| HB 63 | Signed | Dukes | This bill allows pensioners to earn $50,000 (instead of $40,000) before incurring a $1.00 deduction to their state pension for every $2.00 earned over that amount. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 29 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO EMPLOYMENT OF PENSIONERS. |
| SB 56 w/ HA 1 | Signed | Hansen | This is an omnibus bill that updates several aspects of the Delaware Public Utility Code, Title 26, including the following: (a) Expanding the public notice options for the Public Service Commission in order to reduce costs, increase transparency, and raise public awareness of Commission proceedings; (b) Amending the statute which sets the salary of Commissioners to provide for a salary as appropriated in the annual State Operating Budget; (c) Increasing the utility assessment rate; and (d) Eliminating references to the Water Supply Coordinating Council, which reached its sunset date of January 31, 2022. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 26 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION. |
| SS 1 for SB 1 w/ HA 1 | Signed | Townsend | This Act is a substitute for Senate Bill No. 1. Like Senate Bill No. 1, this Act creates a right to representation for tenants in evictions and other landlord-tenant actions.
The disruptive displacement that accompanies eviction proceedings creates significant costs for state and local government related to shelter funding, education funding, health care provided in hospitals instead of community-based providers, transportation costs for homeless youth, and foster care. Evictions and disruptive displacement also have significant, well-documented, and long-lasting effects on the lives of individuals and families, including poorer physical and mental health, increased risk of homelessness, increased risk of employment loss, loss of personal property, damage to credit standing, and relocation into substandard housing. Further, evictions fall disproportionately on Black and Latinx families, who have also been the hardest hit by the COVID-19 crisis.
Section 1 of this Act establishes a right to representation for evictions and other landlord-tenant actions for covered individuals with household incomes below 200% of the federal poverty guidelines. The Attorney General shall contract with legal services providers for the provision of representation in proceedings covered by this Act. The Right to Representation Coordinator will manage the contracts and work with community organizations to do outreach and education regarding the right to representation. Section 1 of this Act requires landlords to provide notice of the right to representation at periodic designated intervals in the tenancy and in eviction proceedings.
Section 2 of this Act authorizes the creation of a residential eviction diversion program modeled after the Superior Court’s Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Mediation Program.
Section 3 of this Act is a severability clause.
Section 4 of this Act makes Sections 1 and 6 effective 120 days after the Act's enactment.
Section 5 of this Act makes Section 2 of this Act contingent on funding.
Section 6 requires the Coordinator to provide the General Assembly with a copy of the first annual report required under § 5605 of Title 25, as contained in this Act, to determine if additional funding is needed to address the fiscal impact of the Act on the Justice of the Peace Court.
This Act differs from Senate Bill No. 1 as it does all of the following:
(1) Removes a judicial or administrative proceeding to remedy a violation of law related to security deposit from the list of proceedings included in a covered proceeding.
(2) Replaces “covered individual” with “tenant” in the provision determining a tenant’s eligibility to be a covered individual.
(3) Makes clear that a covered individual’s household income is to be determined over the immediately preceding 12 months.
(4) Makes clear how to determine household income for a full-time student.
(5) Tabulates the list of notices provided by a landlord that trigger a covered individual’s receipt of legal representation and further clarifies the notice related to termination of a rental agreement.
(6) Provides that a designated organization may decline representation if an attorney deems the covered individual’s defense to lack merit, in addition to a determination by the attorney that an appeal lacks merit.
(7) Provides that a covered individual is entitled to receive legal representation as soon as practicable after the initiation of a covered proceeding, rather than just an eviction proceeding.
(8) Removes the requirement that a court, at a covered individual’s first appearance in a covered proceeding, provide a covered individual with notice of the individual’s right to, and the availability of, legal representation under this Act. This notice is intended to be provided earlier by the Right to Representation Coordinator (“Coordinator”).
(9) Requires that events planned for, and information distributed to, tenants also be made available to landlords and property managers.
(10) Requires that the Coordinator include a full accounting of their expenditures as part of the required annual report.
(11) Provides that the Coordinator is to prepare information explaining legal representation available to tenants, provides that the information is known as “informational materials”, requires the Coordinator to prepare the informational materials in English, Spanish, and Haitian Creole, and clarifies the events that require the informational materials to be provided to a tenant.
(12) Clarifies the date from which actions are to be taken by the Coordinator and the Justice of the Peace Courts.
(13) Makes clear that the provision of legal representation to a covered individual under Section 1 of this Act is not intended to be the sole basis for a continuance of a covered proceeding scheduled before the effective date of Section 1 of this Act for a hearing on or after the effective date of Section 1 of this Act.
(14) Provides that the residential eviction diversion program includes an initial mediation conference rather than a conciliation conference.
