| HB 281 w/ HA 3 + SA 1 | Passed | Baumbach | This Act repeals the option of providing health care insurance to state pensioners under Medicare part C, known as a Medicare Advantage Plan.
This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
This Act is known as "The Delaware Medicare Supplement Selection Act". | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 29 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO STATE HEALTH CARE INSURANCE. |
| HB 282 w/ HA 1, HA 2 + SA 1 | Passed | Baumbach | This Act adds procedural requirements to meetings of the State Employee Benefits Committee (SEBC), revises the membership of the SEBC, and requires that the Secretary of the Department of Human Resources inform State employees and retired State employees (eligible pensioners) about changes in benefits coverages affecting eligible pensioners who are receiving or eligible to receive retirement benefits under the state employees' pension plan, including proposed changes.
This Act adds the following requirements to SEBC meetings:
1. If the SEBC or a subcommittee is holding a virtual meeting, the chair or vice-chair must attend at the anchor location.
2. The chair of a subcommittee must be a voting member of the SEBC.
3. The SEBC must approve a request for proposals to select a carrier or third-party administrator for the health care insurance plan for State employees or eligible pensioners during an open meeting and that the draft request for proposals must be included with the meeting notice and agenda.
4. Adds standard language for the SEBC regarding the conduct of open meetings by public bodies, including requirements for quorum and when a member designates another individual to attend a meeting.
This Act revises the membership of the SEBC by doing all of the following:
1. Removes the Delaware retiree appointed by the Governor and adds 2 members who are Delaware residents eligible to receive health care insurance under Chapter 52 of Title 29 under a pension or retirement plan. The President Pro Tem of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives each appoint 1 of these members.
2. Makes the Secretary of the Department of Human Resources a non-voting member of the Committee.
3. Changes the leadership of the SEBC so that only the Director of the Office of Management and Budget serves as chair and the vice-chair is elected annually by the members of the Committee. The vice-chair must be a voting member of the Committee and may not be a cabinet secretary or hold a position of equivalent rank in the executive branch.
This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
This Act is known as the “Delaware State Employee Benefits Committee (SEBC) Transparency and Accountability Act”. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 29 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE STATE EMPLOYEE BENEFITS COMMITTEE. |
| SJR 6 | Out of Committee | S. McBride | This resolution directs health care professional licensure boards to review their existing professional licensure application language to revise or remove all intrusive and stigmatizing language around mental health care and treatment and replace it with language that meets the threshold requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (Pub. L. 101-336. 26 July 1990), by focusing on present functional impairment and the ability to perform the essential requirements of the applicant’s profession with or without a reasonable accommodation. This resolution builds on the progress that the State of Delaware made in removing structural barriers to clinicians seeking mental health and wellbeing treatment through the enactment of Senate Bill 300 in 2022. The resolution also directs each licensure board and the Division of Professional Regulation to submit a report to the General Assembly by February 28, 2025 regarding the boards' review of their applications and certifying that the applications comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. | DIRECTING CERTAIN PROFESSIONAL LICENSURE BOARDS TO REVIEW AND REVISE APPLICATIONS FOR COMPLIANCE WITH THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT AND DIRECTING THE LICENSURE BOARDS AND THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE TO PROVIDE REPORTS. |
| SB 12 w/ SA 1 | Out of Committee | Townsend | This Act amends Delaware’s laws regarding release of persons accused of crimes (Chapter 21 of Title 11 of the Delaware Code) as required in conjunction with the enactment of an amendment to § 12 of Article I of the Delaware Constitution permitting preventive detention, as proposed by Senate Bill No. 11 of the 152nd General Assembly.
This Act protects both defendants’ due process rights and public safety by establishing the list of circumstances for which defendants may be detained pretrial without the opportunity for release and providing adequate due process protections for detention-eligible defendants.
This Act protects public safety by permitting courts to detain a defendant who is charged with an enumerated felony offense where no condition or combination of conditions of bail will reasonably assure a defendant’s appearance in court or the safety of a witness, a victim, or the community.
