Bill Text: PA HB670 | 2013-2014 | Regular Session | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Amending the act of July 10, 1968 (P.L.316, No.154), known as the Legislative Code of Ethics, further providing for definitions, for prohibitions and for civil remedies.

Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Republican 10-2)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2013-02-12 - Referred to STATE GOVERNMENT [HB670 Detail]

Download: Pennsylvania-2013-HB670-Introduced.html

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PRINTER'S NO. 758

 

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA

 

HOUSE BILL

No.

670

Session of 2013

 

 

 

INTRODUCED BY MARSHALL, MATZIE, PICKETT, MILLER, SWANGER, M. K. KELLER, GODSHALL, FLECK, QUINN AND MURT, FEBRUARY 12, 2013

 

 

REFERRED TO COMMITEE ON STATE GOVERNMENT, FEBRUARY 12, 2013

 

 

 

AN ACT

 

Amending the act of July 10, 1968 (P.L.316, No.154), entitled
"An act establishing a code of ethics for the General
Assembly, its officers and employes, and providing remedies
for its enforcement and penalties," further providing for
definitions, for prohibitions and for civil remedies.

The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
hereby enacts as follows:

Section 1. Sections 3, 5 and 7 of the act of July 10, 1968 
(P.L.316, No.154), known as the Legislative Code of Ethics, are
amended to read:

Section 3. Definitions.--Unless the context clearly
indicates otherwise, the following words and terms when used
herein shall have the respective meanings defined as follows:

(1) "Agency" means any department, agency, commission,
board, committee, authority or other instrumentality which is
created by or under the Constitution or laws of the Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania or by executive order, except local political
subdivisions or agencies, the majority of the members of whose
governing bodies are locally elected or appointed.

(2) "Agency head" and "head of any agency" mean the chief
executive or administrative officer of each of the State
agencies.

(3) "Assist" means to act, or agree to act, in such a way as
to help, aid, advise, furnish information to, or otherwise
provide assistance to another person believing that such action
is of help, aid, advice, or assistance to such person and with
intent to so assist such person.

(4) "Compensation" means any thing of economic value,
however designated, which is paid, loaned, granted, given,
donated or transferred, or to be paid, loaned, granted, given,
donated or transferred for or in consideration of personal
services to any person, official or to the State.

(4.1) "Ethics committee" means the Committee on Ethics of
the Senate or the Committee on Ethics of the House of
Representatives.

(5) "Gift," as used in section 5, includes any thing of
economic value with the exception of public awards,
insignificant nonpecuniary gifts, political contributions for
which an accounting is required by and is made pursuant to the
election laws, or compensation or gifts not connected with or
related to either the legislative processes or the donee's
services as a member.

(5.1) "Legislative nonprofit organization" means a nonprofit 
corporation or other entity whose primary purpose is to receive 
funds under the General Appropriation Act or another 
appropriations act at the discretion or by reason of the 
influence of a member for the use at the direction or discretion 
of the member.

(6) "Member" shall include a Senator, Representative,

officer or employe of the General Assembly or any committee
thereof; but not a person employed on a contractual basis or
without compensation for a particular project.

(7) "State action" means any action on the part of the
Commonwealth or a Commonwealth agency, including, but not
limited to: (i) any decision, determination, finding, ruling or
order, including the judgment or verdict of a court or a quasi-
judicial board, in which the Commonwealth or any of its
agencies, boards and commissions has an interest, except in such
matters, involving criminal prosecutions; (ii) any grant,
payment, award, license, contract, transaction, decision,
sanction or approval, or the denial thereof, or the failure to
act with respect thereto, in which the Commonwealth or any of
its agencies has an interest, except in such matters involving
criminal prosecutions; (iii) any disposition of any matter by
the General Assembly or any committee thereof.

(8) "Participate" in connection with a transaction involving
the Commonwealth means to take part in State action or a
proceeding personally as a Commonwealth official, through
approval, disapproval, decision, recommendation, the rendering
of advice, investigation, or the failure to act or perform a
duty.

(9) "Person" means: (i) an individual, other than a
Commonwealth agency or official; (ii) a partnership,
association, corporation, firm, institution, trust, foundation
or other legal entity (other than an agency), whether or not
operated for profit; (iii) a district, county, municipality or
other political subdivision of the State, or any subdivision
thereof, provided such is not an agency; (iv) a foreign country
or subdivision thereof, or (v) any other entity which is not a

Commonwealth agency or official.

