Rep. Debra Heffernan

This Resolution expresses the General Assembly's strong support for Ukraine in its war against the invasion by the Russian Federation (“Russia”) and for the severe economic sanctions imposed on Russia by President Biden's administration. This Resolution further demands that Russia immediately cease its violent, illegal, and immoral assault on the sovereign nation of Ukraine.

This bill permanently removes the sunset provision of House Bill 1 to allow food and drink establishments who suffered great losses since March, 2020 due to the pandemic to continue to sell alcoholic beverages in transactions for take-out, curbside, or drive-through service and to use outdoor seating for serving of food and drinks so long as the licensee satisfies certain conditions. This bill also permanently provides the Commissioner the authority to temporarily suspend a license only if the Commissioner has reasonable grounds to believe that public's safety is at risk and there has been a violation of the law, and to hold hearings by electronic, telephonic, or remote means.

This Act continues the changes made to the Delaware Performance Appraisal System II created under Senate Bill 42 of the 151st General Assembly, with modifications. In order to maintain an evaluation system under current operational challenges, this bill modifies Senate Bill 42 by allowing evidence collected during the observation and feedback cycle to be used a part of the evaluation cycle, to assign a summative rating, and to place educators on improvement plans, if needed. Additionally, this bill extends the pilot for the Delaware Teacher Growth and Support System, created under House Bill 133 of the 151st General Assembly, to the 2022-2023 school year, moving the start date for statewide implementation to the 2023-2024 school year. This bill also reconciles inconsistencies that have arisen with educators’ hearing rights as outlined in Chapter 14 of Title 14 due to the suspension of the state assessment in 2019-2020 school year and low participation in the 2020-2021 school year. Additionally, this bill aligns Chapter 14 with the new educator evaluation system, the Delaware Teacher Growth and Support System, by placing the emphasis on building a culture of professionalism and learning within every school, which is measured in a summative evaluation, rather than one component of an evaluation. This substitute bill is substantively the same as House Bill No. 291. Some technical corrections were made to accommodate language in 14 Del. C. § 1270(g) that was scheduled to sunset in 2022.

This bill allows liquor stores, farm wineries, brewery-pubs, microbreweries, craft distilleries, and wine auctions to provide curbside service for the sale of alcohol, but makes clear that all sales must comply with all of the regulatory provisions of Chapter 7 of Title 4, including the prohibition against sales to intoxicated persons and persons under 21 years of age.

This Act amends the Fiscal Year 2022 Bond and Capital Improvements Act to (1) authorize the Department of Transportation to use Community Transportation Funds for one-time reimbursements for various projects; (2) redistribute Community Reinvestment Funds to the Department of Transportation; (3) clarify existing funds for Mental Health Services Units are to be distributed as a block grant; (4) authorize drainage project funds to be used for both the Meeting House Branch and Persimmon Park Place drainage projects; (5) reallocate funds for a shellfish aquaculture project; (6) reallocate funds from the Municipal Infrastructure Fund to the Delaware State Fair; (7) include repairs to the responsibilities of the Facilities Management Section; (8) authorize the Office of Management and Budget to acquire property for the Delaware National Guard; (9) authorize the Department of State to identify land for acquisition for the North Wilmington Library; (10) authorize the Office of Management and Budget to transfer a property to St. Anthony’s Community Center Inc.; (11) increase substitute pay to adjust for minimum wage increases; (12) reallocate funds from the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds to create a School Construction Market Pressure Contingency Fund; (13) reallocate funds from the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds for the Riverfront Development Corporation; (14) reallocate funds from the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds to the Urban Redevelopment program; (15) exempt the Delmar School District Parking Lot Project from prevailing wage requirements due to funding source; and (16) authorize local bond shares for the Appoquinimink School District.

This Act amends the Department of Services for Children, Youth & Their Families (“DSCYF”) required drug testing statute to gain parity in pre-employment drug testing procedures across state agencies that provide services for children and secure care for children or adults. Secure care positions in the Department of Correction, Delaware Psychiatric Center, and DSCYF’s Prevention and Behavioral Health and Youth Rehabilitative Services facilities are historically hard to fill. Because of the sensitive nature of these positions, there is a thorough application and vetting process for applicants, the last steps of which are the pre-employment background checks and drug testing. Despite numerous ongoing efforts to recruit and retain applicants for these positions within DSCYF’s facilities, interested applicants often choose to abandon the lengthy application process in favor of opportunities for faster hiring processes at large employers located nearby. Currently, the statute allows DSCYF to make a conditional offer of employment to an applicant who has submitted to the required pre-employment drug testing. This Act would allow DSCYF to conditionally hire an applicant and begin training the person after they have provided proof that they have submitted to the required drug testing. This ability is in line with § 5139 of Title 16 of the Delaware Code, which allows the Delaware Psychiatric Center to conditionally hire an applicant “to maintain an appropriate level of patient care,” and § 8922 of Title 29 of the Delaware Code, which simply states that the Department of Correction must test “all security sensitive applicants and applicant employees.” This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This Concurrent Resolution urges the Secretary of the Navy to designate Philadelphia and both banks of the Delaware River as the site of the main celebration of the 250th birthdays of the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps in October and November 2025.

This Bill is the Fiscal Year 2023 Bond and Capital Improvements Act.

This Concurrent Resolution recognizes January 27th, 2022 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

This Act funds the Human Trafficking Interagency Coordinating Council by disbursing to the Council $100,000 each fiscal year from the Fund to Combat Violent Crimes. Under § 4101(h) of Title 11, the Fund to Combat Violent Crimes is funded by a $15 penalty imposed on and collected from defendants for certain crimes or civil violations. The money within the Fund is divided between the Department of Safety and Homeland Security and local law-enforcement agencies for use in connection with initiatives to combat violent crime. No more than $4,250,000 may be deposited into the Fund. Any amount more than $4,250,000 reverts to the General Fund. In recent fiscal years, the Fund to Combat Violent Crimes has reverted excess funds to the General Fund. Because of the new disbursement of $100,000 to the Human Trafficking Interagency Coordinating Council, this Act also increases the maximum amount of money that may be deposited into the Fund to Combat Violent Crimes by $100,000 to $4,350,000. This Act also adds to existing reporting requirements for the Human Trafficking Interagency Coordinating Council that the Council document how it spends disbursements from the Fund to Combat Violent Crimes. The Council must also provide the report to the Secretary of the Department of Health and Social Services. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.