Sen. Nicole Poore

This Act creates a first-time home buyers' savings plan, called the Homeownership Using Savings and Earnings Plan (the HOUSE Plan), to ignite future homeownership in Delaware by helping residents save for their first home. The HOUSE Plan offers a practical solution that encourages financial responsibility and long-term planning by allowing individuals to save and use funds for eligible costs associated with purchasing a home, such as down payments and closing costs, and costs associated with acquiring a rental lease for a primary residence, such as security deposits and payment of the first month of rent. Earnings on amounts held in in a HOUSE Plan account accrue free from Delaware income taxation. This Act sets how much account holders may contribute, both annually and over the lifetime of an account, and specifies annual income caps for eligibility to open an account. Funds must be used within 20 years after the account is opened. This Act also establishes the HOUSE Plan Board to oversee the design, implementation, and preliminary administration of the Plan. This Act makes homeownership more attainable, builds generational wealth, and strengthens communities, without direct state spending.

Maddy summaryThis bill designates June 15, 2026, as "Delaware Elder Abuse Awareness Day" to highlight the issue of elder abuse within the state. It does not create new laws or change any policies but serves as a symbolic gesture to raise public attention on this topic. The resolution was passed by both the House and the Senate without requiring a formal vote count.

This Act prohibits cryptocurrency kiosks and mandates removal of existing cryptocurrency kiosks within 90 days of the effective date of the Act. A violation of the Act is an unlawful practice and prohibited trade practice. This Act also prohibits the circumvention of the kiosk ban through cashier-assisted or point-of-sale cryptocurrency transactions and extends liability to persons who facilitate such transactions or knowingly allow such activity to occur on their premises. Violators are subject to injunctive relief, a civil penalty not to exceed $10,000, and a private right of action for damages caused by the violation.

Maddy summaryHB 290 designates June 11 as "Puerto Rico Day" in Delaware for annual commemoration. This ceremonial bill, introduced in January 2026, formally recognizes Puerto Rico's cultural significance through a designated observance. It does not create new laws or regulations but establishes an annual state-level recognition event. The bill directly affects Delaware's state calendar and commemorative practices, with no direct impact on individuals or policies.

Approximately one in five adults report experiencing a mental health condition. At the same time, many individuals continue to face delays or barriers when trying to access care, even when they have insurance coverage. Delays, denials, or truncation of treatment leave families and their doctors battling for coverage instead of focusing on treatment and recovery. Families must pay out of pocket for care, on top of premiums for coverage they are not receiving. Further, Delawareans are five times more likely to go out-of-network for mental health care than for primary care, resulting in higher costs. This Act, known as the Fair Standards in Mental Health Care Act, builds on previous work to advance mental health parity and aims to ensure patients with private insurance can access timely, evidence-based mental health and substance use disorder care in Delaware. This Act supports improved access to mental health disorder and substance use disorder treatment by: 1. Adding and refining key terms, including definitions of mental health disorders and substance use disorders, level of care criteria, medically necessary treatment, utilization review and utilization review criteria to ensure consistency with widely accepted clinical standards of treatment and service intensity determination. This bill forges gold-standard clinical guidelines through requiring insurers to use transparent, evidence-based standards from independent experts, including the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 2. Requiring coverage for all medically necessary treatment, including emergency services and all clinically appropriate levels of care. This bill ends prior authorization delays for mental health and guarantees emergency mental health coverage, just as Delaware already does for addiction treatment. 3. Requiring at least one formulation of certain FDA-approved medications to treat substance use disorders to be placed on the lowest-cost tier of drug formularies. 4. Prohibiting discrimination against individuals with current or predicted mental health disorders or substance use disorders. 5. Requiring carriers to arrange coverage of medically necessary out-of-network services without additional cost to the enrollee if in-network options are unavailable within applicable network access standards, thus ensuring real network access. 6. Removing language currently in the code barring a private right of action for violations of 18 Del. Code § 3343. In addition, the Act clarifies that carriers must provide nonquantitative treatment limitation parity analysis (NQTL parity analysis) that they are required to have completed under federal law to health care providers and current and prospective covered persons, free of charge, upon request. This Act applies to individual health insurance policies under Chapter 33 of Title 18 and group and blanket health insurance policies under Chapter 35 of Title 18. This Act applies to all policies, contracts, or certificates issued, renewed, modified, altered, amended, or reissued after December 31, 2027. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This Act changes the probate dollar limit for administering a small estate without requiring Letters of Administration or Letters of Testamentary from $30,000 to $50,000. This Act also makes changes to conform with the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

