---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 4 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO UNDERAGE POSSESSION OR CONSUMPTION OF ALCOHOL."
description: "This Act makes the possession or consumption of alcohol by an individual under 21 years of age a civil offense. This Act also prohibits including information concerning a civil violation of the underage possession or consumption law on an individual’s certified criminal record."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "150"
identifier: "SB 44"
citation: "Delaware SB 44 (150)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["David B. McBride", "Franklin D. Cooke", "Laura V. Sturgeon", "Melissa Minor-Brown", "Peter C. Schwartzkopf"]
version_count: 2
action_count: 9
vote_count: 3
first_action: "2019-05-08"
last_action: "2019-07-23"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/2a43f127-6467-4451-bcb1-8d01495752eb"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=47441"
source_hash: "12a046f5174b881245b7659a9658ae4ed8e9f5cf94a62dad2b6ec09bde904410"
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 44 (150) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 4 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO UNDERAGE POSSESSION OR CONSUMPTION OF ALCOHOL.

This Act makes the possession or consumption of alcohol by an individual under 21 years of age a civil offense. This Act also prohibits including information concerning a civil violation of the underage possession or consumption law on an individual’s certified criminal record.

## 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=47441&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=SB44)
2. **HA 1 to SB 44** (committee substitute) — [source](http://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GeneratePdfDocument?legislationId=47760&legislationTypeId=5&docTypeId=2)

## Votes

- SM — **34–6** (pass) · lower
- SM — **19–0** (pass) · upper
- SM — **20–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- David B. McBride — primary (person)
- Franklin D. Cooke — primary (person)
- Laura V. Sturgeon — primary (person)
- Melissa Minor-Brown — primary (person)
- Peter C. Schwartzkopf — primary (person)
- Anthony Delcollo — cosponsor (person)
- David P. Sokola — cosponsor (person)
- Debra Heffernan — cosponsor (person)
- John A. Kowalko — cosponsor (person)
- Nnamdi O. Chukwuocha — cosponsor (person)
- Sean M. Lynn — cosponsor (person)
- Valerie Longhurst — cosponsor (person)
- William J. Carson — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2019-05-08** Introduced and Assigned to Banking, Business & Insurance Committee in Senate `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2019-05-15** Reported Out of Committee (Banking, Business & Insurance) in Senate with 4 On Its Merits `committee-passage`
- **2019-05-16** Passed By Senate. Votes: 20 YES 1 ABSENT `passage`
- **2019-05-30** Assigned to Judiciary Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2019-06-19** Reported Out of Committee (Judiciary) in House with 7 On Its Merits `committee-passage`
- **2019-06-27** Amendment HA 1 to SB 44 - Passed In House by Voice Vote `amendment-passage`
- **2019-06-27** Passed By House. Votes: 34 YES 6 NO 1 ABSENT `passage`
- **2019-06-30** Passed By Senate. Votes: 19 YES 2 ABSENT `passage`
- **2019-07-23** 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/2a43f127-6467-4451-bcb1-8d01495752eb`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).