This Week in Dover (& D.C.)

By Tyler Micik

Today wraps up a productive week in Dover and D.C.! I began my week in Washington, D.C. at the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s (USHCC) Legislative Summit. The summit is designed to highlight Hispanic-owned businesses and bring them and others together to advocate for the Hispanic business community.
 
Ramiro Cavazos, USHCC president, emphasized that “small business is big business.” He was referring to the fact that small businesses, Hispanic businesses included, employ a majority of the country’s overall workforce. In fact, 80% of the workforce across the U.S. is employed by a small business. That includes 5 million Hispanic-owned businesses that combined contribute over $800 billion to the American economy every year.

Hispanic-owned businesses and their employees are significant contributors to our country and economy. In fact, they account for around 86% percent of all new U.S. businesses in the last 10 years. We must support policy efforts that help them thrive and grow because when they succeed, we all benefit. The Delaware State Chamber was proud to represent the state in Washington, D.C. this week, and looks forward to continuing to serve this contingent of businesses here in the First State.
 
Locally, in Dover, several important bills saw action this week. Those include:
 
SB 255 (Wage Payment & Collection Act):  The bill was released from the Senate Labor Committee on Wednesday and is now on the Senate Ready List. The State Chamber is opposed and provided the following testimony at the hearing: 

“Under this proposal a general contractor could be disbarred for the acts of a contractor they have no legal relationship with. If the main issue behind this proposal is wage theft at a sub-contractor level, this is not the solution. No one wants to protect bad actors. We all agree workers should be paid. But let’s not punish the vast majority of general contractors and our members who are doing the right thing. If subs are not paying their workers, in whatever rare instances that may occur, why are they not held accountable instead? This proposal only increases risk for general contractors and in turn increases costs on consumers because they’ll need additional bonding insurance. Finally, we worry that this proposal could unintentionally hurt small, new, or minority-owned subcontractors. The risk here would be magnified because these newer businesses have no track record of payment to employees, so why would a general contractor take on that added risk? We understand the underlying premise of the bill, however, collectively we need to use current laws to go after bad actors and not assume everyone is bad or a risk to their employees. We oppose SB 255.”
 
SB 229 (Former Employees Right to Inspect Personnel Files): The bill was heard in the Senate Labor Committee on Wednesday and has not been released as of the time of this writing (4pm on April 25).  The State Chamber understands the intent behind the proposal but has several concerns and questions and is opposed to the bill. 

HS 2 for HB 350 (Diamond State Hospital Cost Review Board): The bill passed the House after almost three hours of debate and now moves to the Senate for consideration. The State Chamber is opposed to the bill. 

The General Assembly is on break for bond hearings next week and they will return to session on Tuesday, May 7.