It’s the first full session week with Democrats in charge of the Pa. House. They’re moving longtime priorities.
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania Democrats used the first full week of the session since they solidified their majority in the state House to make their priorities clear: They intend to pass long-requested changes to election administration and antidiscrimination laws.
Advocates around the Capitol expressed hope that not all these priority bills will get a totally partisan reception on the floor. But Democrats say that after a decade-plus of being stymied in the minority, they feel emboldened to respond to their base.“We would protest and have events in the main rotunda about bills that were very popular with the public, and they would go nowhere in Harrisburg,” State Rep. Kevin Boyle , who chairs the House Insurance Committee, told Spotlight PA.
The bill’s final language also included a provision that would let voters request a mail ballot in person at their county election office until the day before Election Day. That addition raised concerns with the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania, which represents election workers. “After 25 years of being elected, I found that not everybody always gets exactly what they want,” Conklin said. “But if we can come close and do something that’s good for the public, that’s the most important thing.”that would ban discrimination against LGBTQ people received a committee vote Monday.
But Democrats countered that the absence of a state law leaves Pennsylvania’s current nondiscrimination rule vulnerable to being overridden if the federal ruling is ever reversed.
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