Committee Agenda Report: Week Of April 4th

Prepared By Dustyn Thompson, David Rugg, Julie McIndoe

The House is still not meeting via Zoom, so you can watch the live streams, or dial in to testify. We would not recommend doing both since there is a significant delay, and you may miss your chance to testify. Of course, for the House, you can also attend in person now!

The Senate is still doing committees virtually, so the registration links are provided.

Bills coming up the week of 4/3/22:

Bill Number	Sponsor	Summary/Description	Committee	Date	Time	Registration Link
HB 259	Rep. Lambert	Ensures that individuals in danger of natural or manmade disasters, such as the Croda Ethylene Oxide release, are notified through their cell phones using the Wireless Emergency Alert (“WEA”) system	Senate Corrections and Public Safety	4/5/2022	10:00 AM	Register Here
HB 320	Rep. Heffernan	allows physician assistants and advanced practice registered nurses to prescribe medication for the termination of pregnancy	Senate Legislative Oversight	4/5/2022	10:30 AM	Register Here
HB 356	Rep. Dorsey Walker	This Act terminates the Medical Marijuana Act Oversight Committee	House Sunset Committee (Policy Analysis & Government Accountability)	4/5/2022	11:00 AM	1-888-272-8703 Password: SUNSET Livestream: https://sg001-harmony.sliq.net/00329/Harmony/en/PowerBrowser/PowerBrowserV2/20220402/3/1648
SB 253	Sen. McBride	Employers at nursing and assisted living facilities could not hire you if you don't have a flu vaccine	Senate Health & Social Services	4/6/2022	10:00 AM	Register Here
SB 240	Sen. Sturgeon	prohibits landlords from renting a dwelling unit that the landlord knows has a current bed bug infestation.	Senate Health & Social Services	4/6/2022	10:00 AM	Register Here
SS 2 for SB 1	Sen. McBride	Creates a statewide paid family and medical leave insurance program	House Health & Human Development	4/6/2022	11:00 PM	1-866-578-1005 Password: HEALTH. Livestream: https://sg001-harmony.sliq.net/00329/Harmony/en/PowerBrowser/PowerBrowserV2/20220402/3/1650
HB 233	Rep. Bennet	Prohibits declawing cats	House Health & Human Development	4/6/2022	11:00 PM	1-866-578-1005 Password: HEALTH. Livestream: https://sg001-harmony.sliq.net/00329/Harmony/en/PowerBrowser/PowerBrowserV2/20220402/3/1650
HB 355	Senator Poore	Makes significant changes to the Fort Dupont Redevelopment and Preservation Corporation board of directors.	House Administration	4/6/2022	12:00 PM	1-888-272-8703 Password- ADMIN Livestream: https://sg001-harmony.sliq.net/00329/Harmony/en/PowerBrowser/PowerBrowserV2/20220402/3/1651
HB 360	Rep. Longhurst	$300 checks for all Delaware residents	House Administration	4/6/2022	12:00 PM	1-888-272-8703 Password- ADMIN Livestream: https://sg001-harmony.sliq.net/00329/Harmony/en/PowerBrowser/PowerBrowserV2/20220402/3/1651
SB 205	Sen. Gay	Expands access to free feminine hygiene products to all public and charter schools with grades 4-12	House Administration	4/6/2022	12:00 PM	1-888-272-8703 Password- ADMIN Livestream: https://sg001-harmony.sliq.net/00329/Harmony/en/PowerBrowser/PowerBrowserV2/20220402/3/1651
HB 326	Rep. Postles	Delaware Education Right to Know Act. Essentially requires all schools to publish all materials from every class on a website and provides a way for parents to challenge any of that material with the school. If the school doesn't respond within 45 days the parent can sue the school. In the end, more lawsuits and less ability for the school to just teach students.	House Education	4/6/2022	12:00 PM	1-888-272-8703 Password: EDUCATION Livestream: https://sg001-harmony.sliq.net/00329/Harmony/en/PowerBrowser/PowerBrowserV2/20220402/3/1654

Top Priority Legislation This Week:

Paid Family and Medical Leave

Senate Bill 1 provides paid family and medical leave for Delaware workers. The bill will be paid for by a payroll tax split between employees and employers. The contribution for the program will be less than 1% of an employees income - again, split between the employer and employee. There is a carveout in the mandate for very small private businesses (those with less than 10 employees) as is the case with most legislation of this nature passed elsewhere in the nation. Those businesses will be able to opt-in, which if they want to compete in the employment marketplace for good employees they will have to do just that, but they won’t be required and automatically enrolled. The program will offer 12 weeks paid leave for all employees covered under the bill with up to $900 a week in benefits for time off for having just had a child, had an adopted child placed with a family, and six weeks for personal or family illness, or to address the impact of a family member being deployed in the military. 

The bill passed in the Senate along party lines and now heads into the first committee hearing in the House Health and Human Development committee before heading to the House Appropriations committee. 

If you cannot make it to the committee hearing, click here to contact your legislators in support.

$300 For All Delaware Residents

House Bill 360 has been all over the news lately. We heard through the grapevine that someone on the other side of the aisle first came up with the idea of sending money back to the people, but that the amount was closer to $100. Apparently, word traveled fast and legislators on both sides grabbed onto the idea and upped the ante to $300. Originally, the only way to get the $300 was to have filed a tax return in 2020. The idea there being that more people filed in 2020 in order to access the tax credits that President Biden was pushing out in his first year of being President. However, even though the number of filers increased that year, it still certainly did not capture everyone. In fact, those who were low income and seniors were amongst those groups least likely to file, even in 2020, and most likely to actually need $300 right now. By the time the bill was actually filed, the legislation was expanded to include a provision directing Finance to work with other agencies to help identify those who did not file taxes in 2020 but would otherwise qualify for this rebate.

Emergency Alerts for Catastrophic Release

House Bill 259 seeks to utilize the Wireless Emergency Alert (“WEA”) system to notify people in the instance that they are at risk due to a catastrophic release that has taken place in their vicinity. A catastrophic release is a major uncontrolled emission, fire, or explosion that presents an imminent and substantial endangerment to public health.

This kind of catastrophic release came to exist in 2018 when the Croda plant, located near the Delaware Memorial Bridge, was discovered to be leaking an extremely hazardous substance called Ethylene Oxide. It was later revealed that the plant had been operating certain parts of the facility without permits and that the leak was caused by negligence from plant workers.

Many remember this event because the DE Memorial Bridge was actually shut down for fear that the gas would ignite and cause a failure of the bridge. However, for the residents in the area, the fear of what this HIGHLY carcinogenic material would do to them in the short and long term is still a concern. Additionally, at the time of the leak, many of the residents had no idea that it was even happening. What’s more, those that did know had little idea what to do with the information. The ordeal has led to a lot of concerned residents demanding change from both the plant and the state as a whole to prevent this sort of thing from happening in the future.

This bill is one of several key asks that the community has requested since the leak occurred. They have specifically demanded a way for the entire community to be notified, should some future leak at the plant occur. Croda has installed a siren at the facility, but many have complained that it is too quiet on the edges of where the last leak reached and that they would never hear it. This bill, which would push a text-like notification to people’s mobile phones, would help with that aspect.

According to the bill, Delaware still uses reverse 911 notifications to landline phones for environmental hazards, but only 6.5% of U.S. households use landlines as their only form of phone communication. In contrast, the National Center for Health Statistics reported that during the first 6 months of 2020, 62.5% of adults and 73.8% of children lived in wireless-only households. It is also worth noting that the message has to be broadcast in both English and Spanish.

Expanding abortion access

House Bill 320 is a bill that would expand who is able to provide abortions, allowing nurse practitioners and physicians assistants to prescribe medication abortion. Advocates have long complained about the lack of appointments to access abortion in Delaware since abortions can currently only be performed by physicians. This bill would expand access to abortion services in Delaware, which is particularly timely considering the very real possibility that Roe v. Wade would be overturned, leaving Delaware as one of a minority of states which would provide abortion access to those traveling from all over the United States.

Groups such as Delaware National Organization of Women, Black Mothers in Power, and the ACLU of Delaware requested in the House committee to expand the bill to include procedural abortion as well. That request was denied and the bill went forward unamended. It is now in the Senate for consideration and could get a final vote as early as this week.

Right-Wing Education Bill

House Bill 326, the Delaware Education Right to Know Act, essentially requires all schools to publish all materials from every class on a website and provides a way for parents to challenge any of that material with the school. If the school doesn't respond within 45 days the parent can sue the school. We will be brief here because we don’t think this bill will actually go anywhere, but, in the end, more lawsuits will be filed against schools who can’t afford them and there will be far less ability for our public schools to just teach students. Instead of teaching students, schools will be bogged down in parents who think they can control every aspect of their child’s education. This is again another thinly veiled reaction to critical race theory and the accusation that we are brainwashing our children with liberal ideology in Delaware.