(15) Makes technical corrections, including to use the defined term “rental agreement” instead of “lease” and to insert “Delaware” before “Supreme Court” for clarity. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 25 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE RESIDENTIAL LANDLORD-TENANT CODE. |
| HB 113 | Signed | Osienski | This Act amends the renewal period for obtaining background checks for employees of the Department of Labor who have access to Federal Tax Information. This amendment is necessary to conform to revisions of the federal Internal Revenue Service in Publication 1075, which shortened the renewal period from 10 to 5 years. The language is intended to allow conformity with this and any future revisions to the renewal period. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 19 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATED TO UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE. |
| SB 128 | Signed | S. McBride | This Act establishes the crime of obstruction of justice. Nearly every other state has a statutory crime of obstruction of justice and this Act is modeled on laws that prohibit intentional obstruction of justice and interference with governmental functions under federal law, Chapter 73 of Title 18 of the United States Code, and in Pennsylvania, under § 5101 of Title 18 of the Pennsylvania Criminal Code. This Act addresses actions that powerful individuals and organizations take to silence victims and witnesses and impede investigations into fraud, abuse, corruption, and white collar crime. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 11 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE. |
| SB 149 w/ SA 1 | Signed | Sokola | This Act would move the 2024 presidential primary election for major political parties from the fourth Tuesday in April to the first Tuesday of April. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 15 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY ELECTIONS. |
| SB 155 | Signed | Hoffner | This bill creates a special license plate for Plastic Free Delaware, Inc., a nonprofit whose mission is to reduce single-use plastic pollution and build a culture of zero waste in Delaware through educational programs, awareness building, and policy initiatives. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 21 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO SPECIAL LICENSE PLATES. |
| SB 161 | Signed | Sokola | This Act does all of the following:
(1) Creates a Director of Classification/Compensation and Talent Acquisition and a Director of Training and Human Resource Solutions.
(2) Changes the name of the Director of Personnel Management to Director of Talent Management.
(3) Directs the Director of Talent Management to assume a central leadership role for the development and maintenance of the Department of Human Resources.
(4) Renames the Division of Diversity and Inclusion to the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
(5) Renames the Division of Labor Relations and Employment Practices to the Division of Employee and Labor Relations.
(6) Renames the Division of Statewide Benefits to The Division of Statewide Benefits and Insurance Coverage.
(7) Removes references to the Blood Bank due to lack of State participation with the program.
(8) Increases membership within the Commission for Women and the Delaware Women's Hall of Fame Committee.
(9) Expands the duties and role of the Delaware Commission for Women to subsume the responsibilities of the Delaware Women's Workforce Council.
(10) Removes the statutory language creating the Delaware Women's Workforce Council.
(11) Establishes The Division of Classification/Compensation and Talent Acquisition and the Division of Training and Human Resources Solutions with its associated powers, duties, and functions.
(12) Makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 29, CHAPTER 90D OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES. |
| SA 1 to SB 149 | Passed | Sokola | This Amendment exempts the presidential primary election date established by Senate Bill No. 149 from the requirement that early voting locations be open the Sunday before an election. | |
| HCR 60 | Passed | Schwartzkopf | This Concurrent Resolution recognizes the young men participating in the 2023 session of Delaware’s Boys State and commends its sponsor, the American Legion Department of Delaware. | RECOGNIZING THE YOUNG MEN FROM ACROSS THE STATE OF DELAWARE PARTICIPATING IN THE 2023 SESSION OF DELAWARE’S BOYS STATE. |
| SS 2 for SB 8 w/ SA 1 + HA 1 | Signed | Mantzavinos | This Act is the second substitute for Senate Bill No. 8. Like Senate Bill No. 8 and its first substitute, this Act protects patients from unfair debt collection practices for medical debt, including prohibiting large health care facilities from charging interest and late fees, requiring facilities to offer reasonable payment plans, limiting the sale of debt to debt collectors unless an agreement is made to keep protections in place, providing minimum time before certain collections actions may be taken, limiting liability for the medical debt of others, and preventing the reporting of medical debt to consumer credit reporting agencies for at least one year after the debt was incurred. Violations of the provisions of this Act are considered Prohibited Trade Practices and Consumer Fraud violations. Senate Substitute 1 for Senate Bill No. 8 differed from Senate Bill No. 8 as it required large health-care facilities to provide information to uninsured patients regarding eligibility and the application process for medical assistance. This information must be provided at the time of service or prior to discharge and again with each billing statement. It also created a minimum threshold for eligibility for payment plans, and it reduced the timeframe in which a bill under a payment plan may be first due. The first substitute also defined “medical assistance” and “time of service,” which were not defined in Senate Bill No. 8.
This Substitute differs from Senate Substitute 1 in that it changes which medical providers are subject to this Act; it increases the threshold of outstanding debt that requires a payment plan to be offered to patients; it extends the amount of time allowed to provide the medical assistance notice; it refines the definition of medical assistance; it removes examples of companies that are currently credit reporting agencies; it removes a requirement that medical assistance information be printed in any patient’s primary language; it adds a requirement that providers make oral interpretation services available to patients for anything provided under this chapter; it clarifies that the Division of Child Support Services nor anyone filing a child support action is a medical debt collector; it clarifies that anything charged to a credit card is not medical debt; it removes the minimum time before the first payment under a payment plan is due. It also adds Section 2 making this Act effective 6 months after enactment. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 6 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO MEDICAL DEBT. |
| SA 1 to SS 2 for SB 8 | Passed | Mantzavinos | This amendment clarifies the definitions of medical creditor and medical debt collector and makes a technical correction.
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