This Act also protects defendants’ rights by doing the following:
(1) Requiring the Attorney General to establish by proof positive or presumption great that the defendant committed the detention-eligible offense and by clear and convincing evidence that no condition or combination of conditions of release will reasonably assure the defendant’s appearance at court proceedings, reasonably assure the protection of the community, victims, witnesses, or any other person, and reasonably maintain the integrity of the judicial process, such that the defendant will not obstruct or attempt to obstruct justice.
(2) Ensuring detention-eligible defendants are represented by counsel at the initial detention and subsequent hearings.
(3) Requiring courts to hold a full preventive detention hearing within 10 days of the defendant’s arrest where defendants have the right to testify, to present evidence, and to cross-examine witnesses against them.
(4) Requiring expedited review of the detention order by Superior Court.
(5) Providing speedy trial protections for any defendant who is detained before adjudication due to preventive detention.
This Act also does the following:
(1) Improves procedural fairness by permitting courts to make transparent decisions about who to detain and who to release pretrial.
(2) Strengthens the strong presumption of pretrial release under least restrictive conditions for those defendants who can safely be released in the community.
This Act requires a greater than majority vote for passage because this Act is enabling legislation to an amendment to the Constitution which, when enacted, amends § 12 of Article I of the Delaware Constitution to require an affirmative vote of two-thirds of the members elected to each house of the General Assembly to create the list of detention-eligible offenses created by § 2116(b)(1) of Title 11 contained in this Act.
Finally, this Act makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 11 OF THE DELAWARE CODE AND CHAPTER 72, VOLUME 83 OF THE LAWS OF DELAWARE RELATING TO PRETRIAL RELEASE AND DETENTION. |
| SB 295 | Out of Committee | Gay | This Act strengthens the current practice of obtaining service letters for employment in child care facilities to protect children from workers who have engaged in prior acts that are prohibited by the Office of Child Care Licensing. The Act does all of the following:
1. Requires service letters used for child care facilities ask previous employers whether they would have any concerns about the employee providing care to children.
2. Requires service letters used for child care facilities ask previous employers whether the employee was ever warned, reprimanded, suspended, or discharged for any violations found in the Department of Education's Regulations for Early Care and Education and School-Age Centers.
3. Requires the Office of Child Care Licensing to report any suspected failure of an employer to adhere to the requirements of a service letter to the Department of Labor for review and possible civil penalties.
4. Clarifies the Department of Labor is the only party that can seek civil enforcement under this section.
5. Makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 19 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO SPECIAL EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES. |
| SB 296 | Out of Committee | Gay | This Act amends the Delaware Antitrust Act (“DAA”) (Chapter 21, Title 6 of the Code) to provide indirect purchasers who have been harmed by violations of the Delaware Antitrust Act the ability to sue for damages. Indirect purchasers of a product or service in the chain of distribution are often the ones who bear the burden of any overcharges from antitrust violations such as price-fixing. Direct purchasers and others in the chain of distribution of the affected product or service often have the ability to pass the overcharge through the chain of distribution to end users. This will align Delaware with at least 36 other states which currently allow for a cause of action for damages for indirect purchasers. Often, end users who make purchases in Delaware, primarily Delaware residents and businesses, are excluded from making claims against multimillion dollar settlement funds set up to compensate indirect purchasers for transactions made in other states that do authorize lawsuits for damages for indirect purchasers.
To avoid complicated proof issues related to the pass through of any overcharge through the chain of distribution of a product or service, the Act creates a presumption that any overcharge paid by the first purchaser as a result of a violation of the DAA is passed through to the end user. Also, to simplify issues of proof, the Act provides a plaintiff may elect 25% of the consideration paid for the goods or services in connection with the transaction affected by an illegal restraint of trade as an alternative liquidated damage amount to actual harm.
To allow Delaware consumers and businesses to fully take advantage of the remedies provided by this Act, the Act creates a private right of action. Delaware is one of only 2 states that do not provide for a private right of action under their state antitrust law of general applicability. Currently, only the Attorney General has a right to bring actions under the DAA and the Attorney General does not have the resources to review or participate in every national antitrust action. This will ensure Delaware indirect purchasers receive the benefits of private enforcement of the DAA.
