The bills passed the Senate in 1943, but died in the House. However, the 1945 Session enacted both the ‘‘Administrative Agency Law’’ (P. L. 1388, No. 442) (71 P. S. §§ 1710.1—1710.51) (Repealed), and the ‘‘Pennsylvania Register Act’’ (P. L. 1392). As enacted, the bills incorporated only the first two recommendations of the Joint State Commission, omitting the latter three. Section 22 of the Administrative Agency Law provided in general that no regulation should be valid unless published in the Pennsylvania Register within 45 days after adoption.
The Legislative Reference Bureau proceeded to codify all regulations and despite the post-war paper shortage, published in June of 1946 a 1,167-page bound volume. In October and December 1946, and in February, 1947, (bound with the December issue), paperbacked supplements to this volume were issued. The first bound volume represented about one-half the project, and a volume containing the regulations of the Department of Labor and Industry and of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission was scheduled to complete the work.
Such a volume never appeared, however, because the whole project was terminated by the absolute repeal of the Pennsylvania Register Act by the act of July 3, 1947 (P. L. 1245, No. 509), effective September 1, 1947. Contemporary reports attribute this action to the opposition of state agencies and the physical impossibility of expediting the printing of the proposed second bound volume. As a substitute measure, the Administrative Agency Law was amended by the act of July 7, 1947 (P. L. 1367, No. 541) (71 P. S. § 1710.21) (repealed July 31, 1968) to provide that regulations would be of no effect unless printed and made available upon written request within 30 days after adoption. The General Assembly went further and referred the whole administrative procedure matter, including the question of codification of regulations, back to the Joint State Government Commission (House Resolution No. 40). On January 10, 1948 the Pennsylvania Bar Association adopted a resolution urging the Commission ‘‘to re-establish either the Pennsylvania Register or some other satisfactory medium for publication of regulations.’’
The Commission’s March 1949 report (1949 Leg. Jour. 6026)
recommended that:
‘‘2. Regulations of each such administrative
agency (1) be certified on behalf of the agency, (2) be approved as to
legality by the Department of Justice, (3) be filed with the Department
of State in the form and size prescribed by the Department of State and
(4) copies be made available by the agency free of charge upon
request.
3. The Department of State (1) keep a permanent
record of all regulations filed with it, (2) prepare and maintain an
index of all such regulations to be available for inspection, and (3)
furnish certified copies of any regulation upon payment of a proper
charge.’’
The resulting bill (House Bill No. 879) as drawn exempted the Milk Control Board, the Public Utility Commission, and certain functions of the Banking and Insurance departments and required the Department of State to publish the index of regulations. The bill was vetoed on an unrelated point (appeals from the Board of Finance and Revenue (Veto No. 50)). The Commission’s recommendations ultimately were enacted as the act of September 28, 1951 (P. L. 1561, No. 400) (71 P. S. §§ 1710.2(e)—1710.51) (Repealed) but without the four exemptions of the 1949 bill, and with new provisions eliminating the 1947 requirement that all regulations be printed.
The 1951 act was a dead letter. A decade later the Pennsylvania Bar Association reported (65 P.B.A. Rep. 173) that no manuscript index existed in the Department of State, much less a published work; that the files were hopelessly out of date, with obsolete regulations mixed in with the current; and that formal demands upon agencies for a free copy of their regulations in some cases produced only suggestions that photocopies be purchased from the Department of State at 65 cents per page.
This condition resulted in renewed interest in the General
Assembly. Accordingly, in the closing days of the 1962 Session the
General Assembly under bipartisan sponsorship adopted House Resolution
No. 47 (Printer’s No. 189):
‘‘Many rules and regulations issued by
administrative agencies of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania have the
force of law in their effect on individuals and business as fully as
the statute law.
Since almost all administrative rule-making
authority is legislative in nature and its exercise by administrative
agencies is derived from the General Assembly, adequate review over the
exercise of this authority is an important phase of the lawmaking
function of the General Assembly: therefore be it
Resolved (the Senate concurring), That each
administrative department, board and commission (except the Public
Utility Commission), is hereby directed to file within sixty (60) days
with the Legislative Reference Bureau a copy of all rules and
regulations issued by their respective agencies which are now in force,
together with the citation of the statutory authority for the rule or
regulation; and be it further
Resolved, That the Legislative Reference
Bureau, with such additional technical assistance as may be required,
is hereby instructed to compile and codify by department, board and
commission:
(a) All formal rules and regulations issued and
required by law to be filed with the Secretary of the Commonwealth;
(b) All formal rules and regulations issued but
not required by law to be filed with the Secretary of the
Commonwealth;
(c) All formal and informal rules, regulations
and administrative rules issued under the authority of and pursuant to
any statute; and be it further
The next step was taken at the 1963 Session, which enacted the act
of June 26, 1963 (P. L. 180, No. 107) (71 P. S. § 1710.21)
(Repealed), amending the Administrative Agency Law to require all
regulations (including those of the Pennsylvania Public Utility
Commission, which were excluded from House Resolution No. 47) adopted
after September 1, 1963, to be approved by the Department of Justice as
to legality, to be printed or reproduced by the adopting agency and
made available for public distribution upon request, and to be filed
with the Legislative Reference Bureau. The prior requirement of filing
with the Department of State was continued.
