House Passes Bill targeting Domestic Terrorist Attacks on Utilities

The House passed House Bill 91 by a vote of 36-1-4, with Democratic Representative Sean Lynn being the lone no vote, probably because he doesn’t like creating new crimes if I were to guess his reason. This bill spung out of recent events where Trump-affliated Proud Boys terrorists attacked several power stations in several states.

It will create a new offense of Aggravated Criminal Mischief with enhanced penalties (class D felony) applicable when an individual knowingly damages or tampers with critical utility infrastructure intending to disrupt utility services.

In recent years, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the FBI have issued repeated warnings about domestic terrorists and extremist groups targeting critical utility infrastructure.

Bulletins issued through DHS’ National Terrorism Advisory System in 2022 warned of a heightened threat environment based, in part, on “continued calls for violence directed at U.S. critical infrastructure.” Physical and computerized attacks on electric utility equipment have reached a 10-year high in 2022. Recent attacks in Washington and North Carolina have caused substantial outages and damage to the power grids in both states.

House Bill 91 – Punishing Trumpian Terrorist Attacks on Utility Infrastructure	Currrent Status – House Passed 36-1-4.
House Sponsors – Bush, Bolden, Chukwuocha, Osienski, Schwartzkopf, Williams // Briggs King, Gray, Hilovsky, Short	Senate Sponsors – Hansen, Hoffner, Mantzavinos, Sokola, Walsh // Lawson, Pettyjohn, Richardson, Wilson
House Yes Votes – Baumbach Bolden Bush Carson Chukwuocha Cooke Dorsey-Walker Griffith Harris Johnson Lambert Longhurst Matthews Minor-Brown Moore Morrison Neal Osienski Parker-Selby Phillips Schwartzkopf Williams Wilson-Anton // Briggs King Collins Dukes Gray Hilovsky Morris Postles Ramone Short Smith Spiegelman Vanderwende Yearick	Senate Yes Votes –
House No Votes – Lynn	Senate No Votes –
House Absents or Not Voting – Heffernan, Hensley, Romer, Shupe	Senate Absent or Not Voting –

Representative Bill Bush, the bill sponsor: “I’m excited to share that HB 91 has passed in the House! Nationwide, we’ve seen a rise in attacks on our critical infrastructure resulting in power outages and service disruptions for thousands of residents. My HB 91 addresses this issue in Delaware by creating the offense of Aggravated Criminal Mischief and holds accountable those who intentionally damage our critical infrastructure.”