republic-os/legislation/us/states/de/152/hb-78.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 21 AND TITLE 24 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO CATALYTIC CONVERTERS."
description: "This Act updates the definition of a catalytic converter and limits the purchase or sale of a catalytic converter to a licensed automotive recycler or licensed scrap metal processor, and their respective employees and agents. The Act prohibits minors from selling catalytic converters. The Act specifies the amount of time the catalytic converter must be held before sale as well as what contact information must be obtained from the purchaser and seller as well as identification information on the catalytic converter and requires the information be maintained for 1 year. The Act places a 48 hour hold on payments and limits payment form to checks and limits the time of day and location for the sale of a catalytic converter. The Act requires the licensed sellers to make the purchasers’ and sellers’ contact information available to the police. This Act makes a catalytic converter, in violation of this chapter, considered contraband and, possession thereof, subject to seizure and forfeiture. This Act is for the purpose of regulating the purchase and sale of catalytic converters and for the purpose of assisting law enforcement in response to the high level of catalytic converter theft that has occurred in Delaware. This Act also makes technical changes to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "152"
identifier: "HB 78"
citation: "Delaware HB 78 (152)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Brian Pettyjohn", "Bryan Townsend", "Cyndie Romer", "Darius J. Brown", "David P. Sokola", "Edward S. Osienski", "Eric Morrison", "Franklin D. Cooke", "Kendra Johnson", "Laura V. Sturgeon", "Madinah Wilson-Anton", "Michael Ramone", "Paul S. Baumbach", "Russell Huxtable", "Ruth Briggs King", "Sean Matthews", "Spiros Mantzavinos", "William Bush"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 16
vote_count: 3
first_action: "2023-03-07"
last_action: "2023-09-11"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/8d6f8f47-274f-49c1-8721-18d7641ed1c0"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=130053"
source_hash: "47afe18a01219aee334bdc3eaf9536254690012e470ae3056aa730b94ec42d3b"
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 78 (152) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 21 AND TITLE 24 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO CATALYTIC CONVERTERS.

This Act updates the definition of a catalytic converter and limits the purchase or sale of a catalytic converter to a licensed automotive recycler or licensed scrap metal processor, and their respective employees and agents. The Act prohibits minors from selling catalytic converters. The Act specifies the amount of time the catalytic converter must be held before sale as well as what contact information must be obtained from the purchaser and seller as well as identification information on the catalytic converter and requires the information be maintained for 1 year. The Act places a 48 hour hold on payments and limits payment form to checks and limits the time of day and location for the sale of a catalytic converter. The Act requires the licensed sellers to make the purchasers’ and sellers’ contact information available to the police. This Act makes a catalytic converter, in violation of this chapter, considered contraband and, possession thereof, subject to seizure and forfeiture. This Act is for the purpose of regulating the purchase and sale of catalytic converters and for the purpose of assisting law enforcement in response to the high level of catalytic converter theft that has occurred in Delaware. This Act also makes technical changes to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

## 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=130053&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=HB78)
2. **HA 1 to HB 78** (committee substitute) — [source](http://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GeneratePdfDocument?legislationId=130142&legislationTypeId=5&docTypeId=2)
3. **HA 2 to HB 78** (committee substitute) — [source](http://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GeneratePdfDocument?legislationId=130188&legislationTypeId=5&docTypeId=2)
4. **SA 1 to HB 78** (committee substitute) — [source](http://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GeneratePdfDocument?legislationId=140599&legislationTypeId=5&docTypeId=2)
5. **SA 2 to HB 78** (committee substitute) — [source](http://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GeneratePdfDocument?legislationId=140723&legislationTypeId=5&docTypeId=2)

## Votes

- 2/3 — **40–0** (pass) · lower
- 2/3 — **36–0** (pass) · lower
- 2/3 — **20–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Brian Pettyjohn — primary (person)
- Bryan Townsend — primary (person)
- Cyndie Romer — primary (person)
- Darius J. Brown — primary (person)
- David P. Sokola — primary (person)
- Edward S. Osienski — primary (person)
- Eric Morrison — primary (person)
- Franklin D. Cooke — primary (person)
- Kendra Johnson — primary (person)
- Laura V. Sturgeon — primary (person)
- Madinah Wilson-Anton — primary (person)
- Michael Ramone — primary (person)
- Paul S. Baumbach — primary (person)
- Russell Huxtable — primary (person)
- Ruth Briggs King — primary (person)
- Sean Matthews — primary (person)
- Spiros Mantzavinos — primary (person)
- William Bush — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2023-03-07** Introduced and Assigned to Public Safety & Homeland Security Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2023-03-28** Reported Out of Committee (Public Safety & Homeland Security) in House with 6 Favorable, 2 On Its Merits `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2023-03-30** Amendment HA 1 to HB 78 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2023-04-06** Amendment HA 2 to HB 78 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2023-04-06** Amendment HA 1 to HB 78 - Passed In House by Voice Vote `amendment-passage`
- **2023-04-06** Amendment HA 2 to HB 78 - Passed In House by Voice Vote `amendment-passage`
- **2023-04-06** Passed By House. Votes: 36 YES 5 ABSENT `passage`
- **2023-04-06** Assigned to Environment, Energy & Transportation Committee in Senate `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2023-05-03** Reported Out of Committee (Environment, Energy & Transportation) in Senate with 2 Favorable, 5 On Its Merits `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2023-06-13** Amendment SA 1 to HB 78 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2023-06-26** Amendment SA 2 to HB 78 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2023-06-27** Amendment SA 1 to HB 78 - Passed By Senate. Votes: 20 YES 1 ABSENT `amendment-passage`
- **2023-06-27** Amendment SA 2 to HB 78 - Passed By Senate. Votes: 20 YES 1 ABSENT `amendment-passage`
- **2023-06-27** Passed By Senate. Votes: 20 YES 1 ABSENT `passage`
- **2023-06-30** Passed By House. Votes: 40 YES 1 ABSENT `passage`
- **2023-09-11** 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/8d6f8f47-274f-49c1-8721-18d7641ed1c0`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).