| SB 180 | Out of Committee | Brown | This Act revises the circumstances under which an applicant can be denied a license by the Real Estate Commission because of a criminal conviction. Similar to the recent changes made other professional license requirements, this Act does all of the following:
1. Defines when a crime is substantially related to the professions regulated by the Real Estate Commission.
2. Reduces the time since conviction to be eligible for a waiver of a felony conviction for a crime against a person from 5 years to 3 years.
3. Reduces the time since conviction to be eligible for a waiver of all other felony conviction for a crime from 5 years to 2 years.
4. Clarifies what is meant by being on parole.
This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 24 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO REAL ESTATE SERVICES, BROKERS, ASSOCIATE BROKERS AND SALESPERSONS. |
| HB 324 | Signed | Bush | House Bill 214 enacted by the 148th General Assembly (80 Del. Laws c. 287) expanded the offense of Assault in the Second Degree to include the intentional assault of ambulance operators, rescue squad members, and nurses injured while performing work-related duties. As a result of increasing workplace violence directed against healthcare providers, this Act further defines Assault in the Second Degree to include other health care treatment providers and employees and hospital security personnel who are injured while performing their work-related duties. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 11 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO ASSAULT. |
| HCR 93 | Passed | Briggs King | This Resolution recognizes June 2022 as “Post-Traumatic Stress Injury Month” and June 27, 2022, as “Post-Traumatic Stress Injury Day”, and encourages State agencies to continue their work educating victims of assault or abuse, combat, serious accidents, and natural disasters about the causes, symptoms, and treatment of PTSI. | RECOGNIZING JUNE 2022 AS "POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS INJURY MONTH" AND JUNE 27, 2022 AS "POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS INJURY DAY". |
| HB 397 | Signed | Bolden | This Act is the Department of Finance's Annual "housekeeping" legislation. Specifically:
(1) Section 1 of this Act removes an antiquated statewide refund cap from budgetary practice.
(2) Section 2 of this Act ensures the procedure for calculating County Seat payments for State-owned properties is consistent with the maximum amount appropriated for this purpose.
(3) Section 3 of this Act updates background check requirements for Division of Revenue staff and contractors to align with federal requirements.
(4) Section 4 of this Act ensures regular updates are made to census tract definitions used as part of the Creation of Employment and Qualified Investment tax credit.
(5) Section 5 of this Act limits eligibility for New Economy retained jobs credits, as intended by the Commitment to Innovation Act.
(6) Section 6 of this Act clarifies the definitions of “lessor” and “lessee” for Occupational and Business License Taxes to reflect modern leasing transactions.
(7) Section 7 of this Act excludes manufacturing companies from a 2% State Realty Transfer Tax on construction contracts made within the first year of a realty transfer.
(8) Section 8 of this Act provides for severability.
This Act also makes technical correction to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 29 AND TITLE 30 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATED TO BUDGET AND FISCAL REGULATIONS FOR STATE AGENCIES AND ADMINISTRATIVE RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE. |
| SB 297 w/ SA 1 | Signed | Sokola | 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. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 24 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO ATHLETE AGENTS. |
| SB 308 w/ SA 1 + HA 2 | Signed | Mantzavinos | This bill brings Delaware into conformity with national standards on fire safety dampers and smoke dampers. It requires all buildings of public accommodation and shared residential buildings to conform to standards that will ensure life-saving alarms and fire dampening efforts are safe and up to nationally recognized standards. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 16 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO FIRE-RESISTANCE-RELATED CONSTRUCTION. |
| SB 315 | Signed | Walsh | This Act makes substantial changes to clarify and modernize § 2347 of the Workers’ Compensation Act, Chapter 23 of Title 19 of the Delaware Code, as follows:
(1) Subsection (a) incorporates recent Industrial Accident Board rulings governing the frequency with which petitions to modify workers’ compensation agreements may be raised.
(2) Subsection (e) clarifies pleading requirements for petitions to review, which helps the Department of Labor in docketing of Petitions and attorneys in preparing pleadings for filing.
(3) Subsection (h) expands methods of service of process of petitions to permit utilization of private mail services, traditional process servers, and electronic service to respondents who are attorney represented. This subsection also explicitly defines what must be submitted to the Department of Labor as proof of service.
(4) Subsection (j) codifies the process by which default or “read-in” hearings have proceeded before the Industrial Accident Board under § 2347 for over 30 years.
(5) Subsection (k) clarifies whether and to what extent Workers’ Compensation Fund wage replacement benefits are available to injured workers during the pendency of petitions to review. The clarifications provided for both the Department of Labor and the claimant’s bar will streamline the process so that injured workers will experience fewer interruptions or delays in the payment of benefits than under the current law. Also included are protections for the Workers’ Compensation Fund to ensure that there are not overpayments.
This Act is the product of the work of the workers’ compensation claimants bar, defense bar, and the Department of Labor, and the underlying intent of this Act is to streamline processes and limit unnecessary litigation that has occurred in recent years as a result of lack of clarity in § 2347. This Act furthers the public policy behind various changes to the Workers’ Compensation Act in the last 15 years to mitigate insurance rates for Delaware businesses while simultaneously ensuring that the interests of the State’s injured workers are protected. | AN ACT TO AMENT TITLE 19 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO WORKERS' COMPENSATION. |
| SA 1 to SB 308 | Passed | Mantzavinos | This amendment vests enforcement authority for inspections under S.B. 308 will be the Municipal or State Fire Marshall with jurisdiction over the premises. | |
| HCR 94 | Passed | K. Williams | This Concurrent Resolution recognizes June 15, 2022, as "Delaware Elder Abuse Awareness Day" and encourages all of Delaware's citizens to learn about how to protect and nurture our elderly citizens. | RECOGNIZING JUNE 15, 2022, AS "DELAWARE ELDER ABUSE AWARENESS DAY". |
| SA 1 to SB 297 | Passed | Sokola | This Amendment does the following:
(1) Extends the grace period for acting as an athlete agent in this State without being registered in this State to 14 days. This means the athlete agent must submit an application for registration as an athlete agent in this State within 14 days of the initial act.
(2) Requires an athlete agent seeking reciprocal registration based on their registration in another state to complete an application for registration and submit a copy of the record of registration from the other state to better accommodate the Division of Professional Regulation’s ("Division") electronic licensing and registration system.
(3) Makes conforming changes to the renewal of a reciprocal registration process.
(4) Provides for a stagnant biennial registration and renewal period for athlete agent registration.
(5) Removes the authority for the Secretary of State (“Secretary”) to issue a temporary registration as this is unnecessary given the extension of the grace period under paragraph (1).
(6) Makes conforming changes to the Code section numbering based on the removal of the Secretary’s authority to issue temporary registrations.
(7) Removes provisions requiring the Secretary to set certain fees, but retains the Secretary’s general authority to set fees for applications for registration or renewal of registration both in this State and based on a registration in another state.
(8) Extends the effective date of this Act to July 1, 2023, to provide the Division sufficient time to ensure the Division’s ability to implement this Act, including upgrades to its electronic licensing and registration system. | |
