---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 29 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE PUBLIC ATTORNEY STUDENT LOAN REPAYMENT PROGRAM."
description: "According to a survey conducted by the American Bar Association, 90 percent of early-career lawyers have student loans, averaging $130,000. The same survey found that Black borrowers accumulated more debt to obtain their law degree compared to other borrowers of other racial/ethnic backgrounds, and that most young lawyers who borrowed for their education reported that their debt caused them to delay or forego pursuing traditional life milestones, such as purchasing a home, marriage, and starting a family. According to the survey, an overwhelming majority of borrowers – roughly 80 percent – indicated their debt influenced their choice of job or career in some way. Most borrowers reported that salary factored more heavily into their job selection than anticipated. Nearly a third of the sample indicated their position was less focused on public service or doing good than intended when they started law school."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "151"
identifier: "HB 380"
citation: "Delaware HB 380 (151)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Darius J. Brown", "Krista Griffith", "Kyle Evans Gay", "Trey Paradee"]
version_count: 2
action_count: 13
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2022-03-31"
last_action: "2022-10-24"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/83cf81c7-a445-49e2-8659-2b18f45509d4"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=99302"
source_hash: "39e45527d88fe8c67a4be50e3de78131b60a081f9a105dbd90224994ef5d0876"
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 380 (151) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 29 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE PUBLIC ATTORNEY STUDENT LOAN REPAYMENT PROGRAM.

According to a survey conducted by the American Bar Association, 90 percent of early-career lawyers have student loans, averaging $130,000. The same survey found that Black borrowers accumulated more debt to obtain their law degree compared to other borrowers of other racial/ethnic backgrounds, and that most young lawyers who borrowed for their education reported that their debt caused them to delay or forego pursuing traditional life milestones, such as purchasing a home, marriage, and starting a family. According to the survey, an overwhelming majority of borrowers – roughly 80 percent – indicated their debt influenced their choice of job or career in some way. Most borrowers reported that salary factored more heavily into their job selection than anticipated. Nearly a third of the sample indicated their position was less focused on public service or doing good than intended when they started law school.

## 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=99302&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=HB380)
2. **HA 1 to HB 380** (committee substitute) — [source](http://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GeneratePdfDocument?legislationId=109585&legislationTypeId=5&docTypeId=2)

## Votes

- SM — **31–9** (pass) · lower
- SM — **17–4** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Darius J. Brown — primary (person)
- Krista Griffith — primary (person)
- Kyle Evans Gay — primary (person)
- Trey Paradee — primary (person)
- Bryan Townsend — cosponsor (person)
- Ernesto B. Lopez — cosponsor (person)
- Larry Lambert — cosponsor (person)
- Marie Pinkney — cosponsor (person)
- Ronald E. Gray — cosponsor (person)
- Sherry Dorsey Walker — cosponsor (person)
- Stephanie L. Hansen — cosponsor (person)
- Stephen Smyk — cosponsor (person)
- William Bush — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2022-03-31** Introduced and Assigned to Judiciary Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2022-04-07** Reported Out of Committee (Judiciary) in House with 6 Favorable `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2022-04-07** Assigned to Appropriations Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2022-06-02** Amendment HA 1 to HB 380 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2022-06-09** Reported Out of Committee (Appropriations) in House with 6 On Its Merits `committee-passage`
- **2022-06-16** Amendment HA 1 to HB 380 - Passed In House by Voice Vote `amendment-passage`
- **2022-06-16** Passed By House. Votes: 31 YES 9 NO 1 ABSENT `passage`
- **2022-06-16** Assigned to Judiciary Committee in Senate `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2022-06-22** Reported Out of Committee (Judiciary) in Senate with 2 Favorable, 2 On Its Merits `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2022-06-22** Assigned to Finance Committee in Senate `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2022-06-28** Reported Out of Committee (Finance) in Senate with 4 On Its Merits `committee-passage`
- **2022-06-29** Passed By Senate. Votes: 17 YES 4 NO `passage`
- **2022-10-24** 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/83cf81c7-a445-49e2-8659-2b18f45509d4`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).