This amendment ensured that the Legislative Reference Bureau’s
manuscript code was kept up-to-date, but it failed to provide either
for regulations issued during the hiatus between the February 27, 1962,
effective date of House Resolution No. 47 and the September 1, 1963,
effective date of Act No. 107, or for the fact that the Resolution had
omitted the many important regulations of the Public Utility
Commission.
On October 3, 1963, Governor Scranton implemented Act No. 107 by
issuing Executive Directive No. 29, which prescribed a uniform format
for all regulations.
While the manuscript code doubtless was quite useful to those in
Harrisburg who took the trouble to seek out the Bureau’s copy, the
Code could not fulfill its urgent functions until it had been published
and incorporated into a system which ensures that the published text is
both authoritative and up-to-date.
To accomplish this result the Section on Administrative Law of the
Pennsylvania Bar Association drafted a proposal bill, the ‘‘Public
Documents Law’’ and accompanying report (36 P.B.A. Quarterly 99). The
bill and accompanying report were unanimously approved by the
Association at its 1965 winter meeting. The report noted that the
adoption of a system for the centralized publication of administrative
regulations stems from a recognition of two elemental principles of
government (36 P.B.A. Quarterly 101);
The CDL was amended by the act of July 9, 1970 (P. L. 477, No.
162) (45 P. S. §§ 1102, 1205, 1206, 1302, 1405 and 1414) to expand
its scope to include the publication of home rule charter documents; to
authorize the Joint Committee on Documents to require agencies to give
public notice of certain actions or proceedings; and to make certain
minor changes in language.
Administration. The Joint Committee on Documents, a
departmental administrative board in the Department of General Services
created by 45 Pa.C.S. § 502 (relating to Joint Committee on
Documents) consists of the Attorney General, the Director of the
Legislative Reference Bureau, the President Pro Tempore of the Senate,
the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Secretary of General
Services and two public members appointed by the Governor from among
attorneys at law or other members of the public who represent the class
who may be expected to refer to the documents to be published under the
act. The governmental members are authorized to designate alternates to
serve for them. The General Counsel was added as a member of the Joint
Committee on Documents by section 302 of the Commonwealth Attorneys Act
(71 P. S. § 732-302).
The compilation, editing, and supplementation of the
Pennsylvania Code are performed by the Legislative Reference
Bureau under the policy supervision and direction of the Joint
Committee on Documents, 45 Pa.C.S. § 701 (relating to official
codification created). Editing, supplementation, printing, distribution
and marketing of the Pennsylvania Code was awarded following
the submission of bids to Fry Communications, 800 West Church Road,
Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, 17055 for the current contract period
beginning in July, 1989. Under the contract the Code is
entirely computer prepared, and monthly magnetic storage media
containing updated versions of the entire Code are made
available to the Commonwealth in form suitable for computer searching.
Persons who desire to obtain the text of the Code on
magnetic storage media for use in connection with public or private
legal search arrangements, provided such use is not for resale, should
contact the Director, Legislative Reference Bureau, 641 Main Capitol
Building, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 17120-0033, for further
details. Further information on the structure of the Code, its
relationship with the Pennsylvania Bulletin, public access
to documents on file in the Legislative Reference Bureau, and other
matters related to the CDL is contained in Title 1, Pennsylvania
Code, infra.
Availability. The Code is furnished currently
to all county law libraries, certain law school libraries, various
judges and other public officials (1 Pa. Code Chapter 15 (relating to
distribution of publications)). The Joint Committee on Documents is
charged with administering the CDL with a view toward encouraging the
widest possible dissemination of documents among the persons affected
thereby which is consistent with the due administration of public
affairs, 45 Pa.C.S. § 503 (relating to general administration of
part) and to this end has adopted a schedule of subscription prices
which are intended to make it more practical for the average business
organization, law firm, or other group to subscribe to the Code
than to take the time and trouble to refer to public law library
copies. When superseded pages are removed, they may be retained for
historical purposes (see ‘‘HOW TO USE'', below). Superseded pages
should be filed in the order of their serial numbers
(not page numbers), which are four, five or six digit
numbers in parenthesis located at the lower left-hand corner
of each leaf, e.g., ‘‘(0046)''. Each time any change is
made to a Code page a new serial number is assigned to the
new leaf. Accordingly, when filing superseded pages for historical
purposes, each leaf should be inserted in numerical sequence based on
the higher of the serial numbers on the two sides of the
leaf.
The first section of each title is usually numbered ‘‘1.1''. The
sections thereafter run consecutively through the title except that
gaps are left for expansion. The first page in each title is numbered
1-1. Pages are numbered by chapter and run consecutively through a
title except where omissions are shown or decimal pages are added.
