Pa. House forms panel to investigate botched effort to advertise constitutional amendment
Updated May 06, 2021;
The Pennsylvania House of Representatives want answers as to how the Department of State could have dropped the ball by failing to advertise a proposed constitutional amendment that would have opened a two-year window for child sex abuse survivors to sue their abusers.
The chamber on Wednesday voted 111-90 on a straight party-line vote to adopt a resolution forming a five-member panel that will have subpoena powers to examine, investigate and make a complete study of the matter. The panel will determine the need for either remedial legislation or a subsequent constitutional amendment.
Bill to keep governor’s hands out of constitutional amendment process passes Pa. House panel
Updated May 03, 2021;
The executive branch would be removed from its role in the constitutional amendment process going forward under legislation that won House State Government Committee approval on Monday.
Lawmakers said the failure of Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration to advertise one constitutional amendment, and its controversial wording of two others this year, provided enough reason for a change.
Republicans and Democrats overwhelming voted in favor of the bill, which proposes to amend the constitution.
Rep. Jason Ortitay, R-Allegheny County, sponsored the legislation, which would take the responsibility of writing and advertising a proposed constitutional amendment away from the Department of State and hand it to the House chief clerk or Senate secretary.
Several Republican Pennsylvania senators on Thursday called on the Legislature to pass a bill that would reform a little-known transportation office and nix a PennDOT plan to toll nine bridges in the state.
“The Legislature has to have a position in actions such as tolling nine bridges in the state of Pennsylvania,” said state Sen. Bob Mensch, R-Montgomery County during a press conference in the Capitol.
“It is, ultimately, the people we represent who will pay those tolls.”
On Feb. 18, PennDOT announced the bridge renovation plan approved by the Public-Private Transportation Partnership (P3) would be funded by tolls on several bridges, including:
Citing about 12,500 coronavirus-related deaths in Pennsylvania’s nursing and personal care homes, House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff on Monday called for a legislative committee investigation into how Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration handled COVID-19 in those facilities.
Benninghoff, a Centre County Republican, said that when the House returns to session on March 15, he will request that the House Government Oversight Committee, which has subpoena power, launch an investigation into why nursing homes account for about half of Pennsylvania’s pandemic-related deaths.
State Reps. Clint Owlett, R-Tioga County, and Natalie Mihalek, R-Allegheny County, joined Benninghoff in asking for a probe, with all of them saying that the Wolf administration officials have provided insufficient answers during appropriation hearings.