Many of the State’s waters do not meet water quality standards to support their designated uses, such as for drinking, swimming or supporting aquatic life. The Clean Water for Delaware Act establishes a framework for assessing needs and planning and implementing projects that support Delaware’s efforts to improve the quality of the State’s water supply and waterways. A Delaware Clean Water Trust account is created as a funding source for executing projects highlighted by this framework. The Trust account will have oversight from the Clean Water Trust Oversight Committee (the “Committee”). The Committee will draw upon recommendations from the Water Infrastructure Advisory Council, (WIAC), the county Conservation Districts’, experts in the effected Cabinet agencies and other public input with the goal of assisting municipal and county governments and others in implementing affordable water quality projects. The Committee is required to develop and publish an Annual Report and multi-year Strategic Plan for Clean Water with annual updates.
Sponsored bills
This Act clarifies the circumstances in which it is appropriate to grant a person a driver education learner’s permit and what is required for a person to obtain a driver education learner’s permit. Specifically, this Act clarifies that a driver education learner’s permit is intended to be issued to those individuals who have met all of the requirements for a level 1 learner’s permit, but have not yet successfully completed a road skills test. This permit allows the individual to gain additional supervised driving experience needed to successfully complete the road skills test. This Act also establishes a clear connection between § 4125 of Title 14 and the requirements to obtain a driver education learner’s permit or a level 1 learner’s permit. Finally, this Act makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
This House Concurrent Resolution proclaims January 23, 2020, as "Maternal Health Awareness Day" in the State of Delaware.
This Senate Concurrent Resolution requests that the Division of Medicaid and Medical Assistance study the extension of Medicaid coverage through the first year postpartum. Insurance coverage is a critical factor in determining women's access to affordable postpartum care and is a key strategy for reducing preventable maternal mortality and to close the disparity in the maternal mortaility rate among black women and women of other races.
This Act clarifies that a person with a special license plate or permit for persons with disabilities which limit or impair the ability to walk may park for an unlimited period where the length of time is otherwise limited and must be able to park in a metered parking space for at least 1 hour. This Act clarifies that it is a violation of the state equal accommodations law to prohibit parking as authorized for a person with a special license plate or permit for persons with disabilities which limit or impair the ability to walk. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
This bill addresses an on-going problem relating to background checks for employees, volunteers, and contractors of child-serving entities. Currently, a person working a child-serving entity who obtains the required background check must undergo another background check when that person obtains employment at another child-serving entity even if that background check had recently been completed. This put an undue burden on the employee and the State Bureau of Identification who run the background checks. This bill would allow an employee, volunteer, or contractor who is required to obtain a background check to authorize a child-serving entity to share the results of a background check with another child-serving entity so long as the authorization is in writing and provided to the Office of Child Care Licensing. This bill also requires the Department of Education to establish a procedure to allow employees, volunteers and contractors to authorize the sharing of background checks between child-serving entities.
The Joint Legislative Oversight and Sunset Committee approved a project to work with the Governor's Office throughout 2018 and 2019 to identify antiquated boards, commissions, and councils that need statutory updates or outright repeals. The Common Interest Community Advisory Council was identified as needing a modification to provide that the Governor’s appointments are Delaware residents, rather than members of the executive board, of a common interest community. This change will make it easier to fill Council vacancies. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
This Act simplifies Delaware’s drug code with a goal of providing more fairness in its application. This Act removes geographic-based enhancements that disproportionately impact those living in urban areas as opposed to suburban and rural areas. This Act reduces the number of weight tiers from 5 to 3 with adjustments to accompanying sentences while retaining higher felony levels for weights that indicate drug dealing. This Act reflects the reality that the road to recovery from a drug addiction is difficult by removing automatic sentence enhancements based on prior drug offenses, and instead allowing discretion during sentencing to determine when a repeat offender requires substantive additional penalty. Specifically, Sections 1 through 14 of this Act do the following: (1) Eliminate most aggravating factors, some of which may cause Delaware’s controlled substance laws to be applied unfairly, while maintaining an aggravating factor for those who violate Delaware’s drug dealing laws within 300 feet of and on school property. (2) Eliminate enhancements based on the commission of prior drug offenses. (3) Simplify Delaware’s controlled substance laws by reducing the number of weight tiers that are used to categorize the severity of controlled substance offenses. (4) Provide statutory guidance for the weighing and sampling procedures used at criminal trials for controlled substances. Sections 15 through 20 of this Act make conforming amendments to the Delaware Code based on changes made by Sections 1 through 14 of this Act. This Act takes effect 90 days after its enactment into law. Finally, this Act makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
This Substitute differs from Senate Bill No. 24 by requiring a patient to apply for a compassionate use medical marijuana card when a doctor recommends medical marijuana to a patient who does not have a qualifying debilitating medical condition. To apply for a compassionate use card, this Substitute requires: 1. The patient, or it under age 18, the patient’s parent or legal guardian, submit a signed statement attesting to the patient's informed consent to try a treatment that does not have medical evidence of effectiveness. 2. The patient’s physician certify that the patient has a severe and debilitating condition, current standard care practices and treatments have been exhausted, and there are grounds to support that the patient may benefit from this treatment. The physician must periodically re-evaluate the efficacy of the medical marijuana treatment. This Substitute also requires that a registry identification card state the type of card that is issued to clearly identify qualifying adult patients, qualifying pediatric patients, designated caregivers, and compassionate use patients. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
This Act prohibits a pelvic, rectal, or prostate examination by a health care practitioner or professional on an individual who is anesthetized or unconscious. This Act provides exceptions and they are if informed consent is provided, the examination is for diagnostic or treatment purposes, an emergency exists and the examination is necessary, or the examination is ordered by a court. The Act also defines informed consent as a signing of a consent form that is written in plain language, is dated, includes a description of the procedure to be performed and states that a medical student or resident may perform or be present during the examination. Finally, this Act provides that a health-care practitioner or professional who violates the section may be subject to discipline by the appropriate professional licensing board.