THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA

HOUSE BILL

INTRODUCED BY HICKERNELL, METCALFE, BAKER, BOYD, CALTAGIRONE, CARROLL, CAUSER, D. COSTA, CUTLER, DALEY, DAVIS, DENLINGER, FLECK, GABLER, GEIST, GILLEN, GILLESPIE, GINGRICH, GOODMAN, GRELL, GROVE, HARKINS, HARRIS, HENNESSEY, HESS, KILLION, KULA, MAJOR, MARSHALL, MILLARD, MILLER, MILNE, MOUL, MUNDY, M. O'BRIEN, O'NEILL, PICKETT, RAPP, READSHAW, ROCK, SCAVELLO, STERN, STEVENSON, STURLA, SWANGER, J. TAYLOR, VULAKOVICH AND WATSON, FEBRUARY 28, 2011

REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON STATE GOVERNMENT, FEBRUARY 28, 2011  

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

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

public record, legislative record or financial record contains

information which is subject to access and includes a person's

Social Security number, the agency's response shall grant access

to the information which 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 Internet website.

Section 2.  This act shall take effect in 60 days.