Rep. Ron Gray

This Act authorizes paramedics and other EMS providers to provide medical care to police dogs injured at the scene of an emergency. This Act also grants civil immunity to paramedics and other EMS providers who provide medical services to police dogs, so long as their efforts to assist the police dog were in good faith. However, this Act clarifies that in a situation where a human and a police dog need emergency medical care at the same time, the medical services personnel are prohibited from providing care to the police dog over the human, if the care of the police dog would hinder the human’s care.

This Act modifies Section 2803 to add definitions for negligence, misconduct and incompetence. These new definitions will provide greater clarity and guidance for the Council of the Delaware Association of Professional Engineers in determining whether a licensee is subject to discipline. Section 2817(a)(7) has been amended by striking the requirement that an applicant who fails the Principles and Practice of Engineering examination four times must go through additional steps before taking the examination another time. Eliminating this requirement will remove unnecessary barriers to licensure. Further, Section 2823 has been amended to add “negligence” and “pattern of negligence” as grounds for discipline. These changes will ensure that discipline is imposed for conduct that poses a risk to the public. This Act adds a definition for “successor professional engineer” and a new Section 2832 to delineate the acceptable parameters for a successor engineer’s reuse or adoption of work performed by another engineer. These revisions will both inform licensees of the permissible use of another engineer’s work and ensure that the recipient of services can identify the responsible engineer.

This Act authorizes the Department of Education to issue an initial or continuing license to a Junior Reserve Officer Training Core (JROTC) Instructor who has been certified by the United States Department of Defense (USDOD). This Act also removes outdated language.

This bill makes changes to the qualifications for professional land surveyors. This bill also makes clear that there is no civil or criminal trespass when a professional land surveyor enters upon land in the course of preparing a survey.

This legislation is an attempt to strike a balance between the need to protect hospital staff, hospital patients, and the public from harm during a State of Emergency, pandemic, or infectious disease outbreak with the expectation that patients should be able to receive support from their family and spiritual counselors during a time of personal crisis. This act shall be known as "The No Patient Left Alone Act." Specifically, it migrates decision-making authority on visitation policies from elected and unelected state officials to the medical personnel operating Delaware’s hospitals – the trained professionals best positioned to make these difficult decisions during an especially challenging time. While it is the intention of this act to facilitate limited in-person patient visitation, its gives hospitals and designated medical professionals broad authority and discretion to safeguard the welfare of all involved parties. Hospitals would be able to: restrict the number of visitors patients could receive daily; require visitors to undergo and pass a specified health screening; and use personal protective equipment while visiting. Hospitals would be able to specify the required personal protective equipment, making it available for visitors to purchase on-site, subject to availability. Entry could be denied to visitors that failed their health screenings; were found to have a communicable disease; were found to have been exposed to a communicable disease; or failed to sign a statement indicating that they understood the visitation policy, and held the hospital and its staff harmless for all assumed risk directly associated with the primary cause of the State of Emergency, pandemic, or infectious disease outbreak. Attending physicians and other medical professionals designated in the bill would retain the authority to deny in-person visitation if they deemed their patients would be at risk for contracting an infectious disease or if they believed visitation posed a serious community health risk. Such determinations would be valid for up to seven days and subject to renewal. Hospitals could deny visitation if a state agency regulation, federal order, federal law, or federal regulation required it. If a prospective hospital visitor were denied in-person visitation with patients, the hospital would be required, to its best efforts, to develop alternate visitation protocols that would allow visitation to the greatest extent safely possible. This could include, but not be limited to, streaming audio and video. Hospitals could not prohibit in-person visitation by a religious counselor to a seriously ill or dying patient, providing that the counselor complied with all visitation mandates established pursuant to this act. A visit by a religious counselor would not be counted against any daily visitation limit set by the hospital. The Department of Health and Social Services would be responsible for overseeing the implementation, operation, and enforcement of this act. Hospitals could be subject to fines for violating the terms of this act, providing the violations continue after the hospitals have been informed of the need to take corrective action. This measure would become effective 180 days after its enactment. This substitute bill differs from the bill it replaces in the following ways: • It eliminates the liability provisions previously contained on lines 56 through 62, and line 103, replacing it with a new liability section - 1014A (c)(3)(E) - that is more refined and requires a signed acknowledgment by the visitor of the risk they are assuming. This acknowledgement does not allow the hospital or personnel to be held harmless for intentional misconduct or gross negligence. • It adds the terms “advanced practice clinician, or chief medical officer” to the sections previously on lines 63 through 67 dealing with the healthcare professionals authorized to restrict visitation for justifiable medical or public health reasons. • Adds the term “state agency regulation” to the section previously on lines 48 through 50 that specify the reasons a hospital may be compelled to deny visitation. • Rewrites the section previously on lines 41 through 47 to improve the clarity of the list of conditions under which a hospital can deny entry to, or remove a visitor from, the hospital's premises. • Corrects language previously on lines 39 through 40 to reflect an earlier change to the bill that deals with the requirement for visitors to wear personal protective equipment, as stipulated by the hospital, when visiting a hospital patient. • Adds a new section - 1014A (i) - stipulating that other than the potential restrictions stipulated in Subsection (c) and Subsection (e) a hospital may not prohibit in-person visitation by a doula providing doula services as defined in § 6536A of Title 11 with a pregnant or postpartum person.

