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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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CONTACT: Tom
Andrews 717-783-4267 |
Majority Leader Bill
DeWeese |
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House adopts improved temporary rules
HARRISBURG, Jan. 29 – The state House of Representatives today adopted improved temporary rules, authored by Majority Leader Bill DeWeese and Whip Keith McCall, to add a committee overseeing Pennsylvania’s new slots industry and a subcommittee dedicated to special education, and to allow additional minority party representation on committees.
“In order for the House to conduct normal business, we must have rules under which to operate. These temporary rules, while largely the same as last session, reflect changes that were agreed to by both parties in a renewed effort to maintain a truly bipartisan House of Representatives,” said DeWeese, D-Greene/Fayette/Washington.
Rule 43 was the subject of several changes. Specifically, a 24th standing committee is created -- the Gaming Oversight Committee. Committee memberships are increased from 28 to 29 members due to the number of minority party committee members being upped from 12 to 13 and increasing the minimum number of votes needed to report a bill from committee from 13 to 15. The Appropriations Committee membership will increase by one to 35, due to the minority party membership increasing by one to 14 and increasing the minimum number of votes needed to report a bill from the Appropriations Committee from 14 to 18. Also, the number of subcommittees is now 43, reflecting the creation of a Subcommittee on Special Education.
“Pennsylvania’s newest industry, slots gaming, is just getting off the ground. We believe that a dedicated oversight committee is a reflection of the importance that all legislators feel toward ensuring this industry operates effectively and to the letter of the law,” DeWeese said.
“Special education costs have been the subject of much debate among school boards across the state,” McCall said. “This new subcommittee will be able to focus on the issue and determine the best ways possible to implement, revise and fund related programs.”
The language in Rule 64 was returned to the wording of the 2003-04 session, thus eliminating the concept of “Harrisburg legislative leave” and requiring that “No member shall be permitted to vote and have his vote recorded on the roll unless he is present in the Hall of the House during the roll call vote.”
“During any given session day, a member of the House may have to leave the chamber for a short period of time for a variety of legitimate reasons, including to use the restroom or to welcome a group of constituents to the Capitol. While we envision these short absences will still occur occasionally, we thought it best to eliminate the ‘Harrisburg legislative leave’ provision because of the unnecessary negative response that it generated,” said McCall, D-Carbon.
Technical changes were made to Rules 14, 47, 50 and 65 to update the references to laws regarding open records, lobbying and gaming. A further change to Rule 65b would change the members’ reporting requirement to file statements of financial interest in gaming licenses from Jan. 31 to April 30 to mirror the date by which members must file their overall ethics statement of financial disclosure.
DeWeese and McCall said the temporary rules will be used until March 14 at the latest. It is expected that substantive rules changes will be made during the March 12 session week, when recommendations from the bipartisan Speaker’s Commission on Legislative Reform will be debated and voted.
“Rank-and-file lawmakers are busy considering a variety of rules changes that will provide a more open and responsive House of Representatives. The call for reform has been heard loud and clear in Harrisburg and I am confident that our new rules will reflect that in a variety of ways,” DeWeese said.
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