General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Weds., April 22, 2026

Oops, I missed something yesterday and, for the newbies, this will (very narrowly) expand your knowledge base.  The House ran a Consent Agenda on Tuesday.  A consent agenda consists of non-controversial and often inconsequential legislation.  Several bills, in other words, to be approved by a single roll call.  At the request of any legislator, an item will be removed from the consent agenda.  No discussion required.

You just learned something new today.  I dare you to unlearn it.

Here is yesterday’s Session Activity Report.

Oh, man, so many committee meetings today.  I knew I should have started this last night.  But I was mesmerized by the Virginia referendum results as the ‘no’ vote led for a long time before the votes out of Fairfax County and the area around Richmond turned the tidewater.  Deep breath, coffee at the ready, here goes.  Today’s House Committee highlights:

HB 366 (Gorman) ‘ prohibits law-enforcement officers from wearing facial coverings that obscure the identity of the individual wearing them in the course of their duties, with exceptions for undercover operations and exigent circumstances.’

HB 367 (Gorman) ‘requires every law enforcement agency in Delaware to adopt and publicly post a written policy requiring officers to display identification while performing enforcement duties. Identification must include the officer’s agency and a name, a badge number, or both.’

HB 368 (Gorman) ‘prohibits detaining or extending the detention of any person based solely upon an immigration detainer or civil immigration warrant, with exceptions for a person who has been convicted of a violent felony, is a convicted sex offender, has 3 or more convictions for driving under the influence, or is a perpetrator of domestic violence.’  All three bills in Judiciary. 

HJR 10 (Ross Levin) ‘indicates that the reimbursement rates for Purchase of Care providers serving children ages 0-5 should be increased by 10% for FY2027 across all settings.’  Not sure about the word ‘indicates’. Health & Human Development.

HB 360 (Snyder-Hall) ‘requires political committees to submit quarterly campaign finance reports, as opposed to only annual reports.’  I say ‘yesyesyes’.  Expect the General Assembly to say ‘nonono’. Elections & Government Affairs. 

HB 344 (Morrison) ‘clarifies and streamlines the disclosure and enforcement provisions of Delaware’s campaign finance laws.’  I love this bill. Check this out:

(1) Requires a political committee to submit written documentation of all loans provided to the committee and requires that proceeds of a loan are deposited into the committee’s account within 3 business days. (2) Prohibits candidates from charging interest on personal loans to a candidate committee. (3) Requires political committees to retain records for 5 years, rather than 3 years. (4) Requires the State Election Commissioner to provide the Division of Civil Rights and Public Trust (within the DOJ) with a monthly list of alleged violations of campaign finance laws and further clarifies that the Division must investigate and prosecute violations of campaign finance laws.

There’s more.  It’s all good stuff.  Elections & Government Affairs.

HS 1/HB 215 increases taxation on certain tobacco products.  Not by much, though.  Should be more, IMO.  But these cigar merchants seem to have a pipe-line to legislators.  Administration.

Today’s Senate Committee highlights:

SB 249 (Pinkney):

“…does all of the following: (1) Establishes a regulatory framework for substance use harm reduction programs that provides immunities for program providers and staff. (2) Modifies the definition of drug paraphernalia. (3) Decriminalizes possession of paraphernalia for individuals who use drugs, while retaining prohibitions for paraphernalia used in the manufacturing or distribution of drugs and the selling of certain drug paraphernalia.”  Health & Social Services.

SB 283 (Pinkney) ‘expands the scope of practice for dental hygienists in this State. Allowing dental hygienists to use the full range of their education and expertise when providing oral health services will help alleviate provider shortages that make it challenging for Delawareans to obtain dental care. In particular, this Act will help fill gaps in access to preventative oral health care.’  A great bill that could have happened years ago had it not been for the opposition from the Delaware Dental Society.  Hopefully, exigent circumstances have altered the calculus.  Health & Social Services. 

SB 263 (Sokola) ‘adds minor league baseball players to the existing exemptions from state minimum wage and recordkeeping standards. After minor league players formed a union in 2022, minor league players represented by the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) signed their first collective bargaining agreement with Major League Baseball (MLB) in 2023. This exemption actualizes that existing collective bargaining agreement between the players union and MLB’.  Hmmm, that reads to me like minor league baseball players aren’t required to receive minimum wage. Am I wrong? Labor.

SB 18 (Mantzavinos) is the ‘crypto-enablement’ bill.  It ‘modernizes the State’s regulatory framework for money transmission and addresses the emergence of virtual currency’.  Banking, Business, Insurance & Technology.

SB 65 (Hocker) ‘removes Delaware from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (“RGGI”) as the state has already exceeded its CO2 reduction goals, cutting emissions by 45%.’  File under ‘Why Rethugs Suck’. Environment, Energy & Transportation.

SB 277 (Hoffner) ‘establishes comprehensive protections and reasonable accommodations for pregnant and parenting students in all Delaware schools receiving state approval and financial assistance.’ Education.

There’s only one item on today’s Senate Agenda, and it’s a bill that passed the House unanimously.

Before I close, I encourage you to read this WHYY report on a proposed bill of rights for Delaware’s homeless.  Sponsor Rep. Sophie Phillips explains the reason for the bill:

“Federal, state and private funding for homelessness services is disjointed and difficult to access for service providers,” Phillips said during the hearing. “Rather than addressing this, we are relying on arrests and fines. HB 135 will not allow arrests and fines simply for being homeless, specifically, if they have nowhere else to go.”

Longtime advocate Becca Cotto says it better than I ever could:

“This legislation recognizes that simple but powerful truth, housing instability should never be met with punishment,” Cotto said. “Criminalizing survival, sleeping, resting, protecting oneself or storing one’s belongings only deepens trauma and pushes people further from stability.”

There’s little doubt that this bill will be a tough lift, and it might well be rewritten several times along the way.  However, a humane society would work together to address this.  How humanely Delaware’s governmental entities respond to this remains to be seen.  But at least Sophie Phillips has.