Weekly Wrap
The House of Representatives and Senate returned to the Capitol this week for three session days. With the primary election taking place on May 19, June 1 is the next session day for both chambers.
On Monday, the House Transportation Committee reported out HB 2469 (Powell, D-Allegheny), which would allow local governments to use public-private partnerships (P3s) for transportation projects.
The Senate Law and Justice Committee reported out: HB 627 (Solomon, D-Philadelphia), which would create a Public Safety Communications Pilot Program to support the purchase and implementation of community engagement software; and SB 49 (Laughlin, R-Erie), which would create a Cannabis Control Board to oversee the medical marijuana program.
On the House Floor, several bills of note passed finally and will head to the Senate for consideration:
- HB 1752 (Curry, D-Delaware), which would direct the Secretary of Education to commission an independent study on the feasibility of alternatives to the Keystone Exam;
- HB 2076 (Venkat, D-Allegheny), which would create regulatory framework for geothermal energy development;
- HB 2223 (Fiedler, D-Philadelphia), which would provide for the consideration of advanced transmission technologies on new and existing transmission lines; and
- HB 2347 (Fiedler, D-Philadelphia), which would make comprehensive changes to the Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority.
Tuesday, the House Education Committee held an informational meeting on the education workforce.
HB 2468 (Khan, D-Philadelphia), which would provide an additional $19 million for the Agriculture Innovation Fund, was reported from the House Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee.
The House Communications and Technology Committee reported out: HB 95 (Pielli, D-Chester), which would require a disclosure on AI-generated content used for the sale of consumer goods; and HB 1925 (Venkat, D-Allegheny), which would create a legislative and regulatory framework for AI in health care.
HR 203 (Guzman, D-Berks) was adopted by the full House. The resolution directs the Joint State Government Commission to conduct a study of reported patient safety events and issue a report with recommendations.
On Wednesday, the House Health Committee held an informational meeting on the Uniform Healthcare Decision Act. The House Labor and Industry Committee held an informational meeting on child care solutions for a changing workplace and workforce.
The House Energy Committee reported out:
- HB 2264 (Davidson, D-Cumberland), which would require electric distribution companies to develop and submit a proposal to implement a virtual power plant program;
- HB 2429 (Cerrato, D-Montgomery), which would require electric utilities to publish and regularly update publicly accessible maps showing distribution-system hosting capacity, including circuit limits, substation constraints, and interconnection queue status; and
- HB 2450 (Mehaffie, R-Dauphin), which would update fees for nuclear power reactor sites and provide for cost recovery for the shut-down of reactors.
The Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee reported out HB 2017 (Giral, D-Philadelphia), which would make changes to the nuclear facility fees for small modular reactor and microreactor sites.
SB 1105 (Brown, R-Monroe), which would empower counties to require, by ordinance, hotel operators and booking agents to report transaction information, was reported from the Senate Community, Economic, and Recreational Development Committee.
Two bills of note passed finally in the House and will go to the Senate for consideration:
- HB 2302 (Takac, D-Centre), which would provide for the licensure of water, geotechnical, geothermal and environmental well drillers; and
- HB 2474 (Rivera, D-Lancaster), which require mandated reporters to make a report to the Department of Human Services about the existence of child sexual abuse material or artificially generated child sexual abuse material.
The following bills of note passed finally in the Senate and will go to the House for consideration:
- SB 1294 (Ward, R-Blair), which would increase the penalty for a licensee who operates a “commercial driver’s license mill”;
- SB 1295 (Ward, R-Blair), which would provide an English proficiency standard for individuals operating a commercial motor vehicle; and
- SB 1298 (Langerholc, R-Cambria), which would remove all 25 counties currently subjected to the annual emissions testing.
SB 375 (Brown, R-Monroe), which would require each school entity to have an individual trained and certified in the use of an AED and CPR to be present in each school building during each school day, passed finally in both chambers and will go to the Governor’s desk before becoming law.
On Thursday, the Senate Institutional Sustainability and Innovation Committee held a public hearing on SB 792 (Farry, R-Bucks), which would increase the amount available for the Research and Development Tax Credit from $60 million to $120 million. The Committee met again on Friday to discuss SB 759 (Robinson, R-Allegheny), which would require school districts to replace old, outdated drinking fountains with lead-filtering hydration stations by 2028.
In Other News
- The Department of State filed a lawsuit against Character.AI to stop the company from misrepresenting its AI companion bots as licensed medical professionals who can provide medical advice.
- The Department of Revenue released April 2026 collections, which were $519 million (8.4%) more than anticipated.



























