Sen. Harris McDowell

Stats

District SD-001
Party Democrat
Bills Introduced 8

Sponsored Legislation

State (Delaware)
Delaware 149th General Assembly

An Act To Amend Title 14 Of The Delaware Code Relating To Funding For Enrichment At High Poverty Schools. [HB-282]
In order to support enrichment activities such as field trips for students at high-poverty schools, this bill would require the State to provide $25 per student to high poverty schools to be used for the purpose of educational and enrichment field trips.

  

Sponsored by: Sen. Harris McDowell Assigned To Appropriations Committee In House on 03/27/2018

Weigh In

No votes yet!
Cast yours now to be the first.

Votes for: 0 Votes against: 0

State (Delaware)
Delaware 149th General Assembly

An Act Proposing An Amendment To Article I Of The Delaware Constitution Relating To Equal Protection. [HB-299]
This is the first leg of an amendment to the Delaware Constitution to provide equal rights on the basis of sex. There is no Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution. While Congress passed the Amendment in 1972, it was not ratified by the requisite number of states by the 1982 deadline. Delaware, however, was one of the first states to ratify the Amendment. About half of the states across the country have passed Equal Rights Amendments to their state constitutions in order to provide protection against discrimination based on sex. (continued...)

  

Sponsored by: Rep. David Bentz Stricken In House on 06/12/2018

Weigh In

No votes yet!
Cast yours now to be the first.

Votes for: 0 Votes against: 0

State (Delaware)
Delaware 149th General Assembly

An Act To Amend Titles 14 And 29 Of The Delaware Code Relating To Family Leave. [HB-3]
This legislation requires that all full-time employees of the State, including employees of school districts, continuously in the employ of the state for at least one year, shall be eligible for 12 weeks of paid leave upon the birth or adoption of a child 6 years of age or younger. Both parents would be eligible for such leave. Employees shall continue to have the right, as they do under current law, to use accrued sick leave for maternity and paternity purposes. This legislation leaves intact the rights of persons adopting a child over 6 years (continued...)

  

Sponsored by: Rep. David Bentz Signed By Governor on 06/30/2018

Weigh In

No votes yet!
Cast yours now to be the first.

Votes for: 0 Votes against: 0

State (Delaware)
Delaware 149th General Assembly

An Act To Amend Title 30 Of The Delaware Code Related To Information Return Filing Deadlines. [HB-30]
This Act conforms Delawares deadlines for filing certain information returns to those established in the Internal Revenue Code. In an effort to combat identity theft and taxpayer fraud, federal filing dates were recently changed. For example, starting in 2017 the federal deadline for an employer to file aggregated W-2 data with the IRS will be January 31, which is the same date on which W-2s are distributed to individual taxpayers. Prior to this change, the IRS did not receive W-2 data until March 1 meaning that there has been a one-month window (continued...)

  

Sponsored by: Sen. Gary Simpson Stricken In House on 01/23/2018

Weigh In

No votes yet!
Cast yours now to be the first.

Votes for: 0 Votes against: 0

State (Delaware)
Delaware 149th General Assembly

An Act To Amend Title 11 Of The Delaware Code Relating To Destructive Weapons. [HB-300]
This bill makes it a crime to sell, transfer, buy, receive or possess a trigger crank or bump-fire device designed to accelerate the rate of fire of a semiautomatic rifle, making such weapon function more like an automatic weapon. A bump stock was used by the gunman in Las Vegas in October 2017. Violation of this provision is a Class E felony.

  

Sponsored by: Rep. David Bentz Signed By Governor on 06/14/2018

Weigh In

No votes yet!
Cast yours now to be the first.

Votes for: 0 Votes against: 0

State (Delaware)
Delaware 149th General Assembly

An Act To Amend Title 11 And Title 16 Of The Delaware Code Relating To Individuals With Mental Illness. [HB-302]
This Substitute Act incorporates House Bill No. 302, and also makes the following changes to House Bill No. 302:

  

Sponsored by: Rep. David Bentz Signed By Governor on 04/30/2018

Weigh In

No votes yet!
Cast yours now to be the first.

Votes for: 0 Votes against: 0

State (Delaware)
Delaware 149th General Assembly

An Act To Amend Title 29 Of The Delaware Code Relating To The State Song. [HB-304]
This Act substitutes gender neutral phrases for the ones currently contained in the State Song of Delaware. The proposed changes come at the request of Donn Devine, a retired Brigadier General in the Delaware National Guard and co-author of the State Song of Delaware, who believes that this new phrasing will make the song more relevant to future generations of Delawareans.

  

Sponsored by: Sen. Harris McDowell Amendment Ha 1 To Hb 304 - Passed In House By Voice Vote on 05/10/2018

Weigh In

No votes yet!
Cast yours now to be the first.

Votes for: 0 Votes against: 0

State (Delaware)
Delaware 149th General Assembly

An Act To Amend Title 16 Of The Delaware Code Relating To Controlled Substances. [HB-305]
In 2011, as part of a general overhaul of Delawares drug laws, this provision was inserted into Title 16 to allow juvenile adjudications to count as prior qualifying offenses for purposes of increasing the sentence of certain drug offenders. Pursuant to this provision, some defendants convicted of certain drug crimes who have one prior adult drug conviction and one prior juvenile adjudication within the past 10 years face a drastic increase in sentence as follows:

  

Sponsored by: Rep. David Bentz Reported Out Of Committee (judiciary) In House With 3 Favorable, 6 On Its Merits, 1 Unfavorable on 01/24/2018

Weigh In

No votes yet!
Cast yours now to be the first.

Votes for: 0 Votes against: 0

State (Delaware)
Delaware 149th General Assembly

An Act To Amend Title 11 Of The Delaware Code Relating To Certain Crimes. [HB-306]
This bill permits judges to utilize their discretion in determining whether a juvenile charged with possession of a firearm during commission of a felony should be transferred back to Family Court or remain in Superior Court. Prior to 2017, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony was only one of five criminal charges where judges had no discretion in determining whether a juvenile should be treated as a juvenile or an adult because the statute required a juvenile charged with these offenses to be prosecuted as an adult. House Bill (continued...)

  

Sponsored by: Sen. Harris McDowell Signed By Governor on 05/24/2018

Weigh In

No votes yet!
Cast yours now to be the first.

Votes for: 0 Votes against: 0

State (Delaware)
Delaware 149th General Assembly

An Act To Amend Title 10 And 11 Of The Delaware Code Relating To Juveniles. [HB-307]
United States Supreme Court case law and scientific research has changed how we think about juvenile delinquency. We know now that an adolescents brain is not fully developed until his/her mid-twenties which makes juveniles especially prone to making poor choices. In the landmark case of Miller v. Alabama, wherein the United States Supreme Court prohibited mandatory life sentences without parole for juveniles, the Court wrote: Children are constitutionally different from adults for sentencing purposes.

  

Sponsored by: Sen. Harris McDowell Signed By Governor on 05/24/2018

Weigh In

No votes yet!
Cast yours now to be the first.

Votes for: 0 Votes against: 0