HB 1 Sent Back to the House after Passing Senate

House Bill 1 passed the Senate 21-0 after being amended this week.

It’s not direct financial assistance or rent relief, but House Bill 1 allows bars and restaurants to continue using outdoor dining and to-go alcohol sales until March 2022.

The Amendment does not seem to endanger the bill, as it only seeks to clarify that the right of on-premise licensees to sell for off-premise consumption is not intended to allow the on-premise licensee to become a package store. This amendment places restrictions on the amount of alcohol that can be sold by on-premise licensees for off-premise consumption. The Amendment passed 21-0. I imagine the House will likewise pass the amended House Bill 1 by similar margins as before.

In 2019, restaurant and food industry jobs in Delaware totaled 50,800. Between February and April 2020, Delaware lost 66% of its food or drink establishment jobs, one of the highest rates in the nation. Further, bars and restaurants in Delaware lost more than $160 million in sales in April 2020 alone, with the food service industry losing an estimated $700 million between March and July. Revenue from restaurant gross receipts last year dropped to less than half of 2019 receipts.

House Bill 1 Sponsors	Yes Votes	No Votes
Schwartzkopf, Bush, Bennett, Brady, Chukwuocha, Gray, Griffith, Longhurst, Lynn, K.Williams, M.Smith, Hensley, Spiegelman, Yearick	House Passed 40-0-1. Baumbach Bennett Bentz Brady Bush Carson Chukwuocha Cooke Dorsey Walker Griffith Heffernan K.Johnson K.Williams Kowalko Lambert Longhurst Lynn Matthews Minor-Brown Mitchell Morrison Osienski Moore Schwartzkopf Wilson-Anton Briggs King, Collins, D.Short, Dukes, Gray, Hensley, M.Smith, Morris, Postles, Ramone, Shupe, Smyk, Spiegelman, Vanderwende, Yearick	Bolden (absent)
Brown, Paradee, Poore, Sokola, Walsh, Lopez, Hocker	Senate passed 21-0. Brown Ennis Gay Hansen Lockman Mantzavinos Paradee Pinkney Poore S.McBride Sokola Sturgeon Townsend Walsh Bonini Hocker Lawson Lopez Pettyjohn Richardson Wilson
Current Status:	Sent back to the House for final passage