Community, Economic & Recreational Development 2023-2024

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The Senate Communications and Technology Committee met on Wednesday, July 10, 2024 and reported out the following bill:

House Bill 2132 (Daley) – Amends Title 12 (Commerce and Trade), to create the Pennsylvania-Ireland Trade Commission within the Department of Community and Economic Development.

• The bill was reported out unanimously.

The Senate Communications and Technology Committee met on Wednesday, June 26, 2024 to consider the following bills:

House Bill 450 (Freeman) – Amends the act of April 23, 2002 (P.L.298. No.39), entitled “An act providing for a commercial downtown enhancement program to be administered by the Department of Community and Economic Development,” and further providing for duration of grants.

• HB 450 passed the committee with a unanimous vote.

House Bill 1443 (Green) – Amends Title 35 (Health and Safety) of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, establishing the Statewide Advisory Council on Playground Safety; and providing for duties of the Statewide advisory Council on Playground Safety.

AMENDMENT:

A05132 to HB 1443 (Gebhard) – Provides that membership of the Council on Playground Safety shall include a representative selected by the International Play Equipment Manufacturers Association.

• Amendment A05132 passed the committee with a unanimous vote.  HB1443 passed the committee as amended with a unanimous vote.

House Bill 1032 (Fiedler) – Establishes the Solar for Schools Grant Program; and providing for powers and duties of the Department of Community and Economic Development.

AMENDMENT:

A05235 to HB 1032 (Gebhard) – Clarifies the definition of “eligible applicant” and “eligible project costs”, provides a definition of a “qualified provider” and requires that a solar facility site assessment be performed to ascertain whether the facility can support a solar energy project.

• Amendment A05235 passed the committee with a unanimous vote.  HB1032 passed the committee as amended with a unanimous vote.

The Senate Communications and Technology Committee met on Tuesday, September 19, 2023 to consider the following bills:

Reported as Committed:

Senate Bill 745 (Phillips-Hill) – This bill requires state contracts to utilize NIST Standards for IT. More information here: https://www.nist.gov/cybersecurity.

The bill was unanimously adopted.

Reported as Amended:

Senate Bill 22 (Hughes) – This bill provides for the protection of minors on social media platforms by adding requirements for parental consent, codifying cause of action, and providing for data access rights and penalties.

• Amendment A02016 – Makes a number of changes to redefine several definitions related to social media platforms, remove cause of action language, and several additional clarifications.

The amendment and the bill as amended were unanimously adopted.

Senate Bill 824 (Pennycuick/Dillon) – This bill amends the Breach of Personal Information Notification Act by requiring free credit monitoring and access to a free credit report for victims of data breaches..

• Amendment A01100 – Technical change related to the breach of medical information.
• Amendment A02020 – Amends how entities can satisfy the free credit report and data monitoring services and clarifies what information had to be compromised to trigger these requirements.

Both amendments and the bill as amended were unanimously adopted.

The Community, Economic & Recreational Development Committee met on Thursday June 22, 2023 to consider the following bills.

Senate Bill 173 (Langerholc) – Amends Title 53 (Municipalities Generally) to establish Safe Exchange Zones for goods purchased online and child custody exchanges.

Senate Bill 373 (Baker) – Amends State Lottery Law to provide confidentiality of certain prizewinner identities.

Both bills were reported out of committee with unanimous votes.