A need for more transparency, accountability by Pa. Legislature

The first vote Pennsylvania’s legislators will take in the 2021-22 session sets the chambers’ procedural rules for operation of committees. Sadly, these rules often have the effect of silencing a legislator’s voice, of ceding their vote in committee to the committee leader.

Many bills about which Pennsylvania voters care deeply are not addressed in committee year after year, like testing and remedial action on high lead levels in water and soil, legislative and congressional redistricting reform, rural broadband access and more equitable school funding.

In both houses, decisions on bills are made behind closed doors with no public disclosure of those discussions. We’ve heard a lot from both parties lately about transparency and accountability, but it is not to be seen here. Meanwhile, we wait for action on bills that matter to us.

In some states, all bills introduced are considered in committee. In some states, all bills recommended by the committee are calendared for a vote on the floor. In some states, bills passed in one chamber are automatically calendared in the other. None of that happens in Pennsylvania. It’s against “the rules.”

We are asking legislators to keep their votes serving the people rather than party leaders. We keep getting further and further from a goal of bipartisanship because of these dignity-stripping power plays by “leaders” who cannot win any other way.