Section 2 of the Act creates a Delaware state law equivalent to Section 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act, the federal antitrust statute, which establishes three offenses commonly termed “monopolization,” “attempted monopolization,” and “conspiracy to monopolize.” Delaware is only 1 of 9 states that does not have a state law equivalent to Section 2 of the Sherman Act and its addition to the DAA is needed to ensure the remedies under the DAA including a right of recovery for indirect purchasers are available to the Attorney General and to Delaware consumers and businesses.
Section 3 of the Act modifies the confidentiality restrictions of materials produced to the Attorney General pursuant to an investigative demand. It would allow for the materials to be shared with the Attorney General’s agents such as consultants, experts, electronic discovery platform vendors and economists which would be necessary for the Attorney General to decide on whether the law has been violated and how best to remedy the violation. The Act would also allow the Attorney General to share materials produced pursuant to an investigative demand with federal or state law enforcement officers that agree to keep the information confidential and use it only for official law enforcement purposes. Likewise, the Act requires the Attorney General to keep materials provided by other law enforcement officers received under similar process confidential. These provisions will make it easier for the Attorney General to work together with other federal and state law enforcers in enforcing state and federal antitrust laws.
Section 4 of the Act provides an alternative calculation for civil penalties for violations of the Delaware Antitrust Act. Under certain facts and circumstances, the current maximum penalty for a violation of the DAA may be lower than the amount of the gain a violator may obtain by violating the DAA making any penalty a cost of doing business and an insufficient deterrent to violate the law. The alternative calculation provides for an assessment of a civil penalty of up to twice the gross gain or loss associated with the violation. This is like the alternative method for calculating federal criminal fines for the same conduct. Section 4 also authorizes a Court to award investigative costs, expert witness fees, and attorneys’ fees to the Attorney General when the Attorney General successfully brings a law enforcement action to enforce the DAA. Currently, a Court may only award attorney’s fees and expert costs to the Attorney General when the Attorney General brings an action on behalf of a public body or natural persons.
Section 5 of the Act creates a right for indirect purchasers who have been harmed by violations of the DAA to sue for damages. It creates a presumption that overcharges paid by the first purchaser as a result of such violations are passed to the end user, and allows a plaintiff to seek liquidated damages in the amount of 25% of the consideration paid, as an alternative to seeking damages for actual harm incurred.
Section 6 of the Act clarifies that the Court of Chancery has exclusive jurisdiction of all state court actions or proceedings under the DAA.
The Act also makes several clarifications throughout the DAA to recognize it is often federal courts exercising supplemental jurisdiction deciding claims arising under the DAA. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 6 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO ANTITRUST. |
| SS 2 for SB 150 w/ SA 1 | Passed | Mantzavinos | This Act is a substitute for Senate Bill No. 150. Like Senate Bill No. 150, this Act requires included facilities have sufficient staff to meet the needs of each resident and requires dementia care services training for staff. This Act differs from Senate Bill No. 150 in the following ways: (1) it removes the definition of activity services; (2) it defines direct care, secured memory care unit, and memory care services; (3) it requires that assisted living facilities providing dementia care services to residents in a secured memory care unit create a staffing plan that ensures the facility has sufficient staff to meet the scheduled, reasonably foreseeable unscheduled, and evolving needs of residents and; (4) it charges the Department of Health and Social Services with reviewing the staffing plan during each annual inspection and during any other inspection in which the Department deems it relevant; (5) it revises initial dementia care services training requirement by limiting the requirement to individuals that provide care in a secured memory care unit of an assisted living facility, creating separate training requirements, both in terms of duration and content, for individuals that provide direct care and non-direct care to residents receiving dementia care services in secured memory care units of assisted living facilities; (6) it revises the annual dementia care services training requirement to mirror initial dementia services training requirements; (7) it establishes dementia care services training requirements for individuals employed by temporary staffing agencies; (8) it gives the Department of Health and Social Services the discretion to accept other required dementia care services training to satisfy the dementia care services training requirements; (9) it details the transferability of training between facilities and temporary staffing agencies; and (10) it narrows the scope from all long-term care facilities to only assisted living facilities. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 16 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO DEMENTIA CARE SERVICES IN LONG-TERM CARE FACILITIES. |
