---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 29 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE DESIGNATION OF A STATE SEA TURTLE."
description: "This bill designates the Loggerhead Turtle as the official sea turtle for the State of Delaware."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "151"
identifier: "SB 303"
citation: "Delaware SB 303 (151)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Debra Heffernan", "Laura V. Sturgeon", "Stephanie L. Hansen", "Stephen Smyk"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 8
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2022-06-02"
last_action: "2022-07-27"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/2f8e4318-7c0c-4724-aa68-cc0d427c2d56"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=109568"
source_hash: "1581eff5b4342e71cc67aea6a8c63fc834bffea0053da2d2b600a1a40d281641"
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 303 (151) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 29 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE DESIGNATION OF A STATE SEA TURTLE.

This bill designates the Loggerhead Turtle as the official sea turtle for the State of Delaware.

## 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=109568&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=SB303)

## Votes

- SM — **39–0** (pass) · lower
- SM — **20–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Debra Heffernan — primary (person)
- Laura V. Sturgeon — primary (person)
- Stephanie L. Hansen — primary (person)
- Stephen Smyk — primary (person)
- Bryan Townsend — cosponsor (person)
- Dave G. Lawson — cosponsor (person)
- David P. Sokola — cosponsor (person)
- Kendra Johnson — cosponsor (person)
- Krista Griffith — cosponsor (person)
- Kyle Evans Gay — cosponsor (person)
- Larry Lambert — cosponsor (person)
- Lyndon D. Yearick — cosponsor (person)
- Paul S. Baumbach — cosponsor (person)
- Ronald E. Gray — cosponsor (person)
- Sean M. Lynn — cosponsor (person)
- Spiros Mantzavinos — cosponsor (person)
- Trey Paradee — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2022-06-02** Introduced and Assigned to Environment & Energy Committee in Senate `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2022-06-08** Reported Out of Committee (Environment & Energy) in Senate with 5 Favorable, 1 On Its Merits `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2022-06-09** Passed By Senate. Votes: 20 YES 1 ABSENT `passage`
- **2022-06-10** Assigned to Administration Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2022-06-14** Re-Assigned to Natural Resources Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2022-06-14** Reported Out of Committee (Natural Resources) in House with 3 Favorable, 3 On Its Merits `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2022-06-16** Passed By House. Votes: 39 YES 2 ABSENT `passage`
- **2022-07-27** 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/2f8e4318-7c0c-4724-aa68-cc0d427c2d56`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).