In Commonwealth agency fees, further providing for Department of Labor and Industry to collect fees.
Summary
HB2317 amends Pennsylvania’s Administrative Code provisions governing Commonwealth agency fees, specifically the Department of Labor and Industry’s authority to collect certain fees. The bill would require the listed fees to increase annually by the rate of inflation, measured by the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers in the Northeast Region, beginning one year after the section’s effective date. If inflation is flat, the fees would remain unchanged from the prior year. The department would also be required to publish any fee increases in the Pennsylvania Bulletin.
The bill further provides that the annual inflation-adjustment mechanism would expire when the new paragraph takes effect, and that the fee amounts set in the Department of Labor and Industry’s Bureau of Occupational and Industrial Safety Fee Schedule Update published in November 2025 would remain in effect after that expiration. The act would take effect immediately, meaning the fee-related changes would be implemented without delay.
Impact
HB2317 would amend Section 613-A(c) of the Administrative Code of 1929, changing how certain Department of Labor and Industry fees are updated over time. It would create an automatic inflation-indexing framework tied to the Northeast CPI-U and require public notice of fee changes, while also preserving the fee schedule established in the department’s 2025 update. The practical effect is to stabilize and standardize future fee adjustments for regulated parties that pay Labor and Industry-related fees, including businesses and other entities subject to occupational and industrial safety fee requirements.
Sentiment
No committee transcript or vote history is available for HB2317, so there is no recorded debate or roll-call evidence to indicate support or opposition. Based on the text alone, the bill appears administrative and technical in nature, focused on fee maintenance and indexing rather than a broader policy change. The absence of recorded votes or discussion means sentiment cannot be reliably assessed from the available materials.
Contention
The main potential point of contention is the automatic annual increase in fees tied to inflation, which may be viewed favorably by the department as a way to preserve revenue and keep fees current, but could be opposed by regulated employers or other fee payers who may see it as a built-in cost increase. Another possible issue is the bill’s interaction with the November 2025 fee schedule update, since it appears to preserve those rates after the new paragraph takes effect. However, no specific objections or supporters are documented in the available record.
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