(10) "Responsibility" in connection with a transaction
involving the Commonwealth means the direct administration or
operating authority whether intermediate or final, and either
exercisable alone or with others, and either personally or
through or with others or subordinates, to effectively approve,
disapprove, fail to act or perform a duty, or otherwise direct
State action in respect of such transaction.

(11) "Thing of economic value" means any money or other
thing having economic value except food, drink or refreshments
consumed by an official including reasonable transportation and
entertainment incident thereto, while the personal guest of some
person, and includes, without limiting the generality of the
foregoing: (i) any loan, except a bone fide loan made by a duly
licensed bank or savings and loan association at the normal rate
of interest, any property interest, interest in a contract,
merchandise, service and any employment or other arrangement
involving a right to compensation; (ii) any option to obtain a
thing of economic value, irrespective of the conditions to the
exercise of such option; and (iii) any promise or undertaking
for the present or future delivery or procurement of a thing of
economic value.

In the case of an option, promise or undertaking, the time of
receipt of the thing of economic value shall be deemed to be,
respectively, the time the right to the option becomes fixed,
regardless of the conditions to its exercise, and the time when
the promise or undertaking is made, regardless of the conditions
to its performance.

(12) "Transaction involving the Commonwealth" means any
proceeding, application, submission, request for a ruling or

other determination, contract, claim, case or other such
particular matter which the official in question believes, or
has reason to believe: (i) is, or will be, the subject of State
action, or (ii) is one to which the Commonwealth is or will be a
party, or (iii) is one in which the Commonwealth has a direct
interest.

Section 5. Prohibitions.--(a) No member shall knowingly
solicit, accept, or receive any gift or compensation other than
that to which he is duly entitled from the Commonwealth which is
intended to influence the performance of his official duties or
which would influence the performance of his official duties nor
shall any member solicit, accept, or receive any such gift or
compensation for advocating the passage or defeat of any
legislation or for doing any act intended to influence the
passage or defeat of legislation including, in the case of a
Senator or Representative, his vote thereon.

(b) No member shall receive compensation or any thing of
economic value for any consultation, the subject matter of
which:

(1) Is devoted substantially to the responsibilities,
programs, or operations of the General Assembly, or

(2) Draws substantially upon official data or ideas which
have not become part of the body of public information.

(c) No member shall participate as a principal in any
transaction involving the Commonwealth or any Commonwealth
agency in which he, his spouse or child, or any person of which
he is an officer, director, trustee, partner or employe has a
substantial personal economic interest as distinguished from
that of a general class or general group of persons of which he
may reasonably be expected to know.

(d) No member shall receive any compensation or enter into
any agreement with any person for compensation for services
rendered or to be rendered, for assisting any person in any
transaction involving the Commonwealth or any of its officials
or agencies unless he shall file with the Chief Clerk of the
House of Representatives or Secretary of the Senate, as the case
may be, a written statement, giving the following information:

(1) Name and address of member.

(2) The name and address of the person employing or
retaining the member to perform such services.

(3) Whether the amount of compensation for services rendered
or to be rendered is (i) one thousand dollars ($1000), or more,
or (ii) less than one thousand dollars ($1000).

(4) A brief description of the transaction in reference to
which service is rendered or is to be rendered, and of the
nature of the service.

The sworn statement shall be filed with the chief clerk or
secretary within ten days from the date such agreement, express
or implied, was entered into, or the compensation was received.
Such statement of disclosure shall be deemed confidential and
privileged and shall only be made public in connection with a
public hearing for an alleged violation of this code where such
would be relevant to the charges made and for which the member
is being tried.

(e) Subsections (a), (b), (c) and (d) of this section 5,
shall not apply to:

(1) Receipt of bona fide reimbursement, to the extent
permitted by law, for actual expenses for travel and such other
necessary subsistence as is compatible with this act and for
which no Commonwealth payment or reimbursement is made.

(2) Participation in the affairs of charitable, religious,
nonprofit educational, public service or civic organizations, or
the activities of national or State political parties not
proscribed by law.

(3) Awards for meritorious public contribution given by
public service or civic organizations.

