Bill Commons

DE SB 290

died on adjournment

AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 29 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO PUBLIC BODIES.

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

Description

This Act clarifies that quorum does not define the identity of a public body. Under rules of parliamentary procedure like Mason’s Manual or Robert’s Rules of Order, quorum is used to determine whether enough of a body is present to conduct business. Under Delaware’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), quorum is used to determine whether a public body is holding a “meeting” as defined under FOIA and therefore required to comply with open meeting requirements. However, quorum is not, under parliamentary procedure or FOIA, dispositive to determining the identity of the public body that is meeting. The governing document that creates the body determines the identity of the body under parliamentary law and that, in addition to an examination of the actual public business being conducted, will guide answers to questions about the identity of the public body for purposes of FOIA.

Introduced
2026-04-21
Status date
—
Latest action
2026-06-23 — Passed By House. Votes: 39 YES 1 NO 1 ABSENT
Bill type
bill
Last updated
—

Sponsors

  • Kerri Evelyn Harrisprimary
  • Ray Seigfriedprimary
  • Bryan Townsendprimary

Committees

Not provided by source.

Action timeline

  1. 2026-04-21

    Introduced and Assigned to Elections & Government Affairs Committee in Senate

    introduction,referral-committee

  2. 2026-05-06

    Reported Out of Committee (Elections & Government Affairs) in Senate with 1 Favorable, 5 On Its Merits

    committee-passage,committee-passage-favorable

  3. 2026-05-14

    Passed By Senate. Votes: 21 YES

    passage

  4. 2026-05-19

    Assigned to Administration Committee in House

    introduction,referral-committee

  5. 2026-06-17

    Reported Out of Committee (Administration) in House with 3 On Its Merits

    committee-passage

  6. 2026-06-23

    Passed By House. Votes: 39 YES 1 NO 1 ABSENT

    passage

Versions

Not provided by source.

Documents

Not provided by source.

Votes

  • SM

    2026-05-14 · 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

  • 2/3

    2026-06-23 · pass · 39-1

    Member-level votes (41)
    • Alonna Berry: yes
    • 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: no
    • 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
    • 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: other
    • Madinah Wilson-Anton: yes
    • Lyndon D. Yearick: yes

Related bills

No related bills recorded for this bill.

Official source

https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=143151

Attribution

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

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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=SB 290. See the API docs or the MCP server for AI assistants.

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