---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 29 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO EMPLOYMENT OF PENSIONERS."
description: "This bill increases the annual earnings limit for pensioners in the State Employees’ Pension Plan who return to work in a non-pension creditable position to $40,000 for earnings received beginning in calendar year 2021."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "151"
identifier: "HB 478"
citation: "Delaware HB 478 (151)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Daniel B. Short", "Kimberly Williams", "Michael F. Smith", "Sarah McBride", "Timothy D. Dukes"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 7
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2022-06-21"
last_action: "2022-06-30"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/7c80c880-af48-4af1-8541-172eefbfd08e"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=129802"
source_hash: "5666bf801c4be75183e4844e3644b1955c4029096e82a117802f12a9cbcf6142"
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 478 (151) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 29 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO EMPLOYMENT OF PENSIONERS.

This bill increases the annual earnings limit for pensioners in the State Employees’ Pension Plan who return to work in a non-pension creditable position to $40,000 for earnings received beginning in calendar year 2021.

## 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=129802&legislationTypeId=6&docTypeId=2&legislationName=HS1forHB478)

## Votes

- 2/3 — **21–0** (pass) · upper
- SM — **39–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Daniel B. Short — primary (person)
- Kimberly Williams — primary (person)
- Michael F. Smith — primary (person)
- Sarah McBride — primary (person)
- Timothy D. Dukes — primary (person)
- Brian Pettyjohn — cosponsor (person)
- Dave G. Lawson — cosponsor (person)
- David L. Wilson — cosponsor (person)
- Edward S. Osienski — cosponsor (person)
- Gerald W. Hocker — cosponsor (person)
- Kevin S Hensley — cosponsor (person)
- Paul S. Baumbach — cosponsor (person)
- Sean Matthews — cosponsor (person)
- Stephen Smyk — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2022-06-21** Adopted in lieu of the original bill HB 478, and Assigned to Administration Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2022-06-22** Reported Out of Committee (Administration) in House with 1 Favorable, 4 On Its Merits `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2022-06-23** Passed By House. Votes: 39 YES 2 ABSENT `passage`
- **2022-06-23** Assigned to Executive Committee in Senate `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2022-06-29** Reported Out of Committee (Executive) in Senate with 6 On Its Merits `committee-passage`
- **2022-06-30** Passed By Senate. Votes: 21 YES `passage`
- **2022-06-30** 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/7c80c880-af48-4af1-8541-172eefbfd08e`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).