Rep. Kevin Hensley

Individuals who volunteer their services through stand-alone EMS companies have been a valuable part of public safety to the citizens of the State of Delaware. To try to bolster the ranks of these volunteers, this bill exempts anyone applying for membership of a volunteer EMS company from paying the cost of a background check done by the State of Delaware Bureau of Identification.

The opioid epidemic spreading through Delaware has reached critical levels, with 210 fentanyl-related deaths in 2017. This legislation will update the schedule for Fentanyl analogues, consistent with language used by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The Forensic Chemistry Unit at the Division of Forensic Science has confirmed the presence of these analogues in Delaware, but some of which are not currently scheduled under Title 16. This is directly related to continuous structural modifications of Fentanyl by illicit manufacturers. This legislation will close that gap and provide clarity to Title 16, consistent with federal law, by addressing ever-changing structural modifications being made in the illicit manufacture of Fentanyl. This legislative is aimed to curb the manufacture and distribution of illicit Fentanyl analogues and has no impact on the legal manufacture of Fentanyl for medical use.

This Act does all of the following: (1) Imposes a 5 cent per gallon tax on certain aviation jet fuel. (2) Provides the procedures for collecting the tax. These procedures are the same as the procedures under Subchapter II of Chapter 51 of Title 30; however, this Act makes technical corrections to those procedures to conform the law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. (3) Gives the Department of Transportation ("Department") authority to establish regulations and otherwise enforce the collection of the new tax. (4) Requires the Department to deposit the proceeds of the tax into the Transportation Trust Fund. (5) Requires the Department to file a report with the Controller General by September 1 of each year detailing the revenue received under this subchapter and the expenditures associated with the Department's responsibilities concerning aviation in this State. This Act takes effect on July 1, 2019.

This bill requires the State food safety standards for restaurants to include a system for requiring healthy beverages to be offered as the default beverage with a combination children’s meal inclusive of a drink, sold together at a unit price. It does not prohibit the restaurant’s ability to sell, or a customer’s ability to choose, a substitute or alternative beverage as-requested by a customer. This effectively creates an “opt in” instead of an “opt out” for many sugar-rich drink choices for children. This bill also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This Act provides supplementary appropriations to certain Grants-in-Aid for Fiscal Year 2020. Section 1 – Government Units and Senior Center $25,814,321 Section 2 – One-Times and Community Agencies $21,951,119 Section 3 – Fire Companies $6,929,686 Section 4 – Veterans Organizations $358,646 GRAND TOTAL $55,053,772

This Concurrent Resolution establishes a task force (“Task Force”) to study and make recommendations regarding the policies, rules, structure, and regulations of the Division of Developmental Disabilities Services ("Division"). The Division provides home and community-based services for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The Task Force will consider, have access to, and make recommendations on several matters, including: (1) Wages and turnover rates for direct support professionals. (2) Design of systems changes and performance measures. (3) Other trends, analyses, and recommendations. (4) A synopsis of provider violations, probation, appeals, and ultimate outcomes from 2015 through 2019. The data provided to the Task Force are not records or proceedings for the purposes of § 1768 of Title 24, commonly known as “peer review privilege.” The release of data for the purposes of the Task Forces’ work does not waive the privileged nature of the data, which must already omit information that may identify a specific patient or provider before it is provided to the Task Force. This Concurrent Resolution is the result of the Joint Legislative Oversight and Sunset Committee deciding not to review the Division in 2020 and instead allow the Division time to undergo a more brief method of review. This process was initially created as an advisory council through Senate Bill No. 154 of the 150th General Assembly, but was later determined to be better achieved through a task force.

This House Concurrent Resolution establishes the Local Service Functions Task Force to review and propose revisions to Part II of Title 9 of the Delaware Code regarding New Castle County and municipal corporation responsibility for local service functions and how the county budgets expenditures for the performance of local service functions and establishes tax rates for municipalities that perform local services functions.

This concurrent resolution encourages the Department of Education to establish RAVE security systems in all public and charter schools.

This resolution urges the Director of the Delaware Division of Public Health to designate Alzheimer's Disease and other dementias as public health issues.

This Act enhances 2 existing agricultural horse racing programs, the Delaware Standardbred Breeder's Program and the Delaware Certified Thoroughbred program, by providing additional funding. Under this Act, horsemen provide half of the additional funds from purse money and the State provides half of the additional funds with matching funds.