Legal Research: Pennsylvania

Bills

Bills can be sponsored in both chambers of the Pennsylvania legislature with both the House and Senate numbering their bills sequentially throughout the two-year term. Each bill is also given a printer's number in the upper right corner of the first page. The printers number allows one to keep track of the differing versions of a bill as it works its way through the legislative process. Thus there may be three different versions of House bill 200 with the versions assigned printers numbers 230, 450, and 1378. The highest printers number for a bill will be the most current version of that bill. In Pennsylvania starting in 1999 bills are now available online.

Up until this year the state printer published a combination index/status table for bills. This publication is entitled A History of House and Senate Bills. There is a section listing each bill along with the names of the sponsors and a list of printer's numbers for each version of the bill. This section also details each stage of the legislative process the bill has progressed through. The other major component of the History is a subject index for all bills and resolutions. All of the information that was contained in this publication can now be retrieved from the electronic bill room website listed above by using the "bill history" feature which appears once you have selected a bill.