republic-os/legislation/us/states/de/151/hb-259.md

type, title, description, jurisdiction, legislature, session, identifier, citation, classification, subjects, status, primary_sponsors, version_count, action_count, vote_count, first_action, last_action, source, source_identifier, source_url, source_hash, vintage, source_snapshot, retrieved_at, confidence, tags

type	title	description	jurisdiction	legislature	session	identifier	citation	classification	subjects	status	primary_sponsors	version_count	action_count	vote_count	first_action	last_action	source	source_identifier	source_url	source_hash	vintage	source_snapshot	retrieved_at	confidence	tags
Bill	AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 7, TITLE 16, AND TITLE 20 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO EMERGENCY ALERTS.	This Act requires Delaware to use the Wireless Emergency Alert (“WEA”) system to notify the public of emergency alerts and requires that the emergency alert system be used when a catastrophic release occurs. A catastrophic release is a major uncontrolled emission, fire, or explosion that presents an imminent and substantial endangerment to public health. This Act also requires that emergency alerts be broadcast in Spanish, in addition to English, when possible.	us/states/de	Delaware General Assembly	151	HB 259	Delaware HB 259 (151)	bill		enacted	Larry Lambert Stephanie L. Hansen	2	10	2	2021-06-28	2022-06-14	openstates	ocd-bill/63633959-733c-476d-a58e-5f18cc1183d9	https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=79007	714486fd42ba5e95d420486f683c3259010cad727b66ec607397f1ee2227e1f6	2026-07-01	https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump	2026-07-06	reported	legislation bill us-de

Delaware HB 259 (151) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 7, TITLE 16, AND TITLE 20 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO EMERGENCY ALERTS.

This Act requires Delaware to use the Wireless Emergency Alert (“WEA”) system to notify the public of emergency alerts and requires that the emergency alert system be used when a catastrophic release occurs. A catastrophic release is a major uncontrolled emission, fire, or explosion that presents an imminent and substantial endangerment to public health. This Act also requires that emergency alerts be broadcast in Spanish, in addition to English, when possible.

Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. Bill Text (committee substitute) — source
2. HA 1 to HB 259 (committee substitute) — source

Votes

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

Sponsors

• Larry Lambert — primary (person)
• Stephanie L. Hansen — primary (person)
• Brian Pettyjohn — cosponsor (person)
• Bruce C. Ennis — cosponsor (person)
• Bryan Townsend — cosponsor (person)
• Bryant L. Richardson — cosponsor (person)
• Colin Bonini — cosponsor (person)
• Darius J. Brown — cosponsor (person)
• Dave G. Lawson — cosponsor (person)
• David L. Wilson — cosponsor (person)
• David P. Sokola — cosponsor (person)
• Ernesto B. Lopez — cosponsor (person)
• Gerald W. Hocker — cosponsor (person)
• John "Jack" Walsh — cosponsor (person)
• Kyle Evans Gay — cosponsor (person)
• Laura V. Sturgeon — cosponsor (person)
• Marie Pinkney — cosponsor (person)
• Nicole Poore — cosponsor (person)
• Peter C. Schwartzkopf — cosponsor (person)
• S. Elizabeth Lockman — cosponsor (person)
• Sherae'a Moore — cosponsor (person)
• Spiros Mantzavinos — cosponsor (person)
• Trey Paradee — cosponsor (person)

Timeline

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

• 2021-06-28 Introduced and Assigned to Public Safety & Homeland Security Committee in House introduction, referral-committee
• 2022-01-18 Reported Out of Committee (Public Safety & Homeland Security) in House with 3 Favorable, 3 On Its Merits, 1 Unfavorable committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage-unfavorable
• 2022-03-23 Amendment HA 1 to HB 259 - Introduced and Placed With Bill amendment-introduction
• 2022-03-24 Amendment HA 1 to HB 259 - Passed In House by Voice Vote amendment-passage
• 2022-03-24 Passed By House. Votes: 41 YES passage
• 2022-03-24 Assigned to Corrections & Public Safety Committee in Senate introduction, referral-committee
• 2022-04-05 Reported Out of Committee (Corrections & Public Safety) in Senate with 4 Favorable, 2 On Its Merits committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable
• 2022-04-12 Laid On Table in Senate
• 2022-04-14 Passed By Senate. Votes: 21 YES passage
• 2022-06-14 Signed by Governor executive-signature

Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot 2026-07-01; origin ocd-bill/63633959-733c-476d-a58e-5f18cc1183d9. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).