Sen. Gerald Hocker

This bill appoints the Secretary of the Department of Safety and Homeland Security as Chair of the DPAC and removes the President Pro Tem and the Speaker of the House from the Commission. This bill also makes technical corrections in conformance with the Legislative Drafting Manual and clarifies that members may appoint a designee to serve in their place and at their pleasure.

This Act permits State employees who are employed by the Delaware State Police or Delaware Capitol Police and work in a variety of job titles, all of which are more commonly referred to as "9-1-1 operators," to retire at 25 years without any reduction. Those employees will pay a higher employee contribution rate than other State employees.

This Substitute Act does all of the following: (1) Expresses the General Assembly's and Governor's opposition to the 2019-2024 National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Draft Proposed Program ("Draft Proposed Program"). (2) Requests the Department of Justice review the Draft Proposed Program, and any other actions taken by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior targeted at approving an oil and gas leasing program, and take any appropriate legal steps to prevent the sale of oil and gas leases off the coast of the State of Delaware. (3) Directs the Department and the Coastal Zone Industrial Control Board to enforce compliance with the Coastal Zone Act. (4) Directs the Department to review Delaware law to ensure these laws properly reflect Delaware's environmental policy objectives for purposes of their use in the consistency review process under the Coastal Zone Management Act. (5) Directs the Department to report to the Chair of the Senate Environmental, Natural Resources, and Energy Committee and the Chair of the House Natural Resources Committee any legislative changes that are identified as necessary. This Substitute Act differs from the original Act in that it replaces Section 2 and 3 of the original Act with a new Section 2 that provides the Department of Justice with more flexibility to prevent the sale of oil and gas leases off Delaware’s coast.

This Act prohibits drilling for oil or natural gas in Delaware’s coastal zone and territorial waters and precludes DNREC from issuing any permits in connection with the development of offshore drilling infrastructure, whether proposed for Delaware territorial waters or waters outside of the State.

This Bill authorizes the Department of Agriculture to utilize any laboratory designated by the Department of Agriculture rather than only the State Chemist to analyze samples of foods, dairy and other feeds and insecticides, and to cooperate with the United States Department of Agriculture and other federal agencies in the enforcement of the laws related to foods, dairy and other feeds, and insecticides.

This Act establishes the Delaware School Safety and Security Fund to allow certain eligible public schools to partially or fully fund projects intended to improve school facilities and training relating to safety or security. The Department of Education shall administer the fund. This Act is effective upon appropriation.

This bill allows for small employers who have more than 5 employees to obtain a “stop loss” policy for health insurance. This will provide more options for small employers in the health insurance market. Additionally these changes bring the section into compliance with the Delaware Legislative Drafting manual.

The state is currently funding service providers at 75% of the market rate established in a 2014 study that was done by DHSS. This bill would mandate an increase in the rates paid to service providers according to the recommendations of the market study, so that by fiscal year 2021 the state would fund service providers at 100% of the benchmarked rate. These rate increases are necessary to increase the hourly wages of Direct Support Professionals (DSPs), to improve recruitment and retention of these positions, to decrease staff turnover, and to decrease position vacancies. Along with the corresponding costs for program oversight, direct supervision of DSPs, and training, stabilizing the DSP workforce with increased pay is essential to keep people with I/DD safe and integrated to the maximum extent possible in their local communities. The bill also requires that the adequacy of the rate system be evaluated against performance measures that are commonly used to assess program quality.

This Act amends Titles 14, 16, 17, 26, and 29 of the Delaware Code to prohibit the use of lead paints on outdoor structures such as bridges, water towers, playground equipment, highways, parking lots, and utility towers and poles, in order to protect public health from the dangers of such paints. More specifically, Section 1 of this Act substantively amends Title 16 to add a new Chapter 30M setting forth the general prohibition of use of lead paints on outdoor structures after specified effective dates. Section 2 of this Act amends Titles 17, 26, and 29 to reference back to the new Title 16 Chapter 30M prohibitions. Section 3 requires the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control to develop regulations governing the removal of lead paint from outdoor structures consistent with this Act.

This Act provides mandatory expungement eligibility to individuals who were convicted of the possession, use or consumption of marijuana prior to Delaware’s decriminalization of these offenses. To be eligible for the mandatory expungement, the marijuana conviction must be the applicant’s only criminal conviction.