Delaware Bills

This Act requires a physician to offer a patient ultrasound imaging and auscultation of fetal heart tone services before terminating a pregnancy and provides civil and criminal penalties for the failure of a physician to comply with this requirement. The patient is free to choose not to view the ultrasound or listen to the heartbeat. This Act is known as "The Woman's Ultrasound Right to Know Act."

This act is the first leg of a constitutional amendment that protects parental rights.

Section 7042 of Title 25 of the Delaware Code lists the completion and cost of any capital improvements or rehabilitation work in a manufactured home community, as distinguished from ordinary repair, replacement, and maintenance, as a factor that may justify an increase in rent but only until the cost of the improvement has been fully recovered. Like Senate Substitute No. 2 for SB 23, this Act clarifies this provision by making the recovery of such capital improvement or rehabilitation work a fee under § 7008, the fee section of this chapter, so that it is a separate charge from rent and provides notice requirements regarding the fee. This Act provides a revised definition of capital improvement and rehabilitation work. This definition is placed in the definitions section of Chapter 70. Chapter 70 defines rent as including fees, preserving a community owner’s ability to enforce payment of the fee. By identifying this assessment as a fee, it is clearly identified as separate from a base rent increase. Senate Substitute No. 3 for Senate Bill No. 23 differs from Senate Substitute No. 2 for Senate Bill No. 22 as follows: 1. It removes lines from the definition of capital improvement or rehabilitation work that conflict with the rest of the definition. 2. It adds the requirement that capital improvement or rehabilitation work must benefit the entire manufactured home community. 3. It limits the correction of deficiencies to comply with changes to building codes or laws enacted after construction was completed. 4. It clarifies that the community owner must still comply with other provisions of the rent justification law, § 7042(a)(1) and § 7043 of Title 25, before imposing this fee. 5. Permits a challenge to the fee to be consolidated with other proceedings challenging a rent increase under § 7042 and § 7043 of Title 25. 6. It adds that the fee must be collected at a rate of 10% of the cost of the capital improvement or rehabilitation work or over the number of years necessary to not exceed 10% of the rent, whichever amount is lower. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This Act does all of the following: (1) Requires certain registered aircraft owners to pay an annual fee. (2) Provides exceptions for registered aircraft based in Delaware. (3) Directs the Department to collect fees, as provided for in this Act. (4) Requires the Department to deposit the funds collected under this Act into the Transportation Trust Fund. (5) Requires the Department to file a report with the Controller General by September 1 of each year detailing the revenue received under this subchapter and the expenditures associated with the Department’s responsibilities concerning aviation in this State. This Act takes effect on January 1, 2019.

This Act does all of the following: (1) Imposes a 5 cent per gallon tax on certain aviation jet fuel. (2) Provides the procedures for collecting the tax. These procedures are the same as the procedures under Subchapter II of Chapter 51 of Title 30; however, this Act makes technical corrections to those procedures to conform the law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. (3) Gives the Department of Transportation (“Department”) authority to establish regulations and otherwise enforce the collection of the new tax. (4) Requires the Department to deposit the proceeds of the tax into the Transportation Trust Fund. (5) Requires the Department to file a report with the Controller General by September 1 of each year detailing the revenue received under this subchapter and the expenditures associated with the Department’s responsibilities concerning aviation in this State. This Act takes effect on July 1, 2018.

This Act authorizes the creation and regulation of a new type of limited-purpose bank, the "Business Development Bank." Modeled on Delaware's successful credit card bank laws, this Act would allow Business Development Banks, or "BDBs," to concentrate their resources in the commercial lending space, leverage technology and expertise, and partner with existing banks to serve a broader spectrum of small to medium-sized businesses. This Act would limit the permissible activities of the BDBs to ensure that they cannot compete with existing banks for consumer customers or to provide several other forms of bank or trust services.

At this time, the 24-month testing rates are well below what the Division of Public Health would expect them to be based upon the risk factors that determine when testing is necessary. This bill simplifies the requirements and the process for physicians and eliminates confusion that may be causing the low compliance rate for the second test. With better compliance, the Division of Public Health will have a much clearer picture of lead exposure in Delaware. This bill also requires the Division of Public Health to review the criteria for testing every 5 years. This requirement would actively foster discussions between the Division and stakeholders to ensure that the best balance is struck between the burden of testing and the protection to children.

This Act creates the Professional Athlete Funding Act, which authorizes and establishes regulations pertaining to player brand agreements.

