Sen. Dave Sokola

This Act allows restaurants that sell ice cream containing up to 10% alcohol by volume to sell such ice cream without the requirement that the customer also purchase at least $10 of other food. This substitute differs from the original bill by limiting this exception only to ice cream and clarifying the alcohol amount by volume of being up to 10%.

This Act adopts the Uniform Law Commission's Revised Uniform Athlete Agents Act ("Revised Act"), revising Chapter 54, Title 24 of the Delaware Code, which is based on the Uniform Law Commission's Uniform Athlete Agents Act ("Uniform Act"). 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.” In the early 2000's, Delaware and 42 other states adopted the Uniform Act. Delaware's version of the Uniform Act included a Board of Athlete Agents Examiners ("Board"), which was sunsetted by the Joint Legislative Oversight and Sunset Committee in 2012 and removed from the Delaware Code by Senate Bill 184 of the 146th General Assembly (78 Del. Laws, c. 376). In addition to removing provisions related to the Board, Senate Bill 184 also removed provisions requiring athlete agents doing business in Delaware to be registered and subject to administrative oversight. In 2015, the Uniform Law Commission adopted the Revised Act to enhance protections for student athletes and educational institutions, create a uniform body of athlete agent registration information, and simplify the registration process. The changes made to the Uniform Act by the Revised Act became necessary as athlete agent tactics have become more advanced and the industry has become more sophisticated. The need for the Revised Act is highlighted by a recent FBI investigation into athlete agent activities related to the college basketball programs at a number of Division I schools. The need is also highlighted by the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s adoption of an interim policy in June 2021 that removes restrictions on student athletes receiving compensation for their name, image, and likeness. Coinciding with this change, there has been an increase in athlete agent registrations in states with laws requiring registration. The adoption of the Revised Act provides safeguards for student athletes by requiring that athlete agents be registered and that agency contracts contain specific notice provisions. The Revised Act has been enacted by 18 states, with 4 of those enactments occurring in 2021.

This Act unifies all Judicial Branch employees under the Judicial Branch Personnel Rules, thus revising a bifurcated personnel administration system for judicial branch employees in constitutionally-created and legislatively-created courts. This Act recognizes and respects the constitutional powers vested in the Chief Justice, as the administrative head of the Judicial Branch, to govern Judicial Branch employment relations. This Act will not curtail any bargained-for employment rights currently held by Judicial Branch employees covered by the Merit System. Instead, this Act will simplify matters of personnel administration for the Judicial Branch by having one consistent set of rules and processes to apply equally to all Judicial Branch employees. This Act will become effective for all current and future Judicial Branch employees within six months from the date of enactment.

This Act requires that meetings of the Board of Trustees for the University of Delaware, Delaware State University, and Delaware Technical and Community College must be livestreamed using technology that permits the public to hear all participants contemporaneously. This Act also requires that recordings of the livestreamed meetings must be maintained on a public website. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. This Act requires a greater than majority vote for passage because § 1 of Article IX of the Delaware Constitution requires the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the members elected to each house of the General Assembly to amend a charter issued to a corporation for educational purposes sustained in whole or part by the State, including the University of Delaware and Delaware State University.

This bill broadens the scope of mental health practitioners who are authorized by statute to conduct examinations with inmates for purposes of advising the Board of Pardons on matters material to the Board’s scope of review. This will enable licensed mental health practitioners and other clinical mental health professionals to participate in the process of evaluating and reporting upon an offender’s mental health history, likelihood to re-offend, and other pertinent matters that will assist the deliberative process of the Board of Pardons.

An opioid antagonist is a medication approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for emergency reversal of a known or suspected opioid overdose. Currently, naloxone is the only FDA-approved opioid antagonist, however, the FDA is expected to approve at least 1 new, more powerful opioid antagonist in 2022. The current naloxone program allows public safety personnel and trained lay people to receive and administer naloxone to individuals suspected of experiencing an opioid overdose. This Act allows the Department of Health and Social Services to expand the current program to include additional opioid antagonists. This Act also makes technical corrections to reflect that advance practice registered nurses have the authority to prescribe medication and to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual as follows: 1. Reorganizing the current Chapter 30G of Title 16 from a single Code section to a chapter with several Code sections so that similar provisions are grouped together. 2. Using consistent phrases and terminology.

Section 716(a) of Title 24 prohibits annual or lifetime numerical limits on chiropractic visits for the treatment of back pain. The treatment of chronic back pain through chiropractic supportive care can prevent patients from requiring opioid pain medications or more expensive treatments. This Act prohibits the denial of insurance coverage under § 716(a) for chiropractic supportive care, which constitutes maintenance therapy. This requirement applies to policies, contracts, or certificates issued, renewed, modified, altered, amended, or reissued after December 31, 2023. In addition, this Act clarifies, but does not expand, the insurance coverage subject to the requirements under § 716(a), states that the requirements under this subsection cannot be waived by contract, and requires that the regulations implementing § 176 establish utilization review standards. This Act also updates the definitions in Chapter 7 of Title 24 to be consistent with the current scope of chiropractic practice and makes corresponding revisions to the terms used in existing law. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This bill facilitates the expansion of the private flood insurance market through the adoption of the National Council of Insurance Legislators’ Model Private Primary Residential Flood Insurance Model. This Model has been used to facilitate increased consumer choice and access to flood insurance.

At least 36 states allow for the medical use of marijuana. However, federal firearm laws have not kept pace and currently prohibit an individual who is “an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance” from possessing or purchasing a firearm. It is still unlawful under federal law to use or possess marijuana. This Act makes clear that an individual is not disqualified under Delaware law from possessing a firearm because the individual is a registered qualifying patient under the Delaware Medical Marijuana Act, if the registered qualifying patient is not a person prohibited under § 1448 of Title 11 of the Delaware Code. This Act makes also clear that a registered qualifying patient may engage in a firearm transaction between unlicensed persons under § 1448B of Title 11 if the transaction is exempt under § 1448B(c) of Title 11 and the registered qualifying patient is not otherwise a person prohibited under § 1448 of Title 11. A registered qualifying patient’s purchase of a firearm through a federal firearms licensee (“FFL”) is still prohibited under federal law. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.