---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 16 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO ACHIEVING A BETTER LIFE EXPERIENCE SAVINGS ACCOUNTS."
description: "ABLE accounts are special savings accounts established for certain persons with disabilities. This bill clarifies the treatment of funds in an ABLE account upon the death of a designated beneficiary. Specifically it prohibits State agencies or instrumentalities from clawing back from the ABLE account any funds it has expended on behalf of a designated beneficiary."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "149"
identifier: "HB 145"
citation: "Delaware HB 145 (149)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Nicole Poore", "Trey Charles Paradee"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 5
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2017-04-25"
last_action: "2017-07-28"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/c2b7e81e-9f69-4160-8377-c5dbbeff5ed5"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=25659"
source_hash: "d677ff1f06af4729e96101cd83d2bbf07be23811acaf6a733a43a4f447503736"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-de"]
---

# Delaware HB 145 (149) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 16 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO ACHIEVING A BETTER LIFE EXPERIENCE SAVINGS ACCOUNTS.

ABLE accounts are special savings accounts established for certain persons with disabilities. This bill clarifies the treatment of funds in an ABLE account upon the death of a designated beneficiary. Specifically it prohibits State agencies or instrumentalities from clawing back from the ABLE account any funds it has expended on behalf of a designated beneficiary.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Bill Text** (committee substitute) — [source](https://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GenerateHtmlDocument?legislationId=25659&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=HB145)

## Votes

- SM — **41–0** (pass) · lower
- SM — **20–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Nicole Poore — primary (person)
- Trey Charles Paradee — primary (person)
- Deborah Hudson — cosponsor (person)
- Debra Heffernan — cosponsor (person)
- John A. Kowalko — cosponsor (person)
- Kevin S Hensley — cosponsor (person)
- Melanie George Smith — cosponsor (person)
- Quinton Johnson — cosponsor (person)
- Robert Marshall — cosponsor (person)
- Ruth Briggs King — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2017-04-25** Introduced and Assigned to Health & Human Development Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2017-05-03** Reported Out of Committee (Health & Human Development) in House with 10 On Its Merits `committee-passage`
- **2017-06-29** Passed By House. Votes: 41 YES `passage`
- **2017-07-02** Passed By Senate. Votes: 20 YES 1 ABSENT `passage`
- **2017-07-28** Signed by Governor `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/c2b7e81e-9f69-4160-8377-c5dbbeff5ed5`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).