes effect. Then, Delaware attorneys will be authorized to conduct remote notarization under the Revised Uniform Law, like attorneys in other states that have adopted the Revised Uniform Law.

This Act increases the civil penalty for violating the parking regulations in § 4180 from not less than $10 nor more than $25 to not less than $100 nor more than $500. This Act also increases the minimum fine for violating the requirements of Chapter 41 relating to size or weight of a vehicle or a combination of vehicles or restrictions regarding parking in residence districts from not less than $28.75 nor more than $230 for a first offense to not less than $100 and not more than $500 for a first offense. For a subsequent offense the penalty is increased from to not less than $115 nor more than $575 to not less than $400 and not more than $2,000. This Act allows the Secretary to prohibit or restrict the stopping, standing, or parking of any trailer, semi-trailer, or recreational trailer on roadways or sections of roadways. The Act requires the Department to provide a list of roadways or sections of roadways for which it has prohibited or restricted standing or parking to DSHS and law enforcement agencies across the state. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This substitute bill makes a technical correction to the bill.

This Act, modeled on similar laws in Virginia and Maryland, requires a health-care provider to provide notice to a patient at the time blood is drawn to perform a laboratory test for Lyme disease that explains the limitations of the test and instructs the patient to see their health-care provider if the patient continues to experience unexplained symptoms. This Act was previously passed by the 150th General Assembly in Senate Bill 15, and is the same except for the removal of the sunset provision.

This Act updates the mandatory reporting requirements for Delaware physicians with anxiety, depression, and other mental health challenges. These changes are necessary to ensure that physicians are able to seek treatment without undue stigma or fear of loss of medical licensure. The recommended changes to the statutory reporting requirements are aligned with national best practices recommendations of leading experts including the Joint Commission on Healthcare Accreditation and the Federation of State Medical Boards. The mandatory reporting changes in this Act are also aligned with the language of the current Delaware application for medical licensure, which appears to be more aligned with best practices and compliance with the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (Pub. L. 101-336. 26 July 1990). These changes are designed to appropriately balance the need to continue to maintain proper safeguards for patients in accessing safe, high quality health care services without causing undue stigma and negative licensure consequences for physicians. Finally, this Act deletes language in § 1731(c) of Title 24 of the Delaware Code that references the other professions or occupations regulated under Chapter 17 of Title 24 because these professions or occupations have their own requirements in other provisions of Chapter 17.

This bill would create a pilot program whereby motorcyclists are permitted to use flashing 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. The bill aims to protect motorcyclists on Delaware’s roads and has a sunsetting provision that will allow time for further traffic studies to determine the effectiveness of this pilot program.

Historically, vehicles under the control of the Delaware State Fire Commission have been equipped with emergency lights. This bill amends Section 4106 to clarify and confirm that vehicles of the Delaware State Fire Prevention Commission are emergency vehicles that may be equipped with emergency lights.

This bill establishes the pilotage rates for the Pilots’ Association for the Bay and River Delaware for 2023, 2024, and 2025.