PA House Judiciary — 2026-10-19

Good morning, everyone. The House Judiciary Committee will come to order. Will the secretary please call the roll?

Representatives Abney? Designation. Carroll? Designation. Donahue? Designation. Hanbridge? Designation. Hohenstein? Designation. Howard. Kenyatta. Designation. Kincaid. Mays. Designation. Keeley. Rab. Designation. Sanchez. Designation online. Schusterman. Designation.

Representatives Bonner. Designation. Horowitz. Designation. Ham. Designation. Kerwin. designation clunk designation krupa designation kuzma designation leadbetter designation margettis designation hugh rigby mr chairman a quorum is present having a quorum we will proceed with

1431 by Senator Laughlin. Counsel, please provide a brief description of Senate Bill 1431. Mr. Chairman, Senate Bill 1431 sponsored by Senator Laughlin amends Title 34, the game code to require game commission officers or employees to obtain a valid warrant before entering any property posted or otherwise This bill clarifies the authority of game commission law enforcement officers following the Supreme Court decision in Puxatawney Hunting Club versus PA Game Commission In that case, the court held that Article 1, Section 8 provided Pennsylvania citizens with greater protections than the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution as it relates to the open fields of any landowner that has demonstrated a reasonable expectation of privacy and requires them to obtain a warrant based upon probable cause or satisfy one of the recognized exceptions to the warrant requirement before entering private property. This bill is intended to codify the Supreme Court decision. It unanimously passed the Senate on October 6th. It takes effect in 60 days, and there are no amendments. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Chairman, Senate Bill 210, sponsored by Senator Pacozi, amends Title 75, the vehicle code to create section 3725 related to interference with the operation or movement of public transit vehicle person is guilty of felony of first degree if the person attempts to cause or intentionally causes bodily injury serious bodily injury or death to a mass transit vehicle operator while in the performance of the operator's duty mr chairman a person is guilty of felony of the third degree if the person attempts to cause or intentionally or knowingly cause bodily injury to an operator while in the performance of the operator's duty. The bill defines an operator as a driver, conductor, operations staff, or engineer on board a public transit vehicle. A public transit vehicle is defined as a bus, mass transit vehicle, commuter rail, passenger transportation, incline light rail, monorail, railroad passenger car, street car, subway, train, trolley, or a similar vehicle or system for the exclusive use for public transportation. This bill passed the Senate 48 to 1 on February 5th, 2025. It takes effect in 60 days, and there are no amendments.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am incredibly frustrated by this because we are making illegal things illegal again. It is already unlawful to attack or harm someone This legislation is maybe the most offensive because it tells our public transit workers that it's going to provide a level of safety that it cannot possibly provide. Because we are creating something that ultimately would likely merge into into crimes that that already exist but that that are it has no hope of actually preventing the harm in the first place and that is what we should be focused on we don't want our public transit operators to be harmed but to tell them that something that is not actually going to result in further punishment is going to deter an underlying offense is just, I think, irresponsible. And it makes us all feel great that we're doing something, but we're not doing anything to actually protect the safety of our public transit workers. And I will vote this out of committee, but I have real concerns about what we are spending our time, energy, and effort on doing if we are really committed to actually making sure that our public transit workers are protected. Thank you.

Thank you, Chair. I'm going to echo my colleagues' concerns as well. I want to bring up that there is a bill that Representative Kahn and I have been proposing in response specifically to the incident in Philadelphia that sparked this piece of legislation, the killing of bus operator Bernard Gribbins, a SEPTA rider and TWU 234 member. So the bill that Rep. Khan and I have would provide additional grants and funding for operator-directed and system-directed safety improvements for the bus drivers and the toll takers at the train stations to implement measures that they feel make them the most safe. And SEPTA does this. I know PRT does this with regular safety committees with their operators and with their workers, and this would provide some additional financial support for that. And I think when we look at prevention and safety and, frankly, honoring the legacy of someone who gave his life in his work, I think something along those lines makes more sense. So, yes, I will be a yes on this, but I do think policy-wise we can find a different way to make our transit workers safer.

Mr. Chairman, House Resolution 660, sponsored by Chairman Briggs, directs the Joint State Government Commission to conduct a comprehensive study on security at magisterial district courts and provide recommendations on how to ensure our magisterial district courts and those who work at and interact with them are adequately protected. The report is due by December 31st, 2027, and there are no amendments. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.