The Senate Banking, Business, Insurance and Technology Committee on March 26 heard House Joint Resolution 1 with House Amendment 1, which would create a task force to study regulatory burdens affecting small restaurants and recommend ways to reduce unnecessary obstacles to opening and operating food businesses.

Senator Huxtable, the Senate sponsor, said the resolution grew out of constituent concerns about small regulatory steps—using the example of adding an automatic dishwasher—that can trigger broad, costly remodel requirements. Huxtable told the committee the task force would identify where regulations impose disproportionate burdens and how agencies and municipalities might streamline compliance.

Representatives of the restaurant and business communities spoke in support. Carrie Leitzman of the Delaware Restaurant Association said reducing regulatory time and cost can help restaurants open more quickly; Dean Vendetti of the Central Delaware Chamber of Commerce told the committee business owners would welcome an effort to identify unnecessary requirements.

Committee members raised coordination questions with the Department of Health and Social Services. Senator Huxtable and witnesses discussed the need to avoid duplicating DHSS’s ongoing regulatory review and suggested the task force could flag immediate, narrow items—such as the dishwasher scenario—for the agency to consider while the broader study proceeds.

No formal committee vote on the resolution was recorded in the transcript. Committee members asked to be kept informed about overlaps with DHSS’s rulemaking so the task force’s work can be coordinated.

The resolution proceeds as a study tool to collect agency and stakeholder input before any statutory changes are proposed.