Current through Register Vol. 54, No. 49, December 7, 2024
Section 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. This section cited in 101 Pa. Code § 23.242 (relating to title of amendatory bill).