Subchapter D. SPECIAL RULES FOR AMENDMENTS
Sec.
23.241. Scope of amendment.
23.242. Title of amendatory bill.
23.243. Operative language of amendatory bill.
23.244. References to prior amendments.
23.245. Brackets and underscoring.
23.246. Revision of major subdivision.
23.247. Amendment of minor subdivision.
23.248. Amendment of bills.§ 23.241. Scope of amendment.
(a) Background.—Section 3 of Article III of the Constitution of Pennsylvania, as amended by referendum of May 16, 1967, provides that no bill shall be passed containing more than one subject, which shall be clearly expressed in its title, except a general appropriation bill or a bill codifying or compiling the law or a part thereof. The statute enacting the Statutes and to which all amendments are made is entitled ‘‘An act codifying and compiling a part of the law of the Commonwealth.’’ In his ‘‘Introduction to the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes’’ contained in Title 1 (General Provisions) of the Statutes as published in Purdon’s Statutes, William E. Zeiter interprets the constitutional provision to require that amendments to the Statutes must satisfy the single subject title requirement to the extent they are more than mere codifications (i.e. reduction of unwritten case law to statutory law) or compilations (i.e. transfer of existing statutory provisions unchanged to code format) and make any change in substantive law. Thus, a bill to change the law on one subject would be valid even though it also codified or compiled without change in substantive law existing law on one or more additional subjects but a bill changing the law on two or more subjects would be unconstitutional. However, the practice of including more than one subject in a bill that makes changes in substantive law should be avoided even though it might otherwise be constitutional.
(b) Determination of one subject.—In general, the headings of the various titles of the Statutes will serve as a sufficient reference for classifying the subject thus permitting amendments to any of the provisions of the particular title resulting in a change in substantive law. At the same time, conforming amendments changing substantive law may be made to titles other than the principal title being amended so long as they relate to the same subject. On the other hand, certain titles (e.g. Titles 1 (General Provisions), 69 (Savings and Validating Provisions) and 79 (Supplementary Provisions)) are broad in scope and may not sufficiently identify the subject to permit comprehensive amendments to the particular title. In such cases, amendments will be limited to a particular part of the title and may or may not be accompanied by a corresponding amendment to a title containing the principal subject of the amendment.
(c) General rule.—Except as provided in subsection (d), a bill may amend one or more titles of the Statutes and may relate to more than one subject.
(d) Revision of substantive law.—The particular provisions of a bill which revise the substantive law must be limited to one subject.
Cross References This section cited in 101 Pa. Code § 23.242 (relating to title of amendatory bill).
§ 23.242. Title of amendatory bill.
(a) Title of Statutes.—The bill is an amendment to the Statutes. Thus, the title of the bill must refer to the Statutes as required in the case of any amendatory bill. However, because of the new concept of the Statutes and the fact that the title of the original statute provides no information on subject matter as in the case of other statutes being amended, a short form of reference is used which includes the title number and heading and the short title of the Statutes, and which omits the date of enactment and the constitutional title.
(b) New matter.—In addition to the reference described in subsection (a), the title of the amendatory bill must also include new matter which consists of the subject matter of the amendatory bill. The scope and content of the new matter is determined by reference to the rules relating to amendatory bills in general. However, because of the expanded scope of the amendatory bill referred to in section 23.241 (relating to scope of amendment) it is desirable to use new techniques to separate the portion of the bill relating to revisions of substantive law from the portion or portions constituting mere codifications or compilations. Accordingly, the revision portion of the new matter should contain language indicating that the bill contains revisions of existing law and the single subject of such revision ( e.g. ‘‘adding and revising provisions relating to publication of laws’’).
§ 23.243. Operative language of amendatory bill.
(a) First section.—The first amendatory section of the bill will contain a reference to the title of the Statutes affected, a reference without quotes to the official short title of the Statutes, a reference or references to the particular provision or provisions cited for amendment and the manner in which the provision is affected. This conforms to existing practice for bills amending other statutes. In addition to these requirements, it will be necessary, where appropriate (e.g. where it would be unclear under which major subdivision the added or affected provision would fall), to refer to the applicable major subdivisions within the title.
(b) Subsequent sections.—The language used in subsequent amendatory sections of the bill should conform to existing practice for bills amending other statutes except that it will be necessary to cite the title number and, where appropriate, major subdivisions within the title.
(c) Summary analyses.—The summary analysis at the beginning of each major subdivision of the Statutes is not part of the law and will not require amendment to conform to the other provisions of the amendatory bill (e.g. when a section or major subdivision is added or deleted or when the heading of a section or major subdivision is changed). However, where it is necessary to refer to a summary analysis for any reason, it shall be identified by reference to the major subdivision containing the analysis (e.g. summary analysis for Subchapter A, summary analysis for Chapter 25, etc.). Where it is necessary to refer to less than the entire analysis, each separate entry in the analysis is referred to as an ‘‘item’’.
§ 23.244. References to prior amendments.
(a) Provisions in official publication.—When a provision to be amended is published in a permanent or cumulative supplement edition of the official publication of the Statutes, it is not necessary to cite prior amendments in the bill.
(b) Provisions not in official publication.—When a provision to be amended is not published in the official publication, it is necessary to cite prior amendments as in the case of amendments to other statutes.
§ 23.245. Brackets and underscoring.
(a) General rule.—Except as provided in subsection (b), words, phrases and provisions to be deleted by amendment are placed between brackets and words, phrases and provisions to be added by amendment are underscored in the same manner as amendments to statutes generally.
(b) Addition of major subdivisions.—Underscoring is not necessary in the case of additions of entire major subdivisions (including subchapters).
Cross References This section cited in 101 Pa. Code § 9.22 (relating to brackets and underscoring).
§ 23.246. Revision of major subdivision.
Whenever an entire major subdivision is revised, the existing major subdivision is repealed by appropriate language and the new major subdivision is added by appropriate language in either the same or immediately succeeding section of the amendatory bill followed by the text of the new major subdivision.
§ 23.247. Amendment of minor subdivision.
(a) General rule.—Whenever a section or part thereof is amended, the entire section shall be set forth to facilitate future amendments.
3(b) Exception.—In cases of amendments of subsections or other minor subdivision contained in lengthy sections, it shall be sufficient to set forth the subsection or subsections amended or containing the minor subdivision or subdivisions amended.
§ 23.248. Amendment of bills.
(a) Provisions in bill.—In amending bills containing tables of contents, summary analyses and cross references, it will be necessary to amend the table of contents, summary analysis or cross reference affected by the amendment to the bill.
(b) Provisions not in bill.—If the amendment affects a cross reference in the Statutes by reason of the amendment of a heading or repeal of a provision, even though not contained in the bill amended, an appropriate amendment to amend the section which contains the reference should be added to the bill.
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