Pennsylvania Code › Title 101 - GENERAL ASSEMBLY › Part I - LEGISLATIVE REFERENCE BUREAU › Subpart D - PENNSYLVANIA CONSOLIDATED STATUTES STYLE MANUAL › Chapter 21 - GENERAL PROVISIONS › Subchapter C - ELIMINATION OF UNNECESSARY MATTER › Section 21.34 - Provision contained in Administrative Code

Current through Register Vol. 54, No. 28, July 13, 2024
(a)
Background.
-Prior to The
					 Administrative Code of 1923 no general statute on the organization of the
					 Commonwealth government existed. The Administrative Code of 1923 was drafted
					 and held constitutional (see
Commonwealth ex rel. Attorney General v.
					 Snyder
, 279 Pa. 234 (1924)) on the theory that the statute did not
					 vest any substantive governmental authority in the executive branch, but merely
					 specified which department, board or commission was thereafter to exercise
					 authority vested in the executive branch by other statutes, which other
					 statutes continued in operation except as to the specification of the identity
					 of the administering agency. This result was required by section 3 of Article
					 III of the Constitution of Pennsylvania as in effect prior to the
					 Constitutional Amendment of May 16, 1967. Thus, the absolute repeal of a
					 pre-1923 statutory provision terminates the function notwithstanding the
					 continuation of the same statutory language in the Administrative Code. For
					 example, a statute is enacted in 1907 conferring jurisdiction on the Water
					 Supply Commission of Pennsylvania to approve charters for water companies. The
					 Administrative Codes of 1923 and 1929 recite that the Water and Power Resources
					 Board shall, inter alia, exercise the powers vested in the Water Supply
					 Commission of Pennsylvania with respect to approval of water company charters.
					 A statute is enacted in 1939 repealing absolutely the 1907 act and substituting
					 a scheme of water rights regulation wholly independent of corporate charters.
					 The functions of the Water and Power Resources Board with respect to approval
					 of charters for water companies are terminated, notwithstanding the continued
					 existence of the Administrative Code language. A statute is enacted in 1970
					 transferring the functions, inter alia, of the Water and Power Resources Board
					 with respect to approval of charters for water companies to the Department of
					 Environmental Resources. The purported transfer does not revive the power over
					 water company charters. Reference should also be made to §
											21.32(c)
					 (relating to effect of subsequent reenactment of supplied
					 provisions).
(b)
General
					 rule.
-When drafting a revision which encompasses pre-1927 statutory
					 provisions which have been expressly repealed, or supplied and hence impliedly
					 repealed, the repealed or supplied language is omitted notwithstanding the fact
					 that similar or identical language is contained in the Administrative Code.
					 Such similar or identical Administrative Code language is cited for absolute
					 repeal as obsolete in the revision bill repealer.
(c)
1927 and later amendments to the
					 Administrative Code.
-The rule set forth in subsection (b) is not
					 necessarily applicable to a power vested in the executive branch by any of the
					 1927 amendments to The Administrative Code of 1923 or any amendment to The
					 Administrative Code of 1929.