With only minor modifications consistent with Delaware law and practice, this Act adopts the Uniform Assignment for Benefit of Creditors Act (the “Uniform Act”), authored by the Uniform Law Commission. The Uniform Law Commission “provides states with non-partisan, well-conceived and well-drafted legislation that brings clarity and stability to critical areas of state statutory law.” The Uniform Act was approved by the Uniform Law Commission in October 2025 and, as of March 2026, has been enacted in Nebraska and Utah and introduced in Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, and Oklahoma. Because this Act adopts the Uniform Act with only minor modifications, the “Comments” to the Uniform Act may be deemed to be persuasive authority in interpreting this Act; provided, however, that the second and third sentences of the Comment to Section 2 of the Uniform Act shall instead be deemed to read as follows: “If an asset is not assignable by its terms or under other law, that asset is not part of the assignment estate unless either any required consent is obtained or other law overrides the anti-assignment provision. This Uniform Act does not preclude the assignee from negotiating with any person whose consent is required for an assignment to obtain its consent for the assignment of an asset.” This Act provides for the use of an assignment for benefit of creditors (an “ABC”), which is an efficient and flexible state law mechanism to wind up a distressed business. Although the use of an ABC to liquidate the assets of a failing business is rooted in the common law, the various states have significant differences in their statutes or common law of ABCs and Delaware’s statute has few details, was enacted many decades ago, and has not subsequently been revised. This inconsistency and lack of detail leads to significant variance throughout the country in the utility of ABCs and the frequency with which ABCs are used. This Act addresses this gap in the law by cementing the common law in statute and providing updates that modernize the law and provide clarity to assignors, assignees, and creditors alike. In an ABC, a financially distressed business, called an “assignor,” transfers control of all of its assets to an “assignee,” who acts as a fiduciary for the business’s creditors. The assignee liquidates the business’s assets and distributes the proceeds to the business’s creditors. These proceeds go towards payment of the creditors’ claims against the assignor. This Act creates a state law alternative to other procedures available to the assignor for winding up its business and provides benefits that are not available through a federal bankruptcy case or a state or federal law receivership. In many cases, an ABC will be more flexible, quicker, and less costly than the other alternatives. An ABC may be an improvement on these alternatives in certain situations in significant ways: (1) it is debtor-initiated; (2) it provides assurances to creditors by imposing fiduciary duties upon the assignee; (3) it aims to maximize the value of the business’s assets for the benefit of all creditors; and (4) it encourages cooperation between the distressed business and the creditors by aligning these parties’ goals. This Act’s roadmap for ABCs clearly establishes: (1) The persons eligible to be assignors and the qualifications for assignees; (2) The relationship between an ABC under this Act and existing federal and state statutes, including the Bankruptcy Code; (3) The contents of the assignment agreement; (4) The effect of an ABC on the assignor’s property interests and the procedure for conveying those assets to the assignee; (5) Procedures for notifying creditors of the ABC and the implications of the opt-out decision; (6) Duties and powers of the assignor and assignee, including limitations on liability; (7) A process for allowing and disputing claims; (8) A waterfall for the distribution of proceeds to secured and unsecured creditors and payment of expenses incurred by the assignee; (9) Procedures for winding up the assignment estate; (10) The extent of recognition of out-of-state transactions and appointment of an ancillary assignee for administration of out-of-state assets; and (11) That a conveyance by an assignor or assignee for the benefit of the assignor’s creditors under this Act is not subject to this State’s realty transfer tax. This Act is intended to replace Delaware’s current ABC law, resulting in the repeal of the current law under Sections 2 through 8 of this Act and provision, under Section 9 of this Act, for the continued application of the current law for existing ABCs made before the effective date of this Act.

This Senate Joint Resolution recognizes that missed court appearances create costs for the justice system and negative consequences for individuals, and that reminder notifications can reduce failure-to-appear rates. It directs the Delaware Judiciary to report on the cost, timeline, and requirements to build a court date reminder program for the Justice of the Peace Court and to expand it to the Court of Common Pleas, Family Court, and Superior Court and provides that DELJIS shall build the program if funding is appropriated.

This Act makes updates to the Delaware workplace safety program to increase the workers’ compensation insurance credit that businesses can access while maintaining overall program stability. Past legislation that adjusted Workplace Safety Program parameters led to the filing of a new Experience Rating Plan by Delaware Compensation Rating Bureau, which inadvertently resulted in lower discounts. Most businesses with lower-than-average claim costs, regardless of size, continue to see reductions in their experience modification factors. The Workplace Safety Program credit and the experience modification factor savings result in a similar savings as before for employers with favorable loss history. However, this was not the intention of prior law. This Act ensures that companies can reach maximum premium savings of 12%.

This Act clarifies that paid leave for the adoption of a child may begin at one of the following times: (1) when the child is placed for adoption with the employee; (2) when the employee initiates a petition for adoption; or (3) when the adoption process is completed.