This Act is a substitute for Senate Bill No. 42 and Senate Substitute No. 1 for Senate Bill No. 42. Like Senate Bill No. 42 and Senate Substitute No. 1 for Senate Bill No. 42, this Act does all of the following:

According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, an estimated 800,000 children are reported missing each year.

This Act is the result of the Joint Legislative Oversight and Sunset Committee's review of the Council on Libraries ("Council"). This Act updates the Council's membership composition, defines quorum, and adds other standard provisions, including member compensation and removal.

Under current Delaware law, if a labor dispute constitutes a lockout, employees are immediately eligible for unemployment benefits. Additionally, current law permits an individual to collect unemployment benefits beginning the third week of a labor dispute, other than a lockout.

This Act is a substitute for Senate Bill No. 43. Both this Act and SB 43 add additional State facilities and categories of establishments to § 787 of Title 11 which would be required to display public awareness signs about human trafficking. The additional State facilities and categories are as follows:

This Act is a result of the Joint Legislative Oversight and Sunset Committee's review of the Council on Libraries. This Act repeals the Delaware Public Library Technology Assistance Act because Delaware Division of Libraries no longer issues technology grants.

This Act is the second leg of a constitutional amendment that would update the minimum voting age in the Delaware Constitution from twenty-one years to eighteen years. The first leg of this constitutional amendment was Senate Bill No. 294 of the 151st General Assembly, which became Chapter 350 of Volume 83 of the Laws of Delaware. On passage of this second leg by this General Assembly this amendment will become part of the Delaware Constitution.

This Act increases the statute of limitations for filing an action for recovery upon a claim for unpaid wages from 1 year to 2 years, making it consistent with the statute of limitations under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. §§ 201, et seq. Many employees who are terminated spend the first period of unemployment attempting to secure other employment. After this focus on finding employment ends, 1 year may have passed or be about to pass, preventing employees who are owed wages from a previous employer from seeking legal redress.

This Act creates a separate offense for the theft of mail, including packages, from a residential dwelling. A first offense of mail theft is a class A misdemeanor unless the value of the stolen property is $1,500 or more, in which case it is a class G felony. A second offense of mail theft, within the previous 5 years is a class G felony, regardless of the value of the stolen property.

This Act provides state employees 30, rather than 15, days of paid leave per year to attend training camp or serve special duty as ordered by the military reserves or Delaware National Guard.

This Act reinstates a credit against school taxes of up to $400 for seniors who have been domiciled in Delaware for 3 years or more. After 10 years domiciled in Delaware the credit would increase to $500. Under current law the credit is $500 after 10 years.

The constitutional requirement to create new legislative districts following the U.S. Census was intended to ensure equal representation at all levels of government. However, Delawares current process of redistricting is deeply flawed. It allows the majority party in each legislative chamber to gerrymander state legislative maps in a self-serving attempt to preserve and expand partisan political power. All other considerations have become secondary in this process. This defect is common to many states and some have tried to address the issue by creating election commissions charged with redrawing legislative lines. The challenge in such a system is ensuring that these commissions can conduct their function in a balanced, objective, and non-partisan fashion. This bill proposes a new method that avoids this significant hurdle by leveraging partisan self-interest to create a protocol that results in an equitable outcome. This fresh approach to reapportionment is described in a paper by 3 Carnegie Mellon University professors entitled: A Partisan Districting Protocol with Provably Nonpartisan Outcomes. It utilizes a system analogous to a proven, prudent method for instructing 2 children to fairly divide a piece of cake between themselves. The first child cuts the cake, while the second has the option of selecting which piece he or she wishes to consume. In the protocol outlined in this bill, the two competing parties are the partisan caucuses of each General Assembly chamber. The first caucus will initially draw all the legislative districts, observing established legal redistricting standards. The second caucus will have the ability to freeze a set number of the districts, locking their boundaries into place. They will then be able to redraw the remaining districts as they wish, delivering the new maps back to the first caucus. This group will then also engage in the freeze and redraw process, with the cycles continuing until all the districts have been defined. With both sides getting equal bites of the apple, each has a practical ability to affect the outcome and a reason to work together to achieve a mutually acceptable conclusion. The bill also includes safeguards to ensure public notification and participation in the process, as well as a contingency to allow the judicial branch to draw the new legislative maps should the General Assembly be unable to achieve the task. This legislation assumes calling the General Assembly into special session to approve the finalized maps, providing enough time for the process to be conducted in a deliberative manner.

This Resolution elects David P. Sokola to be the President Pro Tempore of the Senate of the 152nd General Assembly.

This Act amends Chapter 30A of Title 14 to clarify that screening will not be conducted if a parent declines developmental screening or notifies the licensee that the child is already receiving early intervention services or special education and related services. It further clarifies that the child care provider will conduct the screening where the parent or guardian fails to do so only upon receipt of parental consent.

This Concurrent Resolution provides for Joint Session of the Senate and the House of Representatives to be convened for the purpose of hearing an address by the Honorable John C. Carney, Jr., Governor of the State of Delaware.