Bill Commons

DE HB 158

enacted

AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 20 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO EMERGENCY PLANNING.

Delaware · 2025-2026 Regular Session (153rd General Assembly) · lower

Description

The Public Health Emergency Planning Commission was established in 2002 and directed to deliver to the Governor a plan for responding to a public health emergency that addressed at least 21 specific provisions. Since then, that single plan has evolved into an overarching Public Health Emergency Operations Coordination Plan, which is a strategic plan that provides a broad context for the execution of public health emergency response and recovery. There are over 70 additional “plans” or annexes that provide additional procedural guidance that have been developed by DHSS in partnership with other state agencies and external stakeholders such as hospitals. The Public Health Emergency Operations Coordination Plan will still be updated every 2 years by DHSS and other state agency and private partners. The Public Health Emergency Planning Commission will be renamed the Public Health Emergency Planning Council. It will review the Public Health Emergency Operations Coordination Plan every 2 years. It will also continue in its advisory capacity to the Governor whenever a public health emergency is declared. It must meet within 30 days of the declaration of a state of emergency due to a public health emergency, and at least every 30 days until the public health emergency is lifted. In the absence of a public health emergency the Council must meet at least once a year. This Act also makes technical corrections to existing statutory language.

Introduced
2025-05-08
Status date
—
Latest action
2025-08-25 — Signed by Governor
Bill type
bill
Last updated
—

Sponsors

  • John "Jack" Walshprimary
  • Melanie Ross Levinprimary
  • Spiros Mantzavinosprimary
  • Eric Morrisonprimary
  • Sarah McBrideprimary
  • Ray Seigfriedprimary
  • Frank Burnsprimary

Committees

Not provided by source.

Action timeline

  1. 2025-05-08

    Introduced and Assigned to Health & Human Development Committee in House

    introduction,referral-committee

  2. 2025-05-21

    Reported Out of Committee (Health & Human Development) in House with 5 Favorable, 9 On Its Merits

    committee-passage,committee-passage-favorable

  3. 2025-06-10

    Amendment HA 1 to HB 158 - Introduced and Placed With Bill

    amendment-introduction

  4. 2025-06-10

    Amendment HA 1 to HB 158 - Passed In House by Voice Vote

    amendment-passage

  5. 2025-06-10

    Passed By House. Votes: 40 YES 1 ABSENT

    passage

  6. 2025-06-10

    Assigned to Health & Social Services Committee in Senate

    introduction,referral-committee

  7. 2025-06-18

    Reported Out of Committee (Health & Social Services) in Senate with 2 Favorable, 3 On Its Merits

    committee-passage,committee-passage-favorable

  8. 2025-06-26

    Passed By Senate. Votes: 21 YES

    passage

  9. 2025-08-25

    Signed by Governor

    executive-signature

Versions

Documents

Votes

  • SM

    2025-06-10 · pass · 40-0

    Member-level votes (41)
    • Stephanie T. Bolden: yes
    • Frank Burns: yes
    • William Bush: yes
    • William J. Carson: yes
    • Nnamdi O. Chukwuocha: yes
    • Richard G. Collins: yes
    • Franklin D. Cooke: yes
    • Daniel B. Short: yes
    • Timothy D. Dukes: yes
    • Mara Gorman: yes
    • Ronald E. Gray: yes
    • Krista Griffith: yes
    • Kerri Evelyn Harris: yes
    • Debra Heffernan: yes
    • Kevin S Hensley: yes
    • Jeff Hilovsky: yes
    • Valerie Jones Giltner: yes
    • Kendra Johnson: yes
    • Kimberly Williams: yes
    • Kamela T Smith: yes
    • Larry Lambert: yes
    • Sean M. Lynn: yes
    • Michael F. Smith: yes
    • Melissa Minor-Brown: yes
    • Shannon Morris: yes
    • Eric Morrison: yes
    • DeShanna U Neal: yes
    • Josue O Ortega: yes
    • Edward S. Osienski: yes
    • Stell Parker Selby: other
    • Sophie Phillips: yes
    • Charles S Postles Jr.: yes
    • Cyndie Romer: yes
    • Melanie Ross Levin: yes
    • Sherae'a Moore: yes
    • Bryan W. Shupe: yes
    • Claire Snyder-Hall: yes
    • Jeffrey N. Spiegelman: yes
    • Jesse R. Vanderwende: yes
    • Madinah Wilson-Anton: yes
    • Lyndon D. Yearick: yes

  • 2/3

    2025-06-26 · pass · 21-0

    Member-level votes (21)
    • Darius J. Brown: yes
    • Eric Buckson: yes
    • Daniel Cruce: yes
    • Stephanie L. Hansen: yes
    • Gerald W. Hocker: yes
    • Kyra L. Hoffner: yes
    • Russell Huxtable: yes
    • Dave G. Lawson: yes
    • S. Elizabeth Lockman: yes
    • Spiros Mantzavinos: yes
    • Trey Paradee: yes
    • Brian Pettyjohn: yes
    • Marie Pinkney: yes
    • Nicole Poore: yes
    • Bryant L. Richardson: yes
    • Ray Seigfried: yes
    • David P. Sokola: yes
    • Laura V. Sturgeon: yes
    • Bryan Townsend: yes
    • John "Jack" Walsh: yes
    • David L. Wilson: yes

Related bills

No related bills recorded for this bill.

Official source

https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=142231

Attribution

Data from openstates_bulk_csv, retrieved 2026-07-24T03:53:51.443619Z

Use this data

Every field on this page is available from the free public API — no key or licence required. Fetch this bill as JSON: GET /api/v1/bills?jurisdiction=DE&identifier=HB 158. See the API docs or the MCP server for AI assistants.

Known limitations

  • Sponsor party and chamber affiliation are not yet captured by this API.
  • Committee referrals are not yet captured.

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