---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 16 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO EMS COMPANY VOLUNTEERS."
description: "Individuals who volunteer their services through stand-alone EMS companies have been a valuable part of public safety to the citizens of the State of Delaware. To try to bolster the ranks of these volunteers, this bill exempts anyone applying for membership of a volunteer EMS company from paying the cost of a background check done by the State of Delaware Bureau of Identification."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "150"
identifier: "HB 163"
citation: "Delaware HB 163 (150)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Bruce C. Ennis", "William J. Carson"]
version_count: 2
action_count: 12
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2019-05-30"
last_action: "2019-07-23"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/e4849252-98aa-4ee0-b7ad-2a3df6fc956a"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=47534"
source_hash: "d08a989d0beae4143db015d74441d12c16b07b8ce025612ac492e10953b90811"
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 163 (150) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 16 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO EMS COMPANY VOLUNTEERS.

Individuals who volunteer their services through stand-alone EMS companies have been a valuable part of public safety to the citizens of the State of Delaware. To try to bolster the ranks of these volunteers, this bill exempts anyone applying for membership of a volunteer EMS company from paying the cost of a background check done by the State of Delaware Bureau of Identification.

## 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=47534&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=HB163)
2. **HA 2 to HB 163** (committee substitute) — [source](http://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GeneratePdfDocument?legislationId=47672&legislationTypeId=5&docTypeId=2)

## Votes

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

## Sponsors

- Bruce C. Ennis — primary (person)
- William J. Carson — primary (person)
- Anthony Delcollo — cosponsor (person)
- Brian Pettyjohn — cosponsor (person)
- Bryant L. Richardson — cosponsor (person)
- Dave G. Lawson — cosponsor (person)
- David L. Wilson — cosponsor (person)
- Earl G. Jaques Jr. — cosponsor (person)
- Franklin D. Cooke — cosponsor (person)
- Gerald L. Brady — cosponsor (person)
- Gerald W. Hocker — cosponsor (person)
- Jeffrey N. Spiegelman — cosponsor (person)
- John A. Kowalko — cosponsor (person)
- Kevin S Hensley — cosponsor (person)
- Lyndon D. Yearick — cosponsor (person)
- Michael F. Smith — cosponsor (person)
- Nicole Poore — cosponsor (person)
- Paul S. Baumbach — cosponsor (person)
- Peter C. Schwartzkopf — cosponsor (person)
- Raymond Seigfried — cosponsor (person)
- Ronald E. Gray — cosponsor (person)
- Ruth Briggs King — cosponsor (person)
- Trey Paradee — cosponsor (person)
- William Bush — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2019-05-30** Introduced and Assigned to Public Safety & Homeland Security Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2019-06-05** Amendment HA 1 to HB 163 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2019-06-05** Reported Out of Committee (Public Safety & Homeland Security) in House with 6 Favorable, 1 On Its Merits `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2019-06-12** Amendment HA 2 to HB 163 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2019-06-18** Amendment HA 1 to HB 163 - Stricken in House
- **2019-06-18** Amendment HA 2 to HB 163 - Passed In House by Voice Vote `amendment-passage`
- **2019-06-18** Passed By House. Votes: 39 YES 2 ABSENT `passage`
- **2019-06-18** Assigned to Judicial Committee in Senate `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2019-06-30** Reported Out of Committee (Judicial) in Senate with 1 Favorable, 2 On Its Merits `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2019-06-30** Suspension of Rules in Senate
- **2019-06-30** Passed By Senate. Votes: 21 YES `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/e4849252-98aa-4ee0-b7ad-2a3df6fc956a`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).