PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call
Steve Esack
Call Harrisburg Bureau
In a surprise move Monday, a Senate panel resurrected and then unanimously approved a controversial bill to lift time limits for some child sex abuse victims to sue their alleged abusers and employers who protected them.
But the bill, which is identical to Senate legislation that failed last session, would not permit victims, if they are 31 or older, to retroactively sue their perpetrators as the House had sought following scathing grand jury report into child sex abuse at a Catholic diocese in western Pennsylvania.
After the Senate Judiciary Committee’s 13-0 vote, Senate President Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson, said he reintroduced the bill in an effort to start negotiations early.
“This is a bill I thought, because of my involvement last year, I will take the lead and we’ll work it through the process and the process has just begun here,” he said. “My hope is we get the bill out of the Senate this week but that is yet to be seen.”
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