| HB 219 w/ HA 1 | Signed | Bentz | The 146th General Assembly gave the Department of Health and Social Services the authority to promulgate regulations and require accreditation for facilities that perform invasive medical procedures. The current terminology and definition of an “invasive medical procedure” has been frequently misinterpreted and caused a great deal of confusion in the medical community. This Act revises the current language to be consistent with terminology used by accreditation organizations and other states, replacing the term “invasive medical procedure” with the term “office-based surgery”. In addition, this Act clarifies the definition to ensure that all facilities that perform such procedures do so in a safe and sanitary environment. Finally, this Act adds a requirement that the approved accreditation organizations shall report, at a minimum, findings of surveys and complaint and incident investigations, and data for all office-based surgical facilities to the Department.
This Act also updates Title 24 where the term "invasive medical procedure" is used and § 122(3) of Title 16 is referenced. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 16 AND TITLE 24 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO INVASIVE MEDICAL PROCEDURES. |
| SB 149 | Signed | Lavelle | This legislation creates a fine for “Coal Rolling”, a practice that is often undetectable at the time of vehicle inspection due to the ability of an operator to change functions and increase emissions after passing inspection.
Coal Rolling is the practice of modifying a diesel engine to increase the amount of fuel entering the engine in order to emit large amounts of black or grey sooty exhaust fumes into the air. It also may include the intentional removal of the particulate filter. Practitioners often additionally modify their vehicles by installing smoke switches and smoke stacks. In addition to the environmental concern of increased emissions, there is a safety component as the excessive emissions can impair a motorist’s visibility.
| AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 21 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO MOTOR VEHICLES, OPERATIONS AND EQUIPMENT, RULES OF THE ROAD, MISCELLANEOUS RULES. |
| HB 331 w/ HA 1, HA 1 to HA 1 | Signed | Kowalko | This bill creates regulations concerning the use, distribution and education of Benzodiazepine and Non-benzodiazepine Hypnotics. It require Practitioners to obtain consent from a minor’s parent or guardian prior to prescribing these drugs, and require pharmacist to include a cautionary statement explaining the risks associated with the long term use of these drugs. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 16 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO BENZODIAZEPINE AND NON-BENZODIAZEPINE HYPNOTICS. |
| SB 156 | Signed | Townsend | This Act amends § 2532 of Title 29, in the Not-for-Profit Healthcare Conversion Act, to ensure that the Attorney General has sufficient time to review a proposed not-for-profit healthcare conversion and, if appropriate, take action to protect the charitable assets being held for public benefit.
Due to an apparent drafting error, the Not-for-Profit Healthcare Conversion Act currently permits a not-for-profit healthcare entity to provide notice to the Attorney General of a proposed not-for-profit healthcare conversion as late as the day of the proposed transaction, which would prevent the Attorney General from performing the functions intended by the General Assembly when it enacted the Not-for-Profit Healthcare Conversion Act. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 29 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO CONVERSION TRANSACTIONS FOR NOT-FOR-PROFIT HEALTHCARE ENTITIES. |
| HB 353 | Signed | Mitchell | Section 1 of this Act clarifies that the intent of Senate Bill No. 32 of the 149th General Assembly was to require mortgagees to file a statement of mortgagee address change when its notice address changed, not to require mortgagees to include each mortgage affected by a change of notice address.
The form added to the Delaware Code by § 2124(b) of Title 25 is removed to further aid clarity. In its place, each recorder is granted authority to issue a sample form.
This Act also makes changes to § 2124 of Title 25 to do the following:
1. Clarify that each recorder must create a statement of mortgagee address change index and provide for the minimum information required by such an index. Section 2 of this Act removes the requirements related to the statement of mortgagee address change index that are located there in favor of placing these provisions within § 2124 of Title 25.
2. Provide a penalty for the failure to file a statement of mortgagee address change within 60 days of a change in notice address.
