Tracing Back Pennsylvania Codes

Wondering how to trace back a code to its prior versions? Or to see how it read during a certain time period? Check out our example below using 61 Pa. Code § 815.49.

Say you have to find the 1980 version of 61 Pa. Code § 815.49, which covers the "procedure for claiming and payment of prizes" for state lotteries and is a regulation from the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue.

You can locate the current version of 61 Pa. Code § 815.49 online here. From the current version, you will need to look for a paragraph labeled "Source". For 61 Pa. Code § 815.49, the "Source" note reads:

"The provisions of this § 815.49 adopted Feb. 25, 1977, effective Feb. 26, 1977, 7 Pa.B. 529; amended May 18, 1984, effective May 19, 14 Pa. B. 1716; amended Oct. 12, 1984, effective Oct. 13, 1984, 14 Pa.B. 3759; amended Sept. 2, 1988, effective Sept. 3, 1988, 18 Pa.B. 4007. Immediately preceding text appears at serial page (126656)."

It is obvious that the code section has been amended a few times, but the last sentence is a mystery to most people. What is a serial page? This concept is found at 1 Pa. Code § 5.2, the section that covers the "certification of official text" for the Pa. Code.

Subsection (b) states: "The Director of the Bureau will cause each printed page of the code and a subsequent amendment to a page to be designated by a sequential and distinctive serial number; will collate sets of the pages in ascending sequence according to the serial numbers; and will cause the sets to be bound permanently into volumes of convenient size."

What does this mean? Each page of the Pa. Code is assigned a number that can be found in the lower left-hand corner in parentheses. In addition to being contained in the current Pa. Code, which is codified or organized by title number and chapter, the page is also published in volumes entitled "Pages by Sequential Serial Number."

The Legislative Reference Bureau first published these volumes in 1969. Today there are 375 volumes and more than 400,000 pages -- less than a dozen law libraries contain these volumes.

Subsection (b) of 1 Pa. Code § 5.2 provides that the outdated code volumes are to be deposited in certain libraries and lists the following:

* Two copies to the state law library.
* One copy to the Allegheny County Law Library.
* One copy to the Philadelphia Bar Association Law Library (now known as Jenkins Law Library).
* Two copies to the Legislative Reference Bureau.
* Two copies to the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission for preservation in the Commonwealth Archives.
* One copy to the Commonwealth Court Law Library.
* One copy to a law school situated in this commonwealth which makes a written request to the Legislative Reference Bureau.

To find the regulation that you are looking for in this hypothetical example, you need to consult three different print volumes of the "Pages by Sequential Serial Number" because Section 815.49 has been amended three times since 1980.

The present section leads you to page 126656, which contains the law as it read before the Sept. 3, 1988 amendment. Page 126656 states, "immediately preceding text appears at serial page (91076)".

Page 91076 contains the text of section 815.49 as it read before the Oct. 13, 1984 amendment and states, "immediately preceding text appears at serial page (76309). Page 76309 contains the text of section 815.49 as it read before the May 18, 1984 amendment and after its adoption on Feb. 25, 1977. This is the version that was in effect in 1980.

As you can probably tell, finding an outdated code section is not as simple as pulling a single book off the shelf by year. You must work backward step by step, volume by volume.

A Quick Note: Although the pages by sequential serial number volumes are the only source for outdated codified Pennsylvania administrative rules and regulations (pre 2021), the bulletin can be helpful for locating uncodified materials. The source note also references bulletin citations where you could find the regulation as it was first published before it was codified into the code. 

Although the bulletin references are not the codified version, they are useful for two significant reasons. First, the bulletin is more accessible than the serial page volumes because it is a widely distributed publication. Second, when a new regulation is first published in the bulletin, there is an introductory section that explains the history of the regulation and a summary of any public comments that were received after it was proposed. This information is helpful to a researcher trying to understand why a regulation was adopted or amended.

Regulations that were adopted prior to 1969 must be obtained from the Legislative Reference Bureau, Pennsylvania Code and Bulletin.
 

Serial Pages Available Online Through (https://www.pacodeandbulletin.gov/Home/Pacode)

In most cases, the serial pages you will encounter when tracing back the PA Code will go beyond what the PA Code has available online (2021 - Present). *The PA Code only has serial pages numbered from 402667 and after. To see the serial pages that are numbered before 402667, you would have to continue tracing back using print materials (like in our example described above). However, if your serial page number falls from 402667 and after, you can view these pages on the PA Code's website:

To access the serial pages from the PA Code & Bulletin homepage, select 'Pennsylvania Code' under the 'Search' tab. 

Once within the Pennsylvania Code section, at the bottom of the page you will see Browse : Code by Serial Page Number. 

Alternatively, print volumes of serial pages are available at Jenkins. If you are interested in research that concerns those volumes, please contact our research staff. Jenkins has the ability to track back code sections to the 1970s using print serial pages. Regulations that were adopted prior to 1969 must be obtained from the Legislative Reference Bureau, Pennsylvania Code and Bulletin.