Fix Harrisburg
All Pennsylvania State Legislators
SIGN THE PETITION TO FIX HARRISBURG
In the PA House and Senate, committee chairs elected by a tiny fraction of PA voters can block bills with strong bipartisan support. Legislative leaders can ignore bills passed with bipartisan support from committee or the other chamber. Mechanisms used in other states to ensure bipartisan bills get a vote don’t exist in the PA legislature.
Much-needed solutions, introduced session after session, never get a vote.
By any measure, Pennsylvania is one of the least effective, most expensive full-time legislatures in the country. In the average session, less than 7% of bills introduced get a final vote. Many that do pass just name bridges or roads. Meanwhile, issues of great importance to all PA voters stay locked in committee because committee chairs and majority leaders “aren’t interested,” or because their major donors prefer the status quo.
Until this structural flaw in our legislative process ends, our legislators can never fully represent us.
It’s time to fix the rules so bipartisan solutions can get a vote in Harrisburg.
Sign the petition now to ask your legislators to support rules that guarantee bipartisan solutions get a vote.
Learn more at FairDistrictsPA.com
Sponsored by
To:
All Pennsylvania State Legislators
From:
[Your Name]
As Pennsylvania residents, we can see that the legislative process in Harrisburg is broken.
For years the PA legislature has ignored and refused any action on many bills with broad bipartisan support. In recent years only a small fraction of bills introduced are given a final vote. It appears that small fraction may be nearing an historic low.
Mechanisms used in other states that ensure bipartisan bills get a vote don’t exist in the PA legislature. Even the discharge petition, intended as an avenue forward for bills ignored by committee chairs, has been deliberately blocked and no longer functions as intended. When partisan gatekeepers have complete control over the legislative agenda, our legislators can no longer represent us as our founders intended.
The Pennsylvania Constitution promises the people of Pennsylvania the right to alter and reform their government. We insist that Harrisburg reform the legislative rules so that bills with bipartisan support may be heard, even those introduced by members of the minority party. We insist that bills passed from committee with bipartisan support be guaranteed a vote on the chamber floor, and that bills passed by one chamber receive due consideration in the other chamber as well.
It’s time to fix Harrisburg and put PA back on the path to government of, by and for the people.
As citizens of Pennsylvania from across the political spectrum, we ask for action on legislative rules that support this goal.