3. Grant each recorder the power to impose fees that reasonably reflect the costs necessary to defray expenses associated with creating and maintaining the statement of mortgagee address change index. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 25 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO MORTGAGES. |
| HB 370 | Signed | Heffernan | This Bill adds the Secretary of the Department of Human Resources and the Executive Director of Delaware CLASI or their designees to the Employment First Oversight Commission (hereinafter “EFOC”). The Bill also allows non-Delaware residents who work in Delaware for an employment agency that advocates or represents disabled individuals to participate on the EFOC. Finally, the Bill eliminates the prohibition on appointment of state employees to the EFOC under § 745 (1). | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 19 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES. |
| SB 173 | Signed | Bushweller | This Act provides the authorization required by law for the City of Dover to transfer a portion of Mayfair Park, as the Park was improved using funds from the Delaware Land and Water Conservation Trust Fund. | AN ACT TO AUTHORIZE THE TRANSFER OF PROPERTY IMPROVED USING FUNDS FROM THE DELAWARE LAND AND WATER CONSERVATION TRUST FUND FROM THE CITY OF DOVER TO CAPITOL BAPTIST CHURCH. |
| SB 178 w/ SA 1 | Signed | Poore | This Act makes the following changes to the Charter of the City of New Castle:
1. Changes the offices of City Clerk and City Treasurer to appointed offices rather than elected offices. This change is consistent with many other Delaware municipalities and supported by the lack of citizen interest in holding these offices with very few contested elections for these positions in the past 20 years.
2. Requires a super majority of Council to remove an appointed City Clerk or City Treasurer to help assure the independence of these offices and insulate them from removal on purely political grounds.
3. Authorizes the creation of other appointive offices by ordinance or resolution.
4. Adopts a "resign to run" provision whereby elected City officials desiring to run for a different City office must resign their current position.
5. Adopts an oath of office which an elected official must take before assuming office.
6. Declares a particular Councilperson's or the Mayor's office vacant due to the failure of an office holder to attend 3 or more consecutive regular monthly meetings of Council, or more than one-third of Council's regular monthly meetings in any consecutive 12 month period.
7. Requires a special election to fill vacancies in elective positions if the next scheduled general election in the City is more than 6 months away instead of having Council fill the vacancy by appointment.
8. Removes the ability of a Councilperson to participate in Council meetings via teleconference.
9. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. | AN ACT TO AMEND THE CHARTER OF THE CITY OF NEW CASTLE. |
| HB 406 | Signed | B. Short | This bill allows for small employers who have more than 5 employees to obtain a “stop loss” policy for health insurance. This will provide more options for small employers in the health insurance market. Additionally these changes bring the section into compliance with the Delaware Legislative Drafting manual. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 18 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO SMALL EMPLOYER HEALTH INSURANCE. |
| HB 403 | Signed | Yearick | This amendment removes the notary requirement for requests for absentee ballots in municipal elections.
The notary requirement for absentee ballots in State elections has previously been removed. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 15 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO ABSENTEE VOTING IN MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS. |
| HB 413 w/ HA 1 | Signed | Paradee | Before the filing of a lawsuit, automobile insurance companies are currently not required to disclose liability coverage information to an injured claimant or the attorney representing that claimant. However, once a lawsuit is filed, this information must be disclosed. This legislation will reduce the number of lawsuits filed by requiring automobile insurance companies to disclose liability coverage information prior to the time that a lawsuit is filed. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 21 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION RELATED TO AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE. |
| HS 1 for HB 104 w/ HA 1 | Signed | M. Smith | The state is currently funding service providers at 75% of the market rate established in a 2014 study that was done by DHSS. This bill would mandate an increase in the rates paid to service providers according to the recommendations of the market study, so that by fiscal year 2021 the state would fund service providers at 100% of the benchmarked rate. These rate increases are necessary to increase the hourly wages of Direct Support Professionals (DSPs), to improve recruitment and retention of these positions, to decrease staff turnover, and to decrease position vacancies. Along with the corresponding costs for program oversight, direct supervision of DSPs, and training, stabilizing the DSP workforce with increased pay is essential to keep people with I/DD safe and integrated to the maximum extent possible in their local communities. The bill also requires that the adequacy of the rate system be evaluated against performance measures that are commonly used to assess program quality. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 29 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO SERVICES FOR ADULTS WITH INTELLECTUAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES. |
| SB 218 | Signed | Simpson | This bill amends Title 24 of the Delaware Code by changing the qualifications for a Professional Art Therapists. For those graduating with a master's degree prior to January 2013, a master's degree from an accredited educational institution in an art therapy program that was either approved by the American Art Therapy Association or accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs at the time the degree was conferred is required. | AN ACT TO AMMEND TITLE 24 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE LICENSURE OF ART THERAPISTS. |
| HB 436 w/ HA 2 | Signed | Carson | This Act clarifies conditions under which a manufactured home owner can transfer the existing lot lease to the purchaser of the home.
