General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Weds., Jan. 21, 2026

I’m approaching today’s piece with the same ambition that the General Assembly is demonstrating for this three-week start of session: Next to none.

Other than the weakening of the Hospital Cost Review Board, which unanimously passed the Senate yesterday, I don’t see any must-pass bills on the horizon.  I believe that the General Assembly should pass the bill requiring primaries for special elections because you never know when something will happen and a special election will become necessary.  Doesn’t look like the Honorables share my sense of urgency, though.

Anyway, here’s yesterday’s Session Activity Report, for what it’s worth.  There were some pretty intriguing bills introduced yesterday.  We’ll get to them as soon as the committees get to them.

Only one bill, that of a technical nature, on today’s Senate Agenda.  As always, there’s no House Agenda on Wednesdays.  So, it’s on to today’s committee meetings. Spoiler Alert: Not much going on there either.

House Committee highlights (if I can find any):

HB 134 (Spiegelman) strengthens penalties for animal cruelty convictions.  Judiciary.

Uh, that’s it.  The ‘tell’ is that only two House committee meetings were even scheduled.

Senate Committee highlights (same caveat applies):

SB 226 (Pinkney): ‘…provides that health care facilities must permit patients who have been issued and possess a valid registry identification card for the medical use of marijuana and have a terminal illness to use medical marijuana on the health care facilities’ premises.’ Health & Social Services.

SB 228 (Cruce): ‘…provides the Office of Finance for New Castle County the authority to conduct a quality control review of a tax parcel’s new assessed value after a general reassessment’ under certain specified conditions.  This bill is clearly aimed at addressing perceived inequities with the recent reassessment.  Executive.

SB 230 (Mantzavinos): is a companion bill of sorts dealing with reassessment reviews. It ‘…defines, for purposes of this section, “county authority” as the Chief Financial Officer of the Office of Finance, the Director of the Department of Finance of Kent County, and the Finance Director of Sussex County. This Act expressly authorizes the county authority to compel the production of testimony and documentary evidence whenever a county relies upon, or defends its reliance upon, the income approach or cost comparison approaches to assess the fair market value of real property. This Act permits the enforcement of subpoenas by order of the Superior Court and permits use of the court’s contempt powers. This Act equates a corporate or business entity’s non-compliance with an order enforcing a subpoena under this section to abuse or misuse of corporate powers sufficient to permit the Attorney General to commence proceedings to revoke a corporate charter pursuant to Title 8 of the Delaware Code. Executive.

The Executive Committee will also consider nominations, including that of Jonathan Sheehan to be the new President of the State Board of Education.

I end today’s update, not with a whimper, but a shrug.