Is PA's full-time Legislature producing part-time results? Some want more bills considered

With the largest full-time Legislature in the country, Pennsylvanians deserve to have more than a quarter of bills introduced ever make it out of a committee, a panel on legislative rules reform was told Wednesday.

The problem, said Fair Districts PA’s Tony Crocamo, is that so much power rests in the hands of committee chairpersons, the majority leader and the House Speaker, who control the legislative agenda.

“This creates an unchecked power,” Crocamo said, “and a dangerous imbalance.”

Crocamo’s presentation on the Legislature’s inability, or unwillingness, to consider 75% of the bills introduced was part of a virtual panel organized by Fair Districts PA, the anti-gerrymandering group, and featuring several Republican and Democratic House and Senate members.

Legislators who vote for restrictive rules at the beginning of each legislative session — a new one begins in January — are abdicating their responsibility to the voters who put them in office, Crocamo said.

“They’re putting party before people,” he said. “They’re putting party before their own ability to represent us.”

Crocamo drew a bleak picture for the minority party, currently Democrats in both chambers, where 85% of bills approved are introduced by the majority. He said the majority top brass will not let any legislation advance without their permission regardless of its popularity with voters, pointing to polling that shows 66% of Pennsylvanians support redistricting reform.

“Legislation they support gets passed,” Crocamo said. “Legislation they’re not interested in, despite what the public wants, doesn’t get any action.”

State Sen. Lindsey Williams of Allegheny County seemed to concur, saying, “There are individual people who have a lot of power.”

Northampton County state Rep. Bob Freeman, a Democrat, said leaders have a “tremendous amount of influence and control over the legislative process” and he wants changes “to empower rank-and-file members,” who are frequently ignored.

Despite talk of reaching across the aisle to work in a bipartisan manner, Crocamo said party caucuses separate from each other to debate bills and decide on their support. “There’s no collaboration or cooperation between the parties,” he said.

One trick, Crocamo said, is that committees will pass bills back and forth, which “gives the impression something is happening” when no action is being taken.

Crocamo offered three changes for the Legislature:

• Guarantee a vote in committee on bills with bipartisan support.
• Guarantee a floor vote on bills that come out of committee.
• Ensure that a bill approved by one chamber is guaranteed a floor vote in the other chamber.

Williams acknowledged that the voters who put her in office are frustrated at the lack of legislative action on Democratic proposals. “It’s frustrating to me, and it’s frustrating to my constituents,” she said.

And, Williams said she has talked to colleagues, including Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa of Allegheny County, about pursuing rules reforms.

Bucks County Republican state Rep. Wendi Thomas said if there is a majority of House members co-sponsoring a bill, or 102 members, “then it should be run.”

Freeman said that if a bill has support from at least 20 Republicans and 20 Democrats then it should be brought up in committee, and legislation with a majority of House support “deserves to be considered by the entire floor.”