This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 25 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO MANUFACTURED HOME AND RENTED LOT TRANSFERS. |
| HB 449 | Signed | Hensley | This bill permits the Town of Middletown to impose and collect a lodging tax of no more than 3 percent of rents on hotel and motel rooms located in the town. | AN ACT TO AMEND THE CHARTER OF THE TOWN OF MIDDLETOWN RELATING TO MUNICIPAL POWER. |
| SB 243 w/ SA 1 | Signed | Henry | Since 1973, § 9605(b) of Title 9 of the Delaware Code (“§ 9605”) has prohibited the recordation of instruments that restrict the sale, gift, transfer, assignment, conveyance, ownership, lease, rental, use, or occupancy of real property to or by any person because of the person’s race, color, creed, sex, national origin, or ancestry.
This Act provides a mechanism for owners of real property subject to an instrument that contains a provision that restricts property rights based on the list of characteristics included in § 9605, including the governing documents of a common interest community, to redact and strike the unlawful restrictive covenant language from instruments recorded with a county recorder of deeds before the original enactment of § 9605 or in violation of § 9605.
This Act also amends the list of characteristics included in § 9605 that may not be used to discriminate in the sale, gift, transfer, assignment, conveyance, ownership, lease, rental, use, or occupancy of real property to make it consistent with Delaware’s fair housing laws. However, this Act makes clear that provisions that are permitted by the exceptions to the Delaware Fair Housing Act are not prohibited from being recorded by a recorder of deeds.
Finally, this Act makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 9 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO UNLAWFUL RESTRICTIVE COVENANTS. |
| HB 462 | Signed | Bolden | This Act fulfills recommendations made by the Joint Legislative Overview and Sunset Committee by making amendments to the statute governing the Board of Occupational Therapy Practice to make Chapter 20 of Title 24 consistent with other Title 24 boards and delete antiquated sections that are no longer applicable, including:
- Adding the duty to report conduct that constitutes grounds for discipline or inability to practice.
- Removing "censure a practitioner" as an available sanction.
- Removing references to temporary licenses, because the temporary license section of the statute was repealed
in 2005.
- Removing § 2015(c) and § 2017(c) because they are covered under the Administrative Procedures Act.
- Revising the reciprocity language to address situations where a licensee holds a current license in a state that is
no substantially similar to Delaware.
In addition, this Act includes several amendments to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual, including deleting unnecessary words, correcting grammatical errors, and improving consistency and clarity. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 24 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE BOARD OF OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY PRACTICE. |
| HB 465 w/ HA 1 | Signed | Schwartzkopf | In January 2018, the Code Revisors provided the General Assembly with a list of potential technical corrections that they identified as they revised the Delaware Code to reflect legislation that was enacted by the 149th General Assembly in 2017 or as they reviewed titles of the Code. While technical in nature, these changes are beyond the authority of the Code Revisors to make and can only be done by the General Assembly through legislation.
This Act requires a three-quarters vote, erring on the side of caution if any of the sections of the Delaware Code being revised require a super-majority vote.
Section 1. HS 1 for HB 180 revised the manner in which notice of a data breach must be provided. As written, notice must only be provided on a webpage if the person providing notice has only 1 webpage. This Section corrects this sentence by adding “or more” before “webpage.”
Section 2. HB 190 revised the Coastal Zone Act and includes a reference to the “Delaware Hazardous Substances Control Act” but there is no Delaware law with that name. This Section corrects this reference to the Delaware Hazardous Substance Cleanup Act.
Section 3. HB 175 altered the fees assessed by the Secretary of State. As written, it is unclear if the paragraph being moved in this Section applies to all of subsection (c) or to only paragraph (c)(2). Moving this paragraph and designating it as paragraph (c)(4) clarifies that it applies to all of subsection (c).
Section 4. HB 93 revised the licensing statue for security businesses and security systems, eliminating the term "security business." This Section updates the reference to security businesses in § 2807 of Title 10.
Section 5. SB 55 replaced the term “security officer" in § 1302 of Title 24 with "private security guard" but the term “security officer" remains in § 1457 of Title 11. This Section revises § 1457 to use the term “private security guard."
Sections 6 and 7. HB 47 changed the document required to obtain an absentee ballot from an affidavit to a statement. These Sections correct references in Title 14 from affidavit to the new statement.
Section 8. HS 1 for HB 143 repealed § 1210 of Title 14 and redesignated the former § 1210A to § 1210. A reference in the former § 1210A to § 1210 was not updated in HS 1 for HB 143. This Section corrects this internal reference.
