House reform panel passes 32 recommendations
HARRISBURG – The House legislative reform panel ended its first phase of work, passing 32 recommendations to change the way the chamber does business, but fell short of approving some of the more controversial measures. The House Legislative Reform Commission voted down or punted on issues such as term limits for committee chairs and legislative leaders, reform of the House Ethics Committee, and a comprehensive overhaul of lawmakers’ perks.
The commission approved giving the public access to electronic records of lawmakers’ spending, an 11 p.m. curfew on floor sessions, and eliminated the ability of the leadership-controlled Rules Committee to substantively change bills, among other measures.
Lawmakers on the 24-member panel said they were under the gun to pass a set of recommendations on to the House floor for a final vote by a March 12 deadline. And they promised that controversial measures that have not been dealt with would be brought up during a second phase in the commission’s work to be forwarded to the House floor for another vote at a later date.
House Speaker Dennis O’Brien, who created the commission, said the work “exceeded my expectations” and that “limiting comment and coverage” to what was not included “does a disservice.”
“It’s not the big things that were left out of here, it’s the little things that require tweaking and more attention that we weren’t able to get through because we were on deadline and we had to get this done,” O’Brien said.
Pennsylvania Common Cause Executive Director Barry Kauffman gave the commission’s first phase of work a grade ‘C.’ Kauffman noted several important changes that slow down the legislative process so that lawmakers and the public have time for more review, including a 24-hour time-out before bills come to a final vote. No floor sessions after 11 p.m. will help eliminate late-night mischief making, he said.
“It’s passing. I think they’ve got room for improvement,” said Kauffman. “But from where we’re starting, this was a major improvement.”
Bucks County Rep. Dave Steil, the Republican co-chairman of the committee, said he was unhappy that an eight-year term limit on committee chairman failed and he’d like to have seen changes that would have reinvigorated the House Ethics Committee. But he said he understands the need to press forward.
“This doesn’t end it. This is just the first group of changes,” Steil said. “We decided it’s not productive to spend a lot of time ironing out the more controversial issues when there were 20 we could agree on. The really tough ones we could have a whole day hearing on.”
Steil said he expected phase two to be completed by the end of June and would include Ethics Committee changes, a guaranteed timeline for bills to come to a vote, more discussion on lawmakers’ benefits and other changes to state law. Rep. Josh Shapiro, the Democratic commission co-chairman, said legislative staff bonuses would be part of phase two, as well.
Steil and others pointed out one the most significant changes that did pass: stripping the leadership-controlled Rules Committee’s ability to substantively change bills.
House Democratic Leader Bill DeWeese visited the committee to push that proposal Monday as it worked until nearly 11 p.m. to finish business.
“They can’t gut and run these amendments anymore like they have been doing and I think that’s very important,” said Rep. Tim Mahoney, a Fayette County Democrat.
Mahoney said he was also pleased to see his proposal pass allowing the public to receive electronic records of lawmakers’ expenditures so they don’t need to come to Harrisburg.
Curbing the use of politically-motivated public service announcements failed on four different votes. Sponsor, Rep. Greg Vitali, a Delaware County Democrat, wanted to prohibit the use of lawmakers’ names and photos on the taxpayer-financed announcements.
What passed in the end was a 60-day prohibition on televised announcements preceding an election, essentially the same requirement already in effect informally as an agreement between House Democrat and Republican leaders.
Lawmakers will have the ability to offer further changes to the House rules when the commission’s package of recommendations comes to the floor for a final vote March 12.
“My feeling is, as far as rules go, we’ve gotten almost as much as we’re going to get,” said Vitali. “Rules [changes] were the low-hanging fruit. The tougher stuff is campaign finance reform. The question is whether the committee is going to take that on in any real way. That’s a much harder and more controversial issue and it gores a lot of people’s [oxen] up here.”
Alison Hawkes can be reached at 717-705-6330 or ahawkes@calkins-media.com