republic-os/legislation/us/states/de/149/hb-35.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 24 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE BOARD OF MASSAGE AND BODYWORK."
description: "This bill sets forth a framework for the licensing, regulation and inspection of business establishments that provide massage and bodywork services. This bill places oversight of any business offering massage services in the hands of the Board of Massage and Bodywork. Specifically, it defines “massage establishment,” and grants authority to the Board of Massage and Bodywork to grant or deny licensure of such establishments and adopt regulations pertaining to the licensure, maintenance and standards to be applied to such establishments. It provides authority for the Division or Professional Regulation to inspect such establishments without any advance notice or concurrent criminal investigation. This bill imposes criminal and civil penalties, including injunctive relief, fines, and imprisonment, for the unlicensed practice of massage and bodywork and the operation of an unlicensed massage establishment."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "149"
identifier: "HB 35"
citation: "Delaware HB 35 (149)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Bryon H. Short", "Debra Heffernan", "Gregory F. Lavelle", "Harris B. McDowell", "Stephen Smyk"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 18
vote_count: 3
first_action: "2017-01-12"
last_action: "2017-07-26"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/f66906ae-648d-49b9-8004-d077369cc7a2"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=25387"
source_hash: "bd46288c3020272088e51adaef0772136ec63353747e78046d71bbd09dd02863"
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 35 (149) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 24 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE BOARD OF MASSAGE AND BODYWORK.

This bill sets forth a framework for the licensing, regulation and inspection of business establishments that provide massage and bodywork services. This bill places oversight of any business offering massage services in the hands of the Board of Massage and Bodywork. Specifically, it defines “massage establishment,” and grants authority to the Board of Massage and Bodywork to grant or deny licensure of such establishments and adopt regulations pertaining to the licensure, maintenance and standards to be applied to such establishments. It provides authority for the Division or Professional Regulation to inspect such establishments without any advance notice or concurrent criminal investigation. This bill imposes criminal and civil penalties, including injunctive relief, fines, and imprisonment, for the unlicensed practice of massage and bodywork and the operation of an unlicensed massage establishment.

## 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/GeneratePdfDocument?legislationId=25387&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=HB35)

## Votes

- 3/5 — **20–0** (pass) · upper
- 3/5 — **39–1** (pass) · lower
- 3/5 — **37–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Bryon H. Short — primary (person)
- Debra Heffernan — primary (person)
- Gregory F. Lavelle — primary (person)
- Harris B. McDowell — primary (person)
- Stephen Smyk — primary (person)
- Anthony Delcollo — cosponsor (person)
- Bruce C. Ennis — cosponsor (person)
- Bryant L. Richardson — cosponsor (person)
- Deborah Hudson — cosponsor (person)
- Helene M. Keeley — cosponsor (person)
- John J. Viola — cosponsor (person)
- Kimberly Williams — cosponsor (person)
- Michael Ramone — cosponsor (person)
- Nicole Poore — cosponsor (person)
- Ruth Briggs King — cosponsor (person)
- Trey Charles Paradee — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2017-01-12** Introduced and Assigned to Sunset Committee (Policy Analysis & Government Accountability) Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2017-01-18** Reported Out of Committee (Sunset Committee (Policy Analysis & Government Accountability)) in House with 4 Favorable `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2017-03-30** Amendment HA 1 to HB 35 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2017-03-30** Amendment HA 1 to HA 1 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2017-03-30** Amendment HA 1 to HA 1 - Passed In House by Voice Vote `amendment-passage`
- **2017-03-30** Amendment HA 2 to HA 1 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2017-03-30** Amendment HA 2 to HA 1 - Passed In House by Voice Vote `amendment-passage`
- **2017-03-30** Amendment HA 1 to HB 35 - Passed In House by Voice Vote `amendment-passage`
- **2017-03-30** Passed By House. Votes: 39 YES 1 NO 1 ABSENT `passage`
- **2017-04-04** Assigned to Sunset Committee in Senate `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2017-04-05** Amendment SA 1 to HB 35 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2017-04-28** Amendment SA 1 to HB 35 - Stricken in Senate
- **2017-05-10** Reported Out of Committee (Sunset) in Senate with 3 On Its Merits `committee-passage`
- **2017-06-15** Amendment SA 2 to HB 35 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2017-06-15** Amendment SA 2 to HB 35 - Passed By Senate. Votes: 19 YES 2 ABSENT `amendment-passage`
- **2017-06-15** Passed By Senate. Votes: 20 YES 1 ABSENT `passage`
- **2017-06-22** Passed By House. Votes: 37 YES 4 ABSENT `passage`
- **2017-07-26** 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/f66906ae-648d-49b9-8004-d077369cc7a2`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).