Section 9. SB 102 consolidated laws related to child abuse and child sexual abuse training and detection, suicide prevention, bullying, criminal youth gang detection, and teen dating violence and sexual assault into one subchapter of Chapter 41, Title 14 of the Delaware Code. In this consolidation, § 4112D of Title 14 became § 4164 of Title 14, but 2 references to this section were not updated to reflect the change. This Section corrects these internal references.
Section 10. This issue was discovered by the Code Revisors during a general review of Title 16 for the 2017 replacement volume for Volume 9 of the Delaware Code. Section 3121 of Title 16 has references to § 804 of Title 13 which was repealed in 2002. This Section corrects these internal references.
Section 11. SB 55 revised the requirements for licensure as a private investigator and for private security agencies. In § 1329(a)(4) there is a list of statutes for which criminal charges or convictions are grounds for sanctions. As written, the statute provides that there need to be charges or convictions of all of the criminal statutes listed instead of any of the statutes. This Section corrects that error.
Section 12. SB 55 revised the requirements for licensure as a private investigator and for private security agencies. This Section corrects the reference to the Administrative Procedures Act in § 1329 of Title 24.
Section 13 through Section 15. SB 39 revised the Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline to enact the recommendations of the Joint Legislative Oversight and Sunset Committee. The recommendations repealed § 1733 of Title 24 to be consistent with § 8735 of Title 29 but internal references to § 1733 of Title 24 were not updated to reflect this change. These Sections correct this citation.
Section 16. SB 63 revised the qualifications for a licensed practical nurse. This Section addresses a typographical error by inserting a comma.
Section 17. SB 73 revised the requirements for licensure for pawnbrokers, secondhand dealers, and scrap metal processors. This Section corrects the reference to the Administrative Procedures Act in § 2314 of Title 24.
Section 18. HB 82 revised the requirements for licensure for an associate counselor of mental health. Section 3032 of Title 24 was revised to add more paragraphs under subsection (a) but the reference to certain paragraphs of § 3032(a) in § 3034 of Title 24 was not revised to reflect the additional paragraphs. This Section corrects to paragraphs of § 3032(a) that are referenced in § 3034 of Title 24. HB 82 also contained a language that had both strike through and underline. Because the language was not already in the Code, the Code Revisors could not repeal it but because there was also strike through, it could not be added. This Section adds the language because the strike through was an error.
Section 19. HB 82 revised the definition of a licensed associate marriage and family therapist and as drafted, unnecessarily repeats the word “professional” in a sentence. This Section corrects this typographical error.
Section 20. HB 249 created the Interactive Fantasy Contests Act. As drafted, the first sentence of § 4861(a)(2) of Title 29 is not clear. This Section clarifies that sentence.
Section 21. When Chapter 13 of Title 19 was revised in 1994, § 1301 became the statement of policy for the chapter and § 1302 became the definition section, however the citation to § 1301 in Chapter 59 of Title 29 was not revised to reflect this change. This Section corrects this citation.
Section 22. During a review of Title 29 for the 2017 replacement volume, the Code Revisors discovered a reference to a federal regulation that has been repealed. This Section corrects the reference to the current applicable federal regulation.
Section 23. The Code Revisors discovered that the legislation that created § 1109(a)(2)c. of Title 30 was worded that this paragraph was effective for taxable years beginning after December 31, 1986, and before January 1, 1988. As written, this requires the Code Revisors to repeal the language of paragraph (a)(2)c. of § 1109 so that language no longer appears in the Delaware Code for reference. This Section restores the repealed language but explains the limited period for which this provision applied.
Section 24. HB 93 revised the licensing statue for security businesses and security systems. An occupational license is also still required for these businesses under § 2301 of Title 30, however, § 2301(t) references § 1202(a) of Title 24. HB 93 revised § 1202(a) of Title 24 so that it no longer has any subsections. This Section updates the reference in § 2301 of Title 30.
| AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 6, TITLE 7, TITLE 8, TITLE 10, TITLE 11, TITLE 14, TITLE 16, TITLE 24, TITLE 29, AND TITLE 30 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO TECHNICAL CORRECTIONS. |
| SB 264 | Signed | Simpson | This bill permits the City Council of the City of Milford to impose and collect a lodging tax of no more than three percent on hotel and motel rooms located in the City of Milford, so long as it is approved by a majority of the City Council pursuant to the provisions of the Charter of the City of Milford. | AN ACT TO AMEND THE CHARTER OF THE CITY OF MILFORD RELATING TO A LODGING TAX. |
