Communications & Technology 2025-2026

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The Senate Communications & Technology Committee met on Wednesday, June 24, 2026 to consider the following legislation:

House Bill 78 (Neilson) – creates the Consumer Data Privacy Act providing for consumer data privacy, means to exercise rights, duties of controllers and processors, making definitions, and providing for the establishment of exclusive enforcement authority by the Attorney General.

Considered with amendment A#03914 which did the following:

• Changes the consumer, household, or device threshold number for an entity doing business in the commonwealth from 50,000 to 100,000, and removes a requirement for sharing common branding with the sole proprietorship, partnership, LLC, corp., assoc. or other entity.
• Clarifies that notwithstanding any other provision in law, nothing in the Act shall be construed to create, be used for the basis or predicate for, or otherwise give rise to any PROA in Section 10.
• Adds an additional exemption for personal data collected and used for purposes of the Federal policy developed under 21 U.S.C. § 830 (relating to regulation of listed chemicals and certain machines).                   

A#03914 was considered by a vote of 7-4 (D Senators voted no) and HB 78 was reported out by the Committee as amended unanimously 11-0.

The Senate Communications & Technology Committee met on Wednesday, May 6, 2026 to consider the following legislation:

• Senate Bill 806 (Pisciottano/Pennycuick/Miller/Kane) – Providing for disclosure of advertising content generated or modified by AI.
• Amendment #A03233 – Replaces the prior UTPCPL bill with a standalone new act; includes enforcement and penalties provisions, as well as providing for definition and disclosure requirement updates.
  A03233 was unanimously approved, and SB 806 as amended was also reported out unanimously 11-0.

• Senate Resolution 244 (Pennycuick/Langerholc/Martin) – Joint State Government Task Force on Child Protection-related laws
• Amendment #A03149 – Adds additional membership to the task force.
  A03149 was unanimously approved, and SR 244 as amended was also reported out unanimously 11-0.

The Senate Communications & Technology Committee met on Wednesday, February 4, 2026 to consider the following legislation:

A#02384 (Pennycuick) (removing Section 3; providing for program approval criteria relating to energy sources or generation) to Senate Bill 939 (Rothman – Artificial Intelligence and Data Center Act).

 The amendment was adopted by an 11-0 vote (unanimous). The bill then went over in Committee as amended and was not reported out. 

The Senate Communications & Technology Committee met on Tuesday, November 18, 2025 to consider the following legislation:

Senate Bill 1090 PN 1311 (Pennycuick/Miller) – providing for disclosures and safeguards related to the use of AI companion platforms; directing enforcement duties to the Attorney General. 

Reported out by a vote of 11-0 (unanimous).

The Senate Communications & Technology Committee met on Tuesday, October 28, 2025 to consider the following legislation:

SB 431 PN 465 (Pennycuick) – amends the right-to-know law to provide for acceptable denials if submissions pose a cyber risk or were generated by AI. It provides for an appeal process under the existing law as well.

A#01977 was offered (excepting news media and non-profit research orgs.) and adopted unanimously.

Reported as amended by a vote of 11-0.

SB 491 PN 446 (Phillips-Hill) – amends Title 66 (Public Utilities) of the Pa.C.S. repealing numerous sections pertaining to requirements for telecommunications carriers, and making changes to network modernization plan requirements.

Reported as committed by a vote of 6-5.

The Senate Communications & Technology Committee met on Tuesday, May 6, 2025 to consider the following legislation: 

SB 376  (Phillips-Hill) – Prohibiting the application Tiktok from state devices and networks, exempting law enforcement, security or risk mitigation actions.

Reported as committed by a vote of 11-0.

SB 377 (Phillips-Hill) – Requiring national industry standards in state IT contracting, ie. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standards.  

Reported as committed by a vote of 11-0.

Both bills were reported out unanimously: