Rep. Tim Dukes

This Act would enhance the ability of the prescription monitoring program to make informed determinations as to prescribers who may be making extraordinary prescriptions of opiates or other controlled substances, and to refer such cases to law enforcement or professional licensing organizations for further review. The Act would also provide a more usable standard for provision of specified information to law enforcement agencies upon a showing of need.

In an effort to reduce overdose deaths relating to the growing epidemic of opioid addiction, this Act requires carriers to provide coverage for medically necessary inpatient treatment of alcohol and drug dependencies and prohibits carriers from imposing precertification, prior authorization, pre-admission screening, or referral requirements for the diagnosis and treatment, including in-patient treatment, of drug and alcohol dependencies. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

The denial by private and public health benefit administrators of adequate coverage for substance abuse treatment has been identified as a major source of failed treatment efforts by persons addicted to controlled substances. These denials have also been identified as a cause of the shortage of adequate treatment facilities in Delaware. This Act seeks to ensure that persons with private and public insurance coverage have the ability to insist that they receive the substance abuse coverage to which they are entitled by law and by their insurance plans. It does so by (1) allowing the Department of Justice to provide legal assistance where appropriate to persons seeking benefits from the state’s Medicaid program, traditional health plans, or from employer-funded health benefit plans (which are exempt from state regulation), (2) requiring the state’s Medicaid program and private insurance carriers to provide notice to persons who are denied substance abuse treatment of the possibility of legal assistance in challenging those claim denials, and (3) permitting the Department of Justice to use funds in its Consumer Protection Fund to offset the cost of providing medical and legal expertise to DOJ and the Department of Insurance for the purpose of assisting persons with controlled substance addictions who are seeking treatment. This Act contains a sunset provision so that the General Assembly can assess the impact of its provisions on private and public health care costs and effective treatment of substance abuse before making its provisions permanent.

This Act creates the Delaware African and Caribbean Affairs Commission.

This Act is the second leg of a constitutional amendment that will limit the ability of the State to appropriate Transportation Trust Fund moneys to a purpose other than (1) capital expenditures on the public transportation system, including the road system, grants and allocations for investments in transportation, the transit system, and the support systems for public transportation; (2) payment of the interest and principal on all bonds issued before or after the effective date of this Act and secured by moneys in the Transportation Trust Fund; and (3) other transportation-related purposes, including operating expenses funding the Delaware Department of Transportation, to which moneys in the Transportation Trust Fund are authorized on the effective date of this Act. The first leg, Senate Bill No. 166 of the 148th General Assembly, was adopted by two-thirds of the members elected to the General Assembly and publicized in accordance with Article XVI, § 1 of the Delaware Constitution. This Act essentially creates a lock box on the Transportation Trust Fund that can only be opened by the agreement of three-fourths of all the members of each House through a bill separate from an annual budget act, bond and capital improvement act, or grants-in-aid act. Additionally, if moneys in the Transportation Trust Fund cease to be appropriated for a transportation-related purpose, the moneys may not again be appropriated to such purpose except by the agreement of three-fourths of all the members of each House through a bill separate from an annual budget act, bond and capital improvement act, or grants-in-aid act.

This bill authorizes the use of airbows for hunting deer in place of a shotgun during any shotgun deer season. The bill also makes a technical adjustment to clarify that a handgun can be used for deer hunting during any shotgun deer season.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also referred to as “the food stamp program,” assists eligible low-income individuals with the purchase of food. This Act, known as the Delaware Nutritional Improvement Act, seeks to bring the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in line with other state programs and initiatives aimed at improving the health and welfare of Delawareans. SNAP benefits are paid entirely with federal funds, but the costs to administer the program are split between the federal and state government. As is the case with another jointly administered state-federal program – the Women, Infants, and Children Program (WIC) – this Act seeks to require SNAP benefits to be used solely for the purchase of healthy foods identified by the Department of Health and Social Services as having beneficial nutritional value. This will not only improve the efficiency of such expenditures but it should also improve the well-being of recipients, as well as potentially reduce health care expenditures. Using the WIC guidelines as a starting point, this Act instructs the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) to draft a list of approved foods. The DHSS shall create the list with the goal of expanding on the WIC designations to improve selection and increase affordability. Under this Act, future SNAP benefits could be used only to purchase items designated as having beneficial nutritional value. Because the SNAP benefits are paid with federal funds, this Act would not become effective until the Secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture grants a waiver allowing its implementation. The status of this waiver may be obtained from the Director of the Department of Health and Social Services.

This Act increases the age requirement for compulsory school attendance in Delaware from 16 to 18 years of age. The age increase is phased in over a two-year period; accordingly, there is a one-year interim period where the compulsory school attendance age requirement will be 17 years old. The Act further provides that a child may be exempt from the age requirement for compulsory school attendance if the child has received a high school diploma or a certificate of performance or obtains permission to withdraw from school from the superintendent of the district in which the child is enrolled or from the president of the board of the charter school in which the child is enrolled. To obtain a waiver from the date of enactment of this Act until August 31, 2018, a child must be at least 16 years old. To obtain a waiver on or after September 1, 2018, a child must be at least 17 years old. The Act preserves the exemption under which a child may be excused from compulsory attendance upon request of the child's parent or legal guardian coupled with supporting written documentation from a qualified health professional.

The intent of this act is to promote agritourism activities within this State by broadly defining what constitutes agritourism.

This act will be known as the Extreme Crimes Protection Act. This Act revises Delaware's death penalty statute to ensure its compliance with the United States Constitution, as interpreted by the United State Supreme Court in Hurst v. Florida, and by the Delaware Supreme Court in Rauf v. State. In accord with those cases, this Act will require that before a death sentence can be imposed, a jury (unless the Defendant waives their right to one) must first determine unanimously and beyond a reasonable doubt: that at least 1 statutory aggravating circumstance exists; which (if any) statutory and non-statutory aggravating circumstances alleged by the State exist; and whether all of the aggravating circumstances found to exist outweigh all of the mitigating circumstances found to exist. This Act also revises Delaware's death penalty statute to comply with the United State Supreme Court's holding in Hall v. Florida, interpreting standards set forth in Atkins v. Virginia. This Act adopts the term "intellectual disability" used by the United State Supreme Court.