This act would require the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control to obtain the consent of the General Assembly before promulgating any regulations restricting the sale of fuel-powered cars, trucks, and SUVs in Delaware. This Act does not change the emission standards fuel-powered vehicles must currently meet. The provisions of this bill would be retroactive to March 1, 2023.

This Act provides state employees 30, rather than 15, days of paid leave per year to attend training camp or serve special duty as ordered by the military reserves or Delaware National Guard.

This Bill is the Fiscal Year 2024 Bond and Capital Improvements Act.

The expectation for speed enforcement, under Delaware's Motor Vehicle statute, are Delaware's law enforcement agencies. It is not always possible for law enforcement officers to effectively enforce the speed limitations due to a number of factors, including, but not limited to, officer availability and safety. The original Act enabled the State, as well as counties and municipalities to more effectively enforce speed limits on roads in a residential district in which a Department of Transportation study, no more than 1 year old, documents that the 85th percentile speed on the road is 5 miles per hour or more than the posted speed limit or the road is in a designated work zone. For a violation to occur a motor vehicle must exceed the posted speed limit by 11 miles per hour or more. This Act would impose only civil penalties for violations and does not impose points on the owner or operator’s driver’s license. Jurisdiction for adjudicating alleged violations would be in the Justice of the Peace Court and there would only be a right of appeal to the Court of Common Pleas if the penalty exceeds $100. Any excess revenue not used for administration of the system, will be managed by the Office of Highway Safety and used only for purposes of education, enforcement, engineering and administration. This Act will sunset in 5 years if not extended by a subsequent act by the General Assembly. This Act is a substitute for and differs from House Bill No. 94 in that it eliminates enforcement by Delaware State Police, anywhere other than work zones, and limits approval and implementation of the speed monitoring system to residential districts in New Castle County and municipalities. This Act also requires payment of voluntary assessments to be made to the entity designated on the summons, which may be the Department of Safety and Homeland Security or the county or city where the speed camera was located.

This Act revises Delaware’s child safety seat requirements which currently requires an “appropriate” car seat or booster. Under this Act, children under 2 years and under 30 pounds must be seated in a rear-facing seat with a 5-point harness. Children under 4 years and under 40 pounds must be seated in either a forward facing or rear-facing seat with a 5-point harness. Children between the ages of 4 and 16, must be seated in a booster based upon the manufacturer’s guidelines or a seatbelt. This Act removes the existing fine for the first offense and requests law enforcement to provide a referral to the Office of Highway Safety car seat fitting station for guidance and education regarding proper use of a child restraint. Under this Act, the Department of Safety and Homeland Security is required to implement an awareness campaign within 180 days of enactment. The remainder of the Act will not take effect until 1 year following its enactment.