republic-os/legislation/us/states/de/149/hb-104.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 29 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO SERVICES FOR ADULTS WITH INTELLECTUAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES."
description: "The state is currently funding service providers at 75% of the market rate established in a 2014 study that was done by DHSS. This bill would mandate an increase in the rates paid to service providers according to the recommendations of the market study, so that by fiscal year 2021 the state would fund service providers at 100% of the benchmarked rate. These rate increases are necessary to increase the hourly wages of Direct Support Professionals (DSPs), to improve recruitment and retention of these positions, to decrease staff turnover, and to decrease position vacancies. Along with the corresponding costs for program oversight, direct supervision of DSPs, and training, stabilizing the DSP workforce with increased pay is essential to keep people with I/DD safe and integrated to the maximum extent possible in their local communities. The bill also requires that the adequacy of the rate system be evaluated against performance measures that are commonly used to assess program quality."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "149"
identifier: "HB 104"
citation: "Delaware HB 104 (149)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Bryan Townsend", "Melanie George Smith"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 9
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2018-05-10"
last_action: "2018-09-04"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/e20be094-a52d-4fc2-a321-bad102073040"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=26684"
source_hash: "0735c7553334b192d812e981072099a5f269439ba775a428c7c981b6002c34f3"
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 104 (149) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 29 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO SERVICES FOR ADULTS WITH INTELLECTUAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES.

The state is currently funding service providers at 75% of the market rate established in a 2014 study that was done by DHSS. This bill would mandate an increase in the rates paid to service providers according to the recommendations of the market study, so that by fiscal year 2021 the state would fund service providers at 100% of the benchmarked rate. These rate increases are necessary to increase the hourly wages of Direct Support Professionals (DSPs), to improve recruitment and retention of these positions, to decrease staff turnover, and to decrease position vacancies. Along with the corresponding costs for program oversight, direct supervision of DSPs, and training, stabilizing the DSP workforce with increased pay is essential to keep people with I/DD safe and integrated to the maximum extent possible in their local communities. The bill also requires that the adequacy of the rate system be evaluated against performance measures that are commonly used to assess program quality.

## 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=26684&legislationTypeId=6&docTypeId=2&legislationName=HS1)

## Votes

- SM — **21–0** (pass) · upper
- SM — **41–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Bryan Townsend — primary (person)
- Melanie George Smith — primary (person)
- Anthony Delcollo — cosponsor (person)
- Brian J. Bushweller — cosponsor (person)
- Brian Pettyjohn — cosponsor (person)
- Bruce C. Ennis — cosponsor (person)
- Bryant L. Richardson — cosponsor (person)
- Catherine Cloutier — cosponsor (person)
- Colin Bonini — cosponsor (person)
- Dave G. Lawson — cosponsor (person)
- David B. McBride — cosponsor (person)
- David L. Wilson — cosponsor (person)
- David P. Sokola — cosponsor (person)
- Debra Heffernan — cosponsor (person)
- Earl G. Jaques Jr. — cosponsor (person)
- Edward S. Osienski — cosponsor (person)
- Ernesto B Lopez — cosponsor (person)
- F. Gary Simpson — cosponsor (person)
- Gerald L. Brady — cosponsor (person)
- Gerald W. Hocker — cosponsor (person)
- Gregory F. Lavelle — cosponsor (person)
- Harris B. McDowell — cosponsor (person)
- James Johnson — cosponsor (person)
- John A. Kowalko — cosponsor (person)
- John L. Mitchell — cosponsor (person)
- John Walsh — cosponsor (person)
- Kevin S Hensley — cosponsor (person)
- Kimberly Williams — cosponsor (person)
- Lyndon D. Yearick — cosponsor (person)
- Margaret Rose Henry — cosponsor (person)
- Michael Mulrooney — cosponsor (person)
- Nicole Poore — cosponsor (person)
- Robert Marshall — cosponsor (person)
- Stephanie T. Bolden — cosponsor (person)
- Stephanie L. Hansen — cosponsor (person)
- Trey Charles Paradee — cosponsor (person)
- William J. Carson — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2018-05-10** Adopted in lieu of the original bill HB 104, and Assigned to Health & Human Development Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2018-06-12** Amendment HA 1 to HS 1 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2018-06-13** Reported Out of Committee (Health & Human Development) in House with 10 On Its Merits `committee-passage`
- **2018-06-14** Assigned to Appropriations Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2018-06-21** Reported Out of Committee (Appropriations) in House with 4 On Its Merits `committee-passage`
- **2018-06-27** Amendment HA 1 to HS 1 - Passed In House by Voice Vote `amendment-passage`
- **2018-06-27** Passed By House. Votes: 41 YES `passage`
- **2018-06-28** Passed By Senate. Votes: 21 YES `passage`
- **2018-09-04** 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/e20be094-a52d-4fc2-a321-bad102073040`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).