The leaders and volunteers of Fair Districts PA lobbied the Pennsylvania House in late 2018 for the adoption of reform procedure rules by the Pennsylvania House mandating that any bill co-sponsored by a majority must be reported out of committee without amendment and the bill must receive a final floor vote within five (5) session days.

With the January 1, 2019 vote to retain the same House Procedural Rules, Committee Chairs can continue to independently suppress or alter new legislation, including bills with majority support.   This is what happened in 2018 to House Bill 722, a Fair Districts PA-endorsed redistricting reform bill.

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“The Colorado legislature introduced redistricting reform on April 18, 2018 and passed it in both houses on May 16, 2018,” said Carol Kuniholm, the Fair Districts PA lead. “Because they have procedural rules that allow every legislator a say, they passed reform in less than thirty days.”

Kuniholm said that Colorado’s agenda fairness score is 100 percent, while Pennsylvania’s agenda fairness score is zero.

“We’ve been working on this for years,” Kuniholm said. “We ought to be able to pass this.”

The House, in a party line vote, refused to consider on Tuesday postponing the adoption of the House rules for two weeks and instead adopted a 64-page rules resolution by a 110 to 90-vote margin.

“We have 10 proposals for making the rules better. If you vote yes, you are saying you are not interested in changing the rules,” said State Rep. Steve Samuelson, D- Dist. 135. “We don’t even have the official copy of the rules. We were given 3 ½-hours to read a 64-page draft document. I ask the 43 new members of the House to vote no.”

State Rep. Robert Freeman, D-Dist. 135, said the rules resolution “will prohibit any amendments. Our rules are the most important thing we will do today. We were elected to become a deliberative body.”

State Rep. Gene DiGirolamo, R-Dist. 18, stated that he is going to introduce a resolution to create a rules  reform commission.

“This is about the protection of our democracy. Without fair rules, our representatives cannot represent us,” said Lisa Hyatt Cooper, a Fair Districts PA – Montgomery County volunteer from Huntingdon Valley, “and without representatives who can represent us, we are voiceless and powerless.”

State Rep. Bryan Cutler, R-Dist. 100, the new Republican Majority Leader, urged the House members to adopt the rules resolution.

“They are the rules of the last session“ Cutler said. “We went through a systematic approach discussing alternatives. This is the agreed-to product.”

But, Kuniholm noted, Cutler is now chair of the House rules committee. He has promised to work in a bipartisan way and he says he will be open to hearing suggestions for rules changes. He suggested House Resolution 1 be considered a starting point.

The House returns to session on Jan. 15.  Pennsylvania citizens will be watching to see what actions, if any, are taken by the House leadership to ensure that proposed legislation that enjoys majority support will reach the House floor for the vote it deserves.

Fair Districts PA. is a nonpartisan, statewide coalition of individuals and organizations that believes that free and fair elections are the foundation of our democracy.  Its mission is to ensure that the redistricting process in Pennsylvania is fair and transparent. For more information, go to  www.FairDistrictsPA.com

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