This Resolution recognizes April, 2017 as Child Abuse Prevention Month in Delaware.
This resolution designates April 6, 2017 as “National Tartan Day” and commemorates the outstanding achievements and contributions made by Scottish-Americans to the United States. When the United States was first formed and the thirteen states selected their first governors, nine were of Scottish ancestry. All the members of the first American cabinet had Scottish ancestry. Delaware’s first governor, John McKinly, was born in Northern Ireland of Scottish descent. Americans of Scottish descent have played a vibrant and influential role in the development of this country. However, not until 1997 was this influence recognized by a single-year U.S. Senate Resolution that appeared in the Congressional Record of April 7, 1997. In 1998 National Tartan Day was officially recognized on a permanent basis when the U.S. Senate passed Senate Resolution 155 recognizing April 6th as National Tartan Day. This was followed by companion bill House Resolution 41 which was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on March 9, 2005. President George W. Bush signed a Presidential Proclamation on April 4, 2008 making April 6 National Tartan Day. In April of 2008, then Governor Minner issued a statement celebrating the accomplishments of Scots-Irish Americans in the First State as part of a Scots/Scots-Irish Heritage Month. April 6 commemorates the signing of the Declaration of Arbroath in 1320, which asserted Scotland's sovereignty over English territorial claims, and which was a significant influence on the American Declaration of Independence. Canada has been celebrating "National Tartan Day" since 1993. The idea and motivation for creating a similar American holiday was provided by the Scottish Coalition, a group of national Scottish- American cultural organizations.
Civil forfeiture laws represent one of the most serious assaults on private property rights in the nation today. Under civil forfeiture, police and prosecutors can seize your car or other property, sell it and use the proceeds to fund agency budgets—often without so much as charging you with a crime. This Act protects individual liberty and property rights by standardizing forfeitures across all crimes, simplifying procedures, and addressing counterproductive incentives in the law that distort policing priorities. Importantly, this Act does not change the authority of law enforcement to seize property suspected of being associated with crime or limit in any way prosecutors’ ability to charge and prosecute suspected criminals. Moreover, it ensures that those individuals proven guilty of a crime do not keep the fruits of their crime. In doing so, it strikes the right balance between the individual property rights and public safety.
This Joint Resolution opposes the cost allocation of the Artificial Island Transmission Project as unfair and unduly burdensome to the ratepayers of Delaware and urges PJM to join with Delaware in contesting the cost allocation in the proceedings pending before FERC.
A minor child that is a qualifying patient may need, in addition to their parents, a designated caregiver who is not their parent when the parents work and cannot regularly get to school to administer medicine. This bill expands the class of persons who can be designated caregivers to a minor qualifying patient. This bill would allow grandparents, aunts, uncles, and siblings, all over age 21, as persons who may be designated caregivers for a minor patient.
Section 1 of this Act updates Delaware’s existing Motor Voter Program to adopt an automatic voter registration process. Currently, when Delawareans apply for, renew, or replace a driver’s license or identification card, they must choose to register to vote, update an existing registration, or decline registration. This bill would require eligible voters to instead “opt out” of having their information automatically shared with the Delaware Department of Elections for registration. Six states and the District of Columbia have enacted similar opt out policies. A portion of Section 1 (specifically, § 2050(b), Title 15) and Sections 2, 3, and 4 of this Act make technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual with no intent to change the substance of these sections.
This Act continues the reforms enacted over the past 4 years by restructuring Chapter 11 of Title 12, and adopting in substance many provisions from the 2016 Revised Uniform Unclaimed Property Act promulgated by the Uniform Law Commission. In addition, this Act adopts certain recommendations from the Delaware Unclaimed Property Task Force formed under Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 59 of the 147th General Assembly, and makes significant changes to the State’s unclaimed property law to bring greater predictability, efficiency, and fairness to the State's unclaimed property reporting process and compliance initiatives. More specifically, these changes include reducing the look-back period of all voluntary disclosure agreements and audits to 10 report years, and creating a 10 year statute of limitations for the State to seek payment of unclaimed property due to the State. In addition, this legislation aligns the State’s record retention requirement for companies with the statute of limitations and look back period, which brings State law into conformity with a majority of other states. This Act also offers any company currently under audit prior to July 22, 2015, the opportunity to convert their audit into a voluntary disclosure agreement by entering into the Secretary of State Voluntary Disclosure Agreement program. All companies who received a notice of examination and are currently under audit as of the effective date of this Act will have the opportunity to engage in an expedited audit review process. Finally, this Act mandates that interest be assessed on any late-filed unclaimed property, as a means to incentivize voluntary compliance.
This joint resolution rejects the report of the Delaware Compensation Commission in its entirety.
This Senate Concurrent Resolution continues the Motorcycle Rider Education Advisory Committee, which must meet at least quarterly to monitor the Motorcycle Rider Education Program, and assess the future needs of and recommend improvements to the Program.
This bill requires a conference with the parent or guardian of a student who has been absent without excuse for 5 days from school. A needs assessment will be performed to determine what supports or services will help the student and family improve school attendance. Moving the intervention forward to the fifth unexcused absence rather than the 10th may help to improve outcomes for Delaware’s students and help prevent students from disengaging from the school community and dropping out of school.
