---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 6 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO COMMERCE AND TRADE."
description: "The Act made changes to motor vehicle franchising practices, by doing the following:"
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "149"
identifier: "SB 159"
citation: "Delaware SB 159 (149)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Brian Pettyjohn", "David B. McBride", "Peter C. Schwartzkopf"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 6
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2018-05-02"
last_action: "2018-06-30"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/7e79a08e-6425-4eed-acd9-6463559fb70b"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=26621"
source_hash: "939338619894c0df194b489b48b776dc4ea1cff858faae9ff0eb000bd022c3ea"
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 SB 159 (149) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 6 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO COMMERCE AND TRADE.

The Act made changes to motor vehicle franchising practices, by doing the following:

## 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=26621&legislationTypeId=6&docTypeId=2&legislationName=SS1)

## Votes

- SM — **40–1** (pass) · lower
- SM — **18–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Brian Pettyjohn — primary (person)
- David B. McBride — primary (person)
- Peter C. Schwartzkopf — primary (person)
- Bruce C. Ennis — cosponsor (person)
- Bryon H. Short — cosponsor (person)
- Colin Bonini — cosponsor (person)
- Daniel B. Short — cosponsor (person)
- Edward S. Osienski — cosponsor (person)
- Gerald L. Brady — cosponsor (person)
- Gerald W. Hocker — cosponsor (person)
- Jeff N. Spiegelman — cosponsor (person)
- John Walsh — cosponsor (person)
- Kevin S Hensley — cosponsor (person)
- Lyndon D. Yearick — cosponsor (person)
- Margaret Rose Henry — cosponsor (person)
- Michael Mulrooney — cosponsor (person)
- Michael Ramone — cosponsor (person)
- Nicole Poore — cosponsor (person)
- Ruth Briggs King — cosponsor (person)
- Sean M. Lynn — cosponsor (person)
- Stephen Smyk — cosponsor (person)
- Trey Charles Paradee — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2018-05-02** was introduced and adopted in lieu of SB 159 `introduction`
- **2018-05-10** Passed By Senate. Votes: 18 YES 2 NOT VOTING 1 ABSENT `passage`
- **2018-05-30** Assigned to Economic Development/Banking/Insurance/Commerce Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2018-06-06** Reported Out of Committee (Economic Development/Banking/Insurance/Commerce) in House with 12 On Its Merits `committee-passage`
- **2018-06-19** Passed By House. Votes: 40 YES 1 NO `passage`
- **2018-06-30** 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/7e79a08e-6425-4eed-acd9-6463559fb70b`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).