(4) Sharing in any compensation received from the
Commonwealth or from any political subdivision of the
Commonwealth by a person of which such member owns or controls
any portion thereof, provided such compensation was received by
such person as a result of having made the lowest competitive
bid on a Commonwealth contract or subcontract and having had
such bid accepted by the Commonwealth or the general contractor,
or by reason of an engagement by the Commonwealth in emergency
circumstances where dispensation with bidding is permitted by
law, and provided such member did not assist in the procurement
of the Commonwealth's or the subdivision's or the general
contractor's acceptance of such low bid or engagement without
bidding.

(5) Campaign contributions for use in meeting campaign
expenses by any official who is or becomes a candidate for
election to the same or another public office.

(6) Receipt of compensation from the Commonwealth, directly
or indirectly, where: (i) the total interest of the member and
his immediate family in the person receiving said compensation
is less than ten percent, or (ii) the member or the person in
which he has an interest is the exclusive supplier of the real
or personal property or service purchased by the Commonwealth,
or (iii) the service purchased is newspaper advertising required
by law.

(7) Receipt of compensation, directly or indirectly, by a
member who is an attorney-at-law, for services in a proceeding
where he represents an interest adverse to that of the
Commonwealth, where the proceeding is before any court, where
the Commonwealth has a right to judicial review in a proceeding
not initially before a court, or where the proceeding involves
only the uncontested and routine action of administrative
officers or employes of the Commonwealth in issuing or renewing
a license, charter, certificate or similar document.

(f) No member shall use for private gain any information not
available to the public at large and acquired by him solely by
virtue of his position.

(g) No information described in subsection (f) of this
section 5 shall be disclosed by a member to others for purposes
of their use for private gain, in circumstances where the use of
such information by the member would violate subsection (f) of
this section 5.

(h) No member may create, maintain or cause to be created or
maintained a legislative nonprofit organization. For purposes of
implementing this subsection, the appropriate ethics committee
shall issue to a member of their body, upon the member's
request, an opinion with respect to the member's duties under
this subsection. Each ethics committee shall, within fourteen
days, issue the opinion. No member who acts in good faith on an
opinion issued to that member by an ethics committee may be
subject to sanctions, if the material facts are as stated in the
opinion request. The respective ethics committees' opinions
shall be public records and may from time to time be published,
except that the member requesting the legislative nonprofit
organization opinion may require that the legislative nonprofit

organization opinion contain deletions and changes necessary to
protect the identity of the persons involved.

Section 7. Civil Remedies.--(a) Any agency head having final
authority to approve or execute a contract between the
Commonwealth and a private party may cancel or rescind any such
contract without further liability to the Commonwealth where he
finds that a violation of this act has influenced the making of
said contract; provided, such rescission shall be limited so as
not to affect adversely the interests of innocent third parties;
and provided further, that no such action shall be initiated
before the affirmative finding of the appropriate [House or
Senate Committee on Ethics] ethics committee that a violation
has occurred.

(b) The finding referred to in subsection (a) supra shall be
made in accordance with the act of June 4, 1945 (P.L.1388), as
amended, known as the "Administrative Agency Law," and shall be
subject to judicial review, provided that the executive officer
may suspend the contract pending determination of the merits of
the controversy.

(c) The Attorney General may bring a civil action against
any member or former member in the judicial district in which
said person is domiciled, who shall, to his economic advantage,
have acted in violation of this act, to recover on behalf of the
Commonwealth an amount equal to such economic advantage, with
interest; provided, that no such action shall be brought before
the affirmative finding of the appropriate [House or Senate
Committee on Ethics] ethics committee that a violation has
occurred.

(d) No action under subsection (c) of this section 7 shall
be commenced after the expiration of two years following the

discovery by an agency head or [an Ethics Committee of the
General Assembly] the appropriate ethics committee of the
occurrence of the alleged violation, or four years after the
occurrence of the alleged violation, whichever period is
shorter.

(e) The Senator or Representative having responsibility for
hiring an employe of the General Assembly may, and if so ordered
by the [Ethics Committee of his respective house] appropriate 
ethics committee, shall, dismiss, suspend or take such other
action as may be appropriate under the circumstances with
respect to any employe upon a finding by the Senator or
Representative or by said committee that such employe has
violated any of the provisions of this act.

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