The Pennsylvania House and Senate now return for the final session week of 2023. The PA Chamber is monitoring several pieces of legislation with the potential to impact the state’s business community.

Probation reform

Senate Bill 838 would update and improve Pennsylvania’s probation law by incentivizing individuals on probation to pursue education and job training programs, limiting when a technical violation may result in the revocation of one’s probation, and directing courts to consider probationers’ work schedules when scheduling confinement.

Clean Slate expansion

House Bill 689 would expand Pennsylvania’s Clean Slate law to provide for the automatic sealing of certain nonviolent drug-related felonies if the individual has remained crime-free for 10 years.

Organized retail crime

Senate Bill 596 would establish an office of Organized Retail Crime Theft in the Attorney General’s office and lower the monetary thresholds for felony retail thefts.

Penalties on employers

House Bill 1751 proposes several amendments to the Construction Workplace Misclassification Act, including severe penalties against employers for violations of this notoriously vague and complicated law, the threat of permanent debarment from commonwealth contracting opportunities, and new opportunities for trial lawyers to sue construction companies.

Data privacy

House Bill 1201 would regulate the collection and use of consumers’ data by providing consumers with certain rights and requiring businesses to protect and limit the collection of personal data.

Higher education fee disclosure

House Bill 1686 would require that institutions of higher education prominently display a description of every mandatory fee charged by the institution of higher education, describe how the fee is allocated and used, and file a yearly report with the Department of Education with the total mandatory fees collected and the amount of fees that were allocated to each use.

Hydrogen tax credits

House Bill 1215 would limit the applicability of when the state may award tax credits for hydrogen production.

Riparian buffers

House Bill 1275 would restrict development in Pennsylvania by requiring specific minimum riparian buffers along each side of a body of water in the Commonwealth.