| SS 1 for SB 151 | Passed | Mantzavinos | This Act is a substitute for Senate Bill No. 151. Like Senate Bill No. 151, this Act requires included facilities to disclose information related dementia care services in the form determined by the Department of Health and Social Services, and it establishes requirements for the dissemination of that information. Like Senate Bill No. 151, any violation of this Act is an unlawful practice under § 2513 of Title 6 and a violation of subchapter II of Chapter 25 of Title 6 of the Delaware Code. This Act differs from Senate Bill No. 151 in the following ways: (1) it narrows the scope of the disclosure requirements to apply only to assisted living facilities that advertises, markets, or otherwise represents that the facility provides dementia care services; (2) it revises the definition of dementia care services, and defines direct care, memory care services, and secured memory care unit; (3) it replaces the term agent with the term authorized representative; (4) it revises the list of information that must be included in the disclosure form; (5) it clarifies the Department’s and the facility’s role in preparing and completing the disclosure; (6) it removes the requirement that an included facility must publish the disclosure on the facility’s website; and (7) it grants the Department of Health and Social Services the authority to investigate potential violations and refer cases to the Department of Justice. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 6 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO MANDATORY DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION IN LONG-TERM CARE FACILITIES OFFERING DEMENTIA CARE SERVICES. |
| HCR 139 | Passed | K. Johnson | This resolution recognizes June 2024 as National Homeownership Month in Delaware.
| RECOGNIZING THE MONTH OF JUNE AS NATIONAL HOMEOWNERSHIP MONTH IN DELAWARE. |
| SA 1 to HB 282 | Passed | Townsend | This Amendment requires that the State Employee Benefits Committee must provide the meaningful opportunity for public comment required under § 10004(a)(2) of this title before voting on whether to approve a request for proposals to select a carrier or third-party administrator for the health care insurance plan for State employees or eligible pensioners. | |
| SA 1 to HB 281 | Passed | Townsend | This Amendment shifts the transparency and procedural protections that are in House Amendment No. 3 to this Act to those under House Bill No. 282 (152nd), which in tandem with Senate Amendment No. 1 to HB 282, ensure public comment is held before, not after, a vote by the State Employee Benefits Committee relating to the selection of a Medicare Advantage plan (plan), if offered to eligible pensioners who were first employed on or after January 1, 2025, rather than requiring that the plan be selected and adopted as a regulation under the Administrative Procedures Act.
This Amendment also changes the term "hired" to "employed" to correspond with other sections in Chapter 52 of Title 29. | |
| SA 1 to SS 2 for SB 150 | Passed | Mantzavinos | This amendment clarifies the definition of secured memory care unit. | |
| HCR 140 | Passed | Longhurst | This concurrent resolution recognizes and commends speech-language pathologists and audiologists throughout this State for their work with citizens of this State to lead independent, productive, and fulfilling lives. | RECOGNIZING SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGISTS AND AUDIOLOGISTS AND COMMENDING THEIR SKILLS AND CONTRIBUTIONS TOWARDS IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF LIFE FOR THE CITIZENS OF DELAWARE. |
| SS 1 for SB 11 | Out of Committee | Townsend | This is a substitute for Senate Bill No. 11. Like Senate Bill No. 11, this Act is the first leg of a constitutional amendment to modernize the bail provisions within the Delaware Constitution and clarify the power of the General Assembly to enumerate certain felony offenses for which, or circumstances under which, pretrial release on bail may not be allowed. And, like Senate Bill No. 11, any statute designating a felony offense for which a person can be subjected to pretrial detention without bail must be enacted by an act of the General Assembly that receives the concurrence of a two-thirds majority of each House of the General Assembly.
This Act differs from Senate Bill No. 11 by providing that if a law designates a felony offense as potentially not bailable under this Act, a law removing that designation must also be enacted by an act of the General Assembly that receives the concurrence of two-thirds of all the members elected to each House of the General Assembly.
The current constitutional provision providing that only “capital offenses” are potentially not bailable first appeared in its present form in the Delaware Constitution of 1792. At that time, “capital offenses” included many more offenses than the term does today. For example, manslaughter, rape, robbery, burglary, and assaults with weapons were capital offenses, and therefore included as crimes for which a court could order pretrial detention. Thus, over time, certain crimes that the Framers included as potentially not bailable are currently bailable.
