PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call
Bill White
House Bill 1947 is dead for this legislative session.
The landmark bill extending Pennsylvania’s criminal and civil statutes of limitations for child sex abuse survivors achieved a remarkable degree of consensus, considering how many years similar bills have been buried in committees by legislators cowed by Catholic Church and Insurance Federation lobbying pressure.
But it ultimately fell victim to the unwillingness of Senate leaders to allow a vote on retroactive access to civil lawsuits for child sex abuse survivors blocked by current and past statutes of limitations.
After a strong compromise version of HB 1947 passed the House 180-15 this spring, the retroactive portion of the bill was removed in the Senate Judiciary Committee, which also added a weird preamble laying out its claims that civil radioactivity is unconstitutional. The Senate passed that watered down bill, presenting House leaders and the bill’s advocates with a difficult decision:
Should they accept the weaker bill, which nonetheless constituted a big improvement on present statutes, and address retroactivity again next session? Or should they rewrite the bill again, removing the unacceptable preamble and restoring retroactivity, knowing it was unlikely the Senate would vote on such a bill again this session?
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