This Act creates the Omnibus School Safety Fund to provide funding to public and charter schools for certain school safety projects.

This Act requires an owner/landlord to accept rental payments from a manufactured home owner/tenant and makes the failure to accept a rental payment a retaliatory act. This Act adopts a provision of the Delaware Residential Landlord-Tenant Code that requires an owner/landlord to provide a receipt for a cash payment of rent and to maintain records of cash payments for 3 years. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This Act will create the Biometric Privacy Protection Act and Geolocation Privacy Protection Act in Title 6 of the Delaware Code to give Delaware’s citizens important protections with respect to the collection, storage, use, and disclosure of their unique biometric information (such as fingerprints, voiceprints, and retinal and facial scans) and, with respect to their use of mobile devices, geolocation information that can identify Biometrics are biological and behavioral characteristics, such as fingerprints, voiceprints, and retinal and facial scans, that uniquely identify a person, and they are increasingly being collected from Delaware’s citizens and used for a variety of purposes, including marketing, employment, and security. Biometrics are among our most sensitive personal information, potentially more valuable to identity thieves, hackers, and marketers than even Social Security numbers, and need to be protected as such. Currently under Delaware law, biometric information can be collected without an individual’s knowledge or consent, and a person capturing or collecting biometric information is not required to identify what biometric information is being collected, why it’s being collected, or how long it will be kept. Delaware law also contains no protections for individuals to prevent their biometric information from being sold or transferred to third parties. The use of biometrics offers great promise for improving the lives of Delaware’s citizens in a variety of ways, but the sensitivity and importance of biometric information requires that there be protections for Delawareans with regard to the collection and use of their biometric information. The Biometric Privacy Protection Act will expand the legal protections available under Delaware law to individuals relating to the collection and use of their biometric identifiers and biometric information. Among its provisions, the Biometric Information Privacy Protection Act: (1) Requires persons in possession of biometric data to develop and make publicly available written retention schedules and guidelines for keeping biometric information; (2) Requires persons to provide timely, reasonable notice and obtain informed, affirmative consent before acquiring, collecting, storing, or capturing biometric data; (3) Prohibits persons from selling or profiting from an individual’s biometric data; (4) Prohibits persons from disclosing or disseminating an individual’s biometric data except under specified circumstances, which include an individual’s informed, affirmative consent to the disclosure; and (5) Requires persons in possession of biometric data to implement and maintain reasonable procedures and practices to protect the biometric data and prevent its unauthorized disclosure. Geolocation information is data that can be used to determine the precise location of smartphones and other mobile devices and, by extension, the individuals carrying them. Such information can be used to track the users carrying those devices wherever they go. Location-based applications currently can make use of geolocation information on an individual’s mobile device without explicitly informing the individual that the geolocation information is being collected, used, stored, or disclosed, why it is being collected, used, stored, or disclosed, or to whom it is being disclosed, and without obtaining the individual’s consent to the collection, use, storage, or disclosure of the geolocation information. The Geolocation Privacy Protection Act will create legal protections for Delaware’s citizens relating to the collection, use, storage, or disclosure of the geolocation information on their mobile devices, by prohibiting persons from collecting, using, storing, or disclosing such information unless they first obtain an individual’s affirmative express consent after providing the individual with clear, prominent, and accurate notice that: (1) Tells the individual that the individual’s geolocation information is being collected, used, stored, or disclosed; (2) Informs the individual of the specific purposes for which the geolocation information is being collected, used, stored, or disclosed; (3) Informs the individual of the identity of any third parties to whom the geolocation information is being disclosed; and (4) Provides the individual with a hyperlink or other easy access to the geolocation information collected, used, stored, or disclosed. Both the Biometric Information Privacy Protection Act and the Geolocation Privacy Protection Act give the Consumer Protection Unit of the Department of Justice the authority to investigate and prosecute violations. There is no private right of action under the Biometric Information Privacy Protection Act or the Geolocation Privacy Protection Act. Both the Biometric Information Privacy Protection Act or the Geolocation Privacy Protection Act provide that their provisions do not apply to certain specified persons or entities or in certain specific situations. This Act provides that it will become effective January 1 following its enactment into law.

This Act will permit engineers to obtain mechanic’s liens but only if improvements as contemplated by the engineering or architectural services provided are actually constructed or if the surveys or plans are actually approved by the governing authority having jurisdiction or recorded.