Generally, you may also consult the subject index at the end of the
part or title of the Code. The references in these subject
indices are to section numbers (located in the upper corners
of the leaf) and not to the page numbers. Thus the change in
a page number by reason of the addition or deletion of material does
not in itself affect the subject index. Of course, appropriate
revisions in the subject index are made to reflect changes in the
subject matter content of a title.
Using the Pennsylvania Bulletin. The Pennsylvania
Bulletin serves as the temporary supplement to the
Code. Once you have found a useful Code section,
you should check the certification date of that Title's Transmittal
Sheet. To cover the period from the certification date to today
(generally three to four months), reference should be made to
Bulletins issued during the period. The Bulletin
contains an updated list of Pennsylvania Code Chapters
Affected and a quarterly Subject Index as finding aids.
Finding the Source Note. It is intended that you should
be able to find the history of each regulation or other document as far
back as the publication dates of the various titles. For this purpose
source notes have been added editorially. The note is not a part of the
regulation. The source note indicates changes which have occurred since
the title was originally published. A source note may appear at the end
of the section in which you are interested. If not, you must look
further. First, see if there is a source note at the end of the
preceding section. (Occasionally, when two or more consecutive new
sections are filed at the same time, a source note referring to both
sections is placed at the end of the first one.) If still no source
note covering the particular section is found, in the following order
look at:
If there is no source note in any of these places, the regulation
was in the original publication of the title unless there has been a
revision of the entire chapter, article, part, or title. To find the
original publication date or revision date of a title, see the first
page of that title or the source note preceding the first section in
that title. The first page of a chapter or subchapter also frequently
indicates a publication or revision date for that part of the title
only. Using the Source Note. Under 45 Pa.C.S. § 903 the
effective date of a document depends upon several factors. If the
document was adopted on or after August 18, 1970 (see 1 Pa.B. 90) it is
effective from the issue date of the Pennsylvania Bulletin
in which it, or its official synopsis (see 1 Pa. Code § 13.21),
was published or the effective date stated in the document, whichever
is later. The source note shows how the document was adopted, when it
became effective, and the serial numbers of the loose-leaf pages of the
Code containing the immediately preceding text of the
document. By referring to the source note contained in such immediately
preceding document you may obtain the serial numbers of the Code
pages containing the next preceding version of the document, and
so on back to the original publication of the Code. For
libraries which contain bound pages of the Code in serial
number sequence see 1 Pa. Code § 5.2(b).
In the case of those regulations which were published in the
original titles, you know merely that the regulation as originally
published had been filed with the Legislative Reference Bureau prior to
and was in force on the date of publication. To get the source and
effective date of the regulation as originally published you should
consult the Legislative Reference Bureau.
Finding the Citation of Authority and Name of Agency. An
agency which files an administrative regulation is required to cite the
statutory or other authority under which it was promulgated (45 P. S.
§ 1206). When you look for the citation of authority you should
follow the same procedure as when looking for the history. If the
identity of the agency which made the regulation is not clear from the
chapter or other heading, the note which contains the citation of
authority names the agency. Sometimes in amending a section, an agency
cites an authority in addition to that previously cited for the
section. In such instance, both the additional authority cited at the
end of the section and the blanket authority covering it and other
sections should be consulted.
If you know the citation to a statute or other authority and you
wish to determine whether any regulations are currently issued
thereunder, consult the Tables of Authorities cited in the
Pennsylvania Code.
‘‘First. A valid and enforceable
regulation is nothing less than a law. A regulation therefore, as any
law, has two essential offices. It must deter undesirable conduct and
encourage desirable conduct, and it must form a constitutional and
effective basis for the punishment of those who violate its terms.
However, it is obvious that a regulation which remains for all
practical purposes lodged in the bosom of the agency which adopted it
constitutes an unsteady foundation for the punishment of those who
unknowingly violate it, and wholly fails to perform its principal
function of shaping public conduct in a socially desirable
direction.
Second. Dollar-for-dollar, the sums spent
for the publicity of an agency’s regulations and statements of policy
are the most efficient dollars spent by the agency in the enforcement
of its policies. Indeed in sharp contrast, the customary practice in
this Commonwealth, whereby agency time and money is expended to detect
violations of the agency’s privately circulated regulations, followed
by the mailing to the violator of a copy of the regulation and a demand
for compliance therewith, is as inefficient a use of public funds as it
is unfair to the unwitting violator.’’
(a)
If you know the name of the agency whose regulations you wish to find,
consult the Alphabetical Index of Agencies, infra. It will
show you the title in which the regulations of that agency are printed
and the section with which they begin.
(b)
If you know only the general subject concerning which you desire
information, consult the Table of Titles and Chapter Headings of the
Pennsylvania Code, infra. It will show you the general
subject matter contained in each title. By noting the list of chapters
and subchapters you will find the name of an agency whose regulations
are likely to contain the desired material or you may consult the
separate Master Index volume.
(c)
Having found the appropriate title and chapter, consult the analysis
which appears at the beginning of the title or chapter to find the
number of the subchapter or section for the heading most appropriate to
the regulation for which you are looking.
(a)
Preceding the first section in the chapter or subchapter;
(b)
Preceding the first section in the article or part; and
(c)
Preceding the first section in the title.
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