State Senate set to pass changes on how chamber does business
HARRISBURG – Laws are like sausages, it’s better not to see them being made, goes an old saying by Otto von Bismarck, who knew firsthand about politics as the first chancellor of the German Empire. But here in the post-pay raise era of 21st century Pennsylvania, the normally overlooked minutiae of the House and Senate rules are being given considerable attention as the new term gets under way next week.
Senate leaders have come up with a set of seven changes they’re ready to pass Tuesday, most dealing with expanding information on the Internet.
And a growing group of House lawmakers – equaling roughly one-third of the 203-member chamber – has banded together to overhaul how that chamber conducts business.
These would be among the first internal reforms since the passage of the lobbyist disclosure bill this fall. The House changes, in the works for about a year, are meant to bolster the power of rank and file members and open a legislative process many have criticized as too secretive and too driven by the whims of leadership.
Bucks County Rep. Dave Steil, a Republican, is a leader in the House effort. Steil said none of the bigger, more substantive changes the public is calling for, such as campaign finance reform or doing away with lawmaker perks, have a prayer of passing without a cleaner internal process.
“That’s why this first step is so important. The process has to change to allow it,” said Steil. “You will see those things happen if an interest in particular legislation has a more public process.”
Among the more than a dozen proposed changes to the House are restrictions on proxy voting, reinvigorating the Ethics Committee, giving every lawmaker the chance to advance one chosen bill and limiting voting between the hours of 8 a.m. and 11 p.m.
On swearing-in day Tuesday, the House is expected to adopt the old rules as temporary, out of a courtesy to the day’s festivities, and have the tussle over the new rules in February.
In both House and Senate chambers, leaders are conceptually on board, if not intimately involved. The draft of Senate changes – which includes putting all roll call votes on the Internet within 24 hours of a vote and limiting session times to between 8 a.m. and 11 p.m. – is a “true bipartisan reform package” stemming from suggestions by senators, the public and the media, said Erik Arneson, spokesman for Senate Republican Leader Dominic Pileggi.
Arneson said, “We don’t believe this is necessarily the final step.”
The House’s changes, which have developed from the ground up, are further reaching and potentially more controversial. But the new Democratic House Speaker-designate H. William DeWeese (D-Waynesburg), is receptive, said spokesman Tom Andrews.
“I think he’s made it known for the last several weeks in talking to members that’s something they’ve been asking for and he’s receptive to that,” said Andrews. “They want to be careful they don’t change things merely to change things if it’s not going to end up making the process better.”
Changing the rules has been tried before. Steil said he and a group of reform-minded lawmakers attempted an overhaul a decade ago, even traveling around the state one summer to drum up support at newspaper editorial boards.
“We got no support. No follow-up. No real action on the part of the public,” Steil said. “Things happen when there’s a ground swelling.”
The ground swell came after the 2005 pay raise, when the public’s attention and ire focused on the legislative process.
The pay raise passed with no public debate at 2 a.m. as one of the final orders of business following a heated budget battle. An unrelated bill was gutted and amended in a conference meeting between House and Senate leaders and thrown to the chambers for quick passage. Cowed by leadership or their own desire for a pay raise, not a single lawmaker said a word.
The changes to House rules, if enacted, could change all that, primarily by slowing up passage of controversial bills.
Under a draft version of the plan, a bill could only be amended with substantive changes the second time it’s heard on the floor. And 24 hours would have to pass before a bill receives third consideration and a vote on final passage.
The leadership-driven Rules Committee would only handle proposed changes to House rules, and could not used as a tool to bury some legislation and make substantive amendments to others.
Steil mentioned the bill allowing casinos to serve unlimited free drinks, which passed last month as the last order of business in the lame duck session.
“That was done on third consideration, in Rules. It was a situation where nobody had a chance to look at it,” Steil said.
Rep. Tom Tangretti of Westmoreland County, one of the Democratic leaders of the effort, said many lawmakers have been frustrated for some time about the legislative process.
“It’s just unfair for us to have to vote on something without having the benefit of reading it,” Tangretti said. “We’ve done some pretty controversial stuff within a couple hours after we got it in print, then it’s changed again. The language you saw an hour before may not be the language in a multi-page bill.”
The changes also aim to give other controversial bills – namely the ones that don’t have the support of committee chairs, leaders, or popularity in the chamber – a better shot at getting a vote.
They would streamline the time it takes for bills coming out of committee to get a floor vote. And one of the more unusual items in the House reform package is a guarantee that each lawmaker will have a committee vote on a bill they drafted of their choosing every two-year term.
It’s an idea that Colorado pioneered in 1988, calling it GAVEL (Give A Vote to Every Legislator).
Steil said he thinks more issues will have a chance for debate under such a scenario, not just the ones that have majority support.
“Pennsylvania is different in that we rarely defeat legislation. Sometimes on really tough issues you don’t get a vote,” Steil said. “Votes should define my actions by both my positive and negative votes.”
Common Cause of Pennsylvania’s executive director Barry Kauffman said GAVEL would stop committee chairmen from blocking legislation and put more of an onus on individual lawmakers to get something done.
“From a legislator’s point of view, it forces them to be more honest to constituents,” Kauffman said. “It gives them an opportunity to deliver. There’s no place to run and hide.”
In the 2005-2006 legislative session more than 5,000 bills were introduced in both chambers, but only 6 percent passed and 14 percent passed one chamber.
Of course, a rule is just a rule. The House can, and does, frequently suspend the rules by a two-thirds majority vote.
Kauffman said the proposed changes wouldn’t help if they are not followed.
“Our constitution already does have an excellent set of procedural standards if only they would be followed,” Kauffman said. “To a significant degree it will require leadership willing to obey the law.”
And rank-and-file members willing to hold them to it, he added. Kauffman suggested that penalties be put in place for violations, such as leaders being stripped of their positions if they violate the constitution. He’s also calling for a public hearing on the rules changes.
Senate Democrats are asking for changes to be put into law and eventually the constitution. Philadelphia Sen. Vince Fumo, a Democratic leader, proposed a series of changes in April and plans to reintroduce the bills next year, said spokesman Gary Tuma.
One change gives 10 percent of lawmakers the ability to insist that a public hearing be held on a bill before a vote, clearly a benefit to the minority party.
“You give it the force of law,” said Tuma. “How many times have you seen a vote to suspend the rules? So unless you do something in a constitutional amendment, you make it easy for people to get around it when it becomes inconvenient.”
Local lawmakers who have joined the House reform caucus include Rep. Peter J. Daley (D-California), Rep. Ted Harhai (D-Monessen) and Rep. Jess Stairs (R-Acme) More newly elected members are expected to join. The names of newly elected Republicans who have joined have not been made public.
Alison Hawkes can be reached at 717-705-6330 or begin ahawkes@calkins-media.com ahawkes@calkins-media.com end
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