On October 18, 2018, the PA General Assembly wrapped up the 2017-2018 Legislative Session. What exactly did the General Assembly accomplish the past two years? In all there were 3949 bills introduced for possible consideration! The House introduced 2688 bills while the Senate offered 1261 pieces of legislation. Out of that number 275 bills became law which accounts to a just a little under 7% which is average for a session. Of these laws, 157 of originated in the PA House while the remaining 118 were sponsored by Senate Members.
Republicans held the majority of the seats in both the House and Senate and thus controlled the voting schedule and what bills were considered for a vote. Of the 275 bills that became law, 248 were Republican sponsored and 27 were sponsored by Democrats. Being the majority party in the General Assembly has it benefits.
On November 6, the General Election was held at which time all 203 PA House seats and 25 of the 50 PA Senate seats, along with the Governor, Congressional Delegation and one of PA's US Senate seats were up for a vote. Governor Wolf was re-elected for a second term as he received an unprecedented nearly 17-point win over his opponent. Democratic Senator Bob Casey was re-elected to another term while Republican Senator Pat Toomey was not up for re-election.
With the recent court ordered re-districting of Pennsylvania's 18 congressional districts, we saw some major changes in representation. PA's Congressional Delegation will now be split 50/50 as 9 Republicans and 9 Democrats will now represent the Commonwealth in the US House of Representatives. The PA Delegation which before this fall was all men, will now welcome four women to its ranks with the election of Madeleine Dean, Mary Scanlon, Christina Houlahan and Susan Wild.
Back at the State Government level, once all the election results were certified, the Republicans will retain control of the General Assembly in the 2019-2020 Legislative Session. However, the election results were mixed and while Democrats gained a number of seats, a few were lost to Republicans. There were many close races in the Commonwealth with some winners not determined until a recount was completed. In the PA 6th Senatorial District voters cast a total of 108,690 votes with the winner determined by 74 votes! One PA House race was decided by 11 votes proving that every vote does count. If you are not registered to vote or need to change your address, do so by going to www.pavoterservices.pa.gov.
In the PA Senate, Republicans will hold 30 of the 50 seats with the Democrats having 20. In the PA House, there are 203 districts with Republicans holding 110 of those seats while Democrats will have 91 seats. There are two vacant House seats as a representative recently passed away and another forced to resign after a criminal conviction. The speaker of the House will determine when a special election will be held to fill these vacant seats.
What else will change as we look to the 2019-2020 Legislative Session? First, any of the nearly 4000 bills that did not become law from this past session will need to be reintroduced as they all ended or what we call "died" at the end of the session. As the members plan for the new session they can circulate what is known as a co-sponsorship memo to their colleagues asking them to "sign on to support a proposal". Once the General Assembly is sworn in we will begin to see bills introduced for possible consideration.
On January 1, 2019, the Members of the General Assembly were sworn in. As a result, we will soon learn who the chairs of the various committees will be. The chairs are crucial as they control what legislative bills will come before the committee for consideration and a possible vote. Regular voting session will begin on January 15 when Governor Wolf is sworn in for a second term. For more details on the events surrounding inauguration day go to: https://www.wolfinauguration.com/
The new legislative session should prove to be an exciting time with the opportunity to advance various DOC initiatives. Look for an upcoming article in which we will provide an overview of the new Committee Chairs and the policy and legislative initiatives for the 2019-2020 Legislative Session.