Presently, a Delaware state court judge cannot order preventive detention in any non-capital case. Instead, the judge can only attempt to set the bail so high that a defendant cannot make it, which means that any defendant, no matter how dangerous and no matter the circumstance, can obtain release if the defendant can fund the bail—even if that defendant poses a certain flight risk or a known threat of harm to the public or to a specific person, such as a witness or victim.
Like Senate Bill No. 11, this Act is one step toward completing a pretrial release-detention continuum requiring specific evidence-based detention decisions that seek to maximize public safety while minimizing pretrial detention for those for whom detention is not required.
Specifically, this Act, like Senate Bill No. 11, will do all of the following:
(1) Retain the express declaration of a general right to have bail set in a criminal case.
(2) Provide that the crimes for which bail may be withheld are capital murder, where the evidentiary proof is positive or presumption of the accusation great, and other specifically identified felony offenses determined by and under procedures prescribed by law where the evidentiary proof is positive or presumption of the accusation great.
(3) Ensure that an additional condition precedent to bail being withheld in non-capital cases is a finding by clear and convincing evidence that no condition or combination of conditions of release will reasonably assure the person’s appearance at court proceedings, reasonably assure the protection of the community, victims, witnesses, or any other person, and reasonably maintain the integrity of the judicial process, such that the defendant will not obstruct or attempt to obstruct justice.
This constitutional amendment, by itself, would not allow that a person charged with a non-capital crime could be held without bail. Rather, no person could be subject to a preventive detention hearing in a non-capital case until the General Assembly revises Chapter 21 of Title 11 of the Delaware Code to prescribe by law the specific felony offenses, circumstances, and procedures under which detention without bail may occur.
With this change, though, Delaware can progress toward the type of modern bail system that has been increasingly adopted by our sister states through amendment of their state constitutions, when needed, and the development of statutory procedures that provide, in appropriate cases, pre-trial detention without bail. And this change does so by adopting the standards recommended by authoritative sources including the National Conference of State Legislatures, the Uniform Law Commission, the National Center for State Courts, the American Bar Association, and the numerous state legislatures and court systems that have studied pretrial detention and retained or incorporated them in their own state constitutions and laws.
Any legislation subsequently enacted or court procedures adopted to implement this constitutional amendment would have to require individualized, fact-governed decision-making by any court considering preventive detention to pass muster under the United States and Delaware Constitutions. Senate Bill No. 12, as introduced, is intended to do this.
This Act requires a greater than majority vote for passage because § 1 of Article XVI of the Delaware Constitution requires the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the members elected to each house of the General Assembly to amend the Delaware Constitution.
Amending the Delaware Constitution requires not only the passing of the changes in this Act, but also passage of the same changes after the next general election by the next General Assembly. | AN ACT PROPOSING AN AMENDMENT TO ARTICLE I OF THE DELAWARE CONSTITUTION RELATING TO CRIMINAL PROCEDURES. |
| SA 1 to SB 12 | Passed | Townsend | This Amendment makes the following technical corrections:
(1) A correction to make clear that the Attorney General always bears the burden of establishing the commission of a preventive detention eligible offense with proof positive or presumption great at a preventive detention hearing.
(2) A correction made necessary by the introduction of Senate Substitute No. 1 for Senate Bill No. 11. This correction ensures clarity related to the effective date of Senate Bill No. 12 (contained in Section 17 of Senate Bill No. 12) and to the sunset date for the bail procedures enacted by Senate Substitute No. 1 for Senate Bill No. 7 in the 151st General Assembly, Chapter 72 of Volume 83 of the Laws of Delaware (contained in Section 18 of Senate Bill No. 12). | |
| HCR 141 | Passed | Griffith | This concurrent resolution recognizes May 29th as “DE529 Day”. | RECOGNIZING MAY 29TH AS “DE529 DAY”. |
| HCR 142 | Passed | Longhurst | This House Concurrent Resolution recognizes the nonprofits of Delaware for supporting the State and the critical resources they provide to Delawareans. | RECOGNIZING THE NONPROFITS OF DELAWARE FOR SUPPORTING THE STATE AND THE CRITICAL RESOURCES THEY PROVIDE TO DELAWAREANS. |
