PRINTER'S NO. 1544
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
HOUSE BILL
No.
1277
Session of
2017
INTRODUCED BY HICKERNELL, BAKER, BOBACK, V. BROWN, CALTAGIRONE,
CUTLER, DeLUCA, FEE, GOODMAN, GREINER, HAHN, JAMES, LAWRENCE,
McCARTER, MENTZER, MILLARD, B. MILLER, D. MILLER, O'NEILL,
PETRARCA, PICKETT, REESE, ROEBUCK, RYAN, SAYLOR, SCHLOSSBERG,
SCHWEYER, SOLOMON, WARD AND ZIMMERMAN, APRIL 24, 2017
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON STATE GOVERNMENT, APRIL 24, 2017
AN ACT
Amending the act of February 14, 2008 (P.L.6, No.3), entitled
"An act providing for access to public information, for a
designated open-records officer in each Commonwealth agency,
local agency, judicial agency and legislative agency, for
procedure, for appeal of agency determination, for judicial
review and for the Office of Open Records; imposing
penalties; providing for reporting by State-related
institutions; requiring the posting of certain State contract
information on the Internet; and making related repeals," in
access, further providing for requests; and, in procedure,
further providing for redaction.
The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
hereby enacts as follows:
Section 1. Sections 506(c) and 706 of the act of February
14, 2008 (P.L.6, No.3), known as the Right-to-Know Law, are
amended to read:
Section 506. Requests.
* * *
(c) Agency discretion.--An agency may exercise its
discretion to make any otherwise exempt record accessible for
inspection and copying under this chapter, if all of the
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following apply:
(1) Disclosure of the record is not prohibited under any
of the following:
(i) Federal or State law or regulation.
(ii) Judicial order or decree.
(2) The record is not protected by a privilege.
(3) The agency head determines that the public interest
favoring access outweighs any individual, agency or public
interest that may favor restriction of access.
(4) The record does not contain a person's Social
Security number, unless the Social Security number has been
redacted under section 706.
* * *
Section 706. Redaction.
(a) General rule.--If an agency determines that a public
record, legislative record or financial record contains
information which is subject to access as well as information
which is not subject to access, the agency's response shall
grant access to the information which is subject to access and
deny access to the information which is not subject to access.
If the information which is not subject to access is an integral
part of the public record, legislative record or financial
record and cannot be separated, the agency shall redact from the
record the information which is not subject to access, and the
response shall grant access to the information which is subject
to access. The agency may not deny access to the record if the
information which is not subject to access is able to be
redacted. Information which an agency redacts in accordance with
this subsection shall be deemed a denial under Chapter 9.
(b) Social Security numbers.--If an agency determines that a
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public record, legislative record or financial record contains
information that is subject to access and includes a person's
Social Security number, the agency's response shall grant access
to the information that is subject to access and deny access to
the Social Security number by redacting the Social Security
number from the record.
(c) Online posting of records.--Subsections (a) and (b)
shall apply to all records made available on a publicly
accessible Internet website. An agency shall, within six months
of the effective date of this subsection, redact all Social
Security numbers from records made available on a publicly
accessible Internet website owned, operated or controlled by the
agency or a party with whom the agency has contracted to own,
operate or control the publicly accessible Internet website.
Section 2. This act shall take effect in 60 days.
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