Jun 8, 2008 2 min read

A recent Philadelphia Inquirer editorial printed in the Herald-Standard suggested that the General Assembly has spent taxpayers’ money on “damage control” and to “cover their rears.” The answer from our House Democratic Caucus is: not one dime.

At my direction as majority leader, we are fully supporting the state Attorney General’s investigation of all four legislative caucuses that began 16 months ago.

This is the right thing to do, but it costs money.

It costs money to sort through years’ worth of paper and electronic documents to locate those that may be pertinent to the investigation.

And it costs money for attorneys to facilitate the cooperation of employees who have been subpoenaed to testify, but who have not been accused of any crime. This assists the Attorney General’s Office in their search for the facts.

We have also crafted a Code of Conduct and implemented a Compliance and Ethics Program with training of all employees of the House Democratic Caucus.

We remain the only caucus with such a program.

And we have spent funds to implement the new Open Records Law. This will ensure that the press and public have accurate and timely access to legislative records.

I strongly supported this legislation because of the importance of an informed electorate.

But there’s more to the story: The House Democratic Caucus has 70 fewer employees than it did last June, for a net savings of $2 million per year, and we have canceled at least a half-million dollars in other contracts.

To the extent that there has been a price tag attached to our cooperation with the attorney general and with implementing our own internal reforms in the House of Representatives, those expenditures are temporary.

The improvements in our state government will continue to pay dividends for generations to come.

State Rep. Bill DeWeese

The Majority Leader

50th Legislative District