The Pennsylvania Legislature is not getting much done. Since the start of the session in January, the 253 full-time elected members have gotten just one non-controversial bill passed: a measure requiring insurance companies to provide screenings for breast cancer.
Pennsylvania has a Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro, a Republican majority 50-member Senate, and a newly Democrat-led House with 203-members.
House committees had been chaired by Republicans from 2011 but in 2023, Democrats took a thin majority. While in the minority, frustrated Democrats often commented about how difficult it was to get their priorities considered in committee, let alone sent to the full chamber for a floor vote. Now, committees and the House are in the hands of Democratic leadership, which sets the tone for which bills to pursue.
The people of Pennsylvania are now seeing the Democrats’ priorities in the state. For example, on Monday, June 5, the House State Government Committee approved 11 resolutions, all along party lines—that is, 12 Democrats voted ‘yes,’ and nine Republican voted ‘no.’
And with each vote, minority chair Republican Rep. Brad Roae said the bills were mostly a waste of time. He offered to have Republicans vote ‘no’ on them all at once to save time.
“We seem to be bogged down in committees passing legislation that the House passes, and the Senate won’t consider,” Roae said. “And the Senate is probably doing the same thing, sending us stuff we’re not going to consider. We need to work together and do things for the people of Pennsylvania that will help improve Pennsylvania.”
The Resolutions
House Resolution 32, sponsored by Montgomery County Democrat Rep. Joe Webster, aims to reduce the time it takes to vote by calling for the Joint State Government Commission to conduct a study on the current use of poll workers, polling places, voting compartments, and voting machines to determine the best course of action in order to minimize the time required to vote, and ensure that the average time required to vote does not promote inequities based on geography, economic status, race, gender, or other factors.“Far too often, our residents are forced to wait in line for long periods of time,” Webster said in the memo he wrote promoting the plan. “Countless hardworking residents use their entire lunch hour or wait in line to vote after a long day on the job. Still others recognize the importance of voting, but simply do not have the time available to wait for a voting booth.”
The state has conducted previous election studies and the legislature has passed election reform bills numerous times. But they got vetoed, Roae said. He does not think another study is the answer.
House Resolution 34, sponsored by Erie County Democratic Rep. Patrick J. Harkins, seeks to urge Congress to make Patriots’ Day a federal holiday. This day recalls April 19, 1775, when nearly 700 British soldiers marched from Boston to Concord in search of munitions stored by Massachusetts militiamen. The soldiers were stopped by American minutemen. This marked the beginning of the American Revolution.
“These battles are commemorated every year as Patriots’ Day on the third Monday in April by our neighbors to the northeast in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Maine,” Harkins wrote in a memo promoting the resolution, adding that it is time to join together with these other states to recognize these battles and our continued fight against tyranny.
“Again, this doesn’t really do anything to improve the lives of Pennsylvanians,” Roae said. “It probably would lead to another paid holiday for federal employees. There’s already a $30 trillion national debt. They just had to raise the debt ceiling. I don’t think having another paid holiday for federal employees so we wait longer to get our tax returns is really going to help typical Pennsylvanians.”
Resolution 41, sponsored by Democratic Rep. Joe Ciresi of Montgomery County asks to establish an independent commission to study the history of the state song, solicit submissions from the public, and recommend changes to the state song.
In 1990, the state legislature adopted the current state song “Pennsylvania,” by Eddie Khoury and Ronnie Bonner. It’s a wordy number akin to a college fight song. Times have changed, Ciresi said, and a different song would be better to use in promoting Pennsylvania tourism.
“I would probably assume that for most of us, as we’re out there campaigning and talking to constituents, probably nobody has ever asked any of us about the Pennsylvania State song,” Roae said. “These resolutions, they’re well intended, I think by different members, but they are kind of a waste of time.”
House Resolution 47, sponsored by Delaware County Democratic Rep. Carol Kazeem directs the Joint State Government Commission to conduct a study on voting patterns and knowledge about voting rights among formerly incarcerated qualified voters and submit a report of its recommendations to the House. Many do not know they are able to vote, she said.
House Resolution 64, sponsored by Schuylkill County Republican Rep. Tim Twardzik calls for recognizing the week of April 16-22, 2023, as National Volunteer Week in Pennsylvania. The original memo was put in the system by Twardzik on March 16. The committee considered it on June 5.
“Well intended but this is also a waste of time,” Roae said. “We’re basically saying, a month and a half ago is National Volunteer Week. And no disrespect to my Republican colleague Mr. Twardzik, no disrespect to the chairman or other members of the committee, but we really should be solving problems for Pennsylvania residents, not working on things like this.”
Democratic Rep. Maureen Madden was not bothered by the resolution for the week that has passed.
“I’m going to support this resolution,” Madden said. “I think the backbone of our society and all the things that we do, we depend so much on volunteers, and I don’t care what time it is past the date, we should recognize them. And I would think the minority chairman would not have a problem with this bill as volunteers don’t get paid, so it’s not going to cost us any additional money.”
Roae said that he had served as a volunteer firefighter for 23 years and a volunteer EMT for 18 years. He has also volunteered for Boy Scouts on and off for the last 20 years.
“A resolution retroactively going back six weeks to make one week of the year volunteer week. That doesn’t really do that much,” Roae said. “These resolutions are largely wasted time. I’m not sure why some days like Memorial Day, when people died fighting for our country, they get one day. Volunteers get a whole week, other things get a whole month. I’m not sure how that works. But a lot of those days and weeks and months, they don’t really do anything to help make the lives of Pennsylvania citizens better.”
House Resolution 95 was also late. It designates May 2023 as Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
House Resolution 100 honors members of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., for more than a century of commitment to social activism, academic excellence, and civic engagement on May 2, 2023, “Delta Day” at the State Capitol.
House Resolution 114 recognizes June as worldwide as LGBTQ+ Pride Month. Sponsored by Democratic Rep. Jessica Benham, who calls herself Pennsylvania’s first openly queer representative, and Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, who is openly gay, Benham said the resolution shows that the LGBTQ+ community has a right to exist in public without fear of discrimination, or harm.
“Pride month already exists,” Roae said. “If this passes or if this doesn’t pass, if it comes up for vote, if it doesn’t, it changes nothing. Everybody in this room tries to treat everybody fairly. Nobody should discriminate against anybody. God made all of us. He loves all of us. We should all love each other. But again, Mr. Chair, this resolution is not really a good use of time.”
House Resolution 110 called for another study. This one directs the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee to study and make recommendations on implementing location-based pay for state government employees. It would pay more for workers working in areas with a higher cost of living.
House Resolution 69 celebrates the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement which ended the Troubles—the longest period of conflict in Irish history—bringing peace to the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Democratic Rep. Kevin Boyle, serving Philadelphia County, sponsored the resolution.
Important to Some
After each resolution was passed, Conklin chastised Roae by telling a story from the time when he first got into politics at the county level and complained about attending another dinner.“A much older and wiser public servant looked me right in the eye and sat me down. He said, ‘I want to explain something. To you, it’s just another dinner. To you, it’s just a waste of your time because you’re not really doing any county business tonight. But to the people you’re going to see, this is their one event this year.’ Think about that … one event. If it’s important to them—if it’s important to a constituent, it’s important to an individual,” he said.
“I find these resolutions ... for myself, it’s important to them, so it should be important to me even if it does inconvenience me a little bit.”
