General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Thursday, May 7, 2026

Very happy to see that HS2/HB 151 (Gorman) unanimously passed the Senate yesterday, and now heads to the Governor.  No private prisons for Delaware!  If you look at the bills that Rep. Gorman has introduced this session, you will see a true commitment to civil liberties.  Too bad that Speaker Mimi Minor-Brown refuses to place Gorman’s bill reforming the special elections process on an agenda, but there’s prospective hope there:  Mimi’s Mean Girls’ Coalition might be in even more jeopardy. See tomorrow’s Delaware Political Weekly for details.  Regardless, Gorman projects to be quite the worthy successor to Dave Sokola.

Here is yesterday’s Session Activity Report.  Also happy to see Sen. Pinkney’s bill expanding the scope of practice for dental hygienists unanimously passed the Senate.

The highlight of today’s sparse Senate Agenda is consideration of the nomination of Robert Storch to be Delaware’s first Inspector General.    To put it mildly, he is certainly qualified.  And there’s no shortage of targets for, um, inspecting.  This could be ground-breaking.

Today’s House Agenda features HB 337 (Ortega), which addresses a legitimate issue of which I was unaware.  The bill ‘requires that effective amounts of folic acid be added to corn masa flour and corn masa which are staples in many minority diets…Minority communities in the United States face a greater risk of neural tube defects (NTDs), which are serious birth defects that occur during early pregnancy. NTDs include spina bifida, characterized by an opening along the spine that can cause mild to severe nerve damage and disability, and anencephaly, a fatal condition where parts of the brain or skull are missing in newborns. Research has shown that daily intake of folic acid can reduce the risk of NTDs by over half. In response, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration mandated folic acid fortification in enriched cereal grain products in 1998, resulting in a 35% reduction in NTD cases. However, this policy did not include corn masa flour, a staple in many minority diets. 

I also like HB 338 (Gorman), which ‘clarifies that individual, group, and blanket health insurance carriers must provide for and pay for services (including immunizations) that were recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the comprehensive guidelines supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) that were in effect as of January 1, 2025. They must also cover immunizations that were supported by national clinical guidelines or national standards of care in effect on January 1, 2025.’  Got that?  The bill essentially tried to prevent health insurance carriers from eliminating payment for these services just because we have RFK Jr. destroying public health at the federal level.

One last note.  Somebody, I don’t know who, voted ‘unfavorable’ on the release of HB’s 294 and 295 from committee.  Guess we’ll find out during the roll call, but it’s gotta be either Tim Dukes or Jeff Spiegelman.