Delaware General Assembly passes a slew of new bills at session end

Dover, DE- The Delaware General assembly was able to pass multiple bills as legislators crammed to get bills considered and voted on before the June 30th deadline.

Notable bills that passed by both chambers and have been sent to Governor John Carney include The Clean Slate Act, which would allow Delawareans to expunge minor offenses from their records to aid with housing and employment opportunity.

An estimated  290,000 Delawareans would be impacted by this change.

Senate Bill 123, which would allow children formerly in the Delaware foster care system to receive financial assistance with the costs of higher education was also passed.

A total of 5 bills were sent to the Governor John Carney’s  desk for signing Tuesday night, as well as a 1.3 billion dollar capital budget for fiscal year 2022.

SB149, a bill that had gathered attention and popular support from activists to change the Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights to allow conduct violations by Delaware police officers to become public record did not receive a vote.

One bill that did not receive a vote was senate bill 197, which proposed to cut down on the number of child protection cases that the Delaware Division of family services assigns to each case worker, from a current case load of 18 down to 12.

A bill seeking to legalize marijuana in the first state did not pass this legislative session, despite growing public support and similar efforts passing in states like New York, Massachusetts and New Mexico this year.