Legislation recap: February 2021
A short month of long battles
Two proposed amendments to the Pennsylvania Constitution are halted—one in scandal, one in quiet. The GOP’s battle with John Fetterman’s flags boils over. Lawmakers take their chisel to the prevailing wage once more. All that and then some, this week on People’s Watch PA.
THE GREAT STATE COURT HEIST
Rep. Russ Diamond’s controversial “judicial redistricting” initiative will not appear on the ballot for approval by voters this May—though it still has a chance to appear in November. You can read my critique of judicial redistricting here.
JUSTICE FOR SURVIVORS
Kathy Boockvar resigned as Secretary of State after her office committed a procedural error that will prevent a proposed constitutional amendment from appearing before voters for another two or even four years. The amendment would have created a two-year window for survivors of childhood sexual abuse to sue both individual and institutional perpetrators—the Catholic Church, most notably—even if the abuse was committed decades ago. One day after Boockvar announced her resignation, Senate Democrats introduced legislation to create a statutory civil window to accomplish the same purpose as the propose amendment. That legislation has not been introduced.
A FEW REFORMS IN ORDER
February saw a few police and prison reform bills introduced, mostly in the House. Reps. Dan Miller (D-Allegheny) and Donna Bullock (D-Philadelphia) introduced a bill that would “require that every person receives a reentry certificate upon release from prison” to serve as an official record of "achievements in skill development, rehabilitation, education, and their readiness for safe reentry.” The bill would also provide “protection for employers in relation to negligence actions based solely on the hiring of a person with a criminal record” as an incentive to hire formerly incarcerated job-seekers.
A bill introduced by Reps. Brian Sims (D-Philadelphia) and Summer Lee (D-Allegheny) would appoint a special prosecutor for cases involving deadly use of force of police. The purpose, as the sponsors make clear, is not to cast aspersions on the integrity of local prosecutors, but to “introduce an outside perspective into the case” and, by eliminating the appearance of conflicts of interest between police and prosecutors, “restore citizens’ confidence in our criminal justice system.” A related (though not introduced) bill in the Senate would create record-keeping and reporting requirements for use of force in all law enforcement agencies in the Commonwealth.
Other un-introduced reform legislation this month includes a bill by Rep. Bullock that would offer incarcerated mothers one free phone call and one free email a month to each of their children; a bill by Rep. Sims that would prohibit police officers from wearing camouflage and other militarized equipment—initially proposed at the height of protests against police violence last summer; a bill by Reps. Miller and Austin Davis (D-Allegheny) that would improve and expand public access to police videos; and a bill by several Democrat reps that would ban police chokeholds (although an identical bill has been introduced in the Senate). Senators Daniel Laughlin (R-Erie) and Sharif Street (D-Philadephia) have also announced their intention to introduce bipartisan legislation legalizing recreational adult-use marijuana in Pennsylvania.
AN UNFLAGGING EFFORT
As the battle rages ever on between John Fetterman and the Pennsylvania GOP over his display of LGBTQ- and marijuana-themed flags on the Capitol balcony, House Republicans have introduced a bill to abolish the office of the Lieutenant Governor and “allow the Commonwealth to realize significant savings.” Identical legislation was introduced in the past two sessions as well, likely in response to former Lt. Gov. Mike Stack’s tendencies to excess.
At a neat $160K per year, Pennsylvania has the highest-paid Lieutenant Governor position in the nation. The budget for Lieutenant Governor in 2020-21 was $2,236,000: $1,330,000 for the Office of Lieutenant Governor itself and $906,000 for the Board of Pardons. To put that number into perspective another way, the “significant savings” that would be realized through abolition of the Lieutenant Governor would be just a little more than the $1 million in taxpayer money spent by the Republican Senate Caucus last year on voter suppression and election denial.
KEEPING UP WITH UNEMPLOYMENT
A few pieces of legislation have been introduced in the House to expand unemployment compensation. One bill by Rep. Ed Neilson (D-Philadelphia) would provide unemployment benefits for mandatory quarantine. A separate bill by Rep. Mark Longietti (D-Mercer) would amend the definition of “unemployed” to include those who work multiple full-time jobs and have lost one due to the pandemic.
But these proposed expansions come at an inauspicious time for jobless support in PA. An investigation by Keystone Crossroads, reported by WHYY, found that glitches in the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program have resulted in overpayment to some recipients and “dramatic” underpayment to others. As the Philadelphia Inquirer reports, mothers who leave work to care for their children during the pandemic are being wrongfully denied unemployment. And at a budget hearing in Harrisburg this week, the Department of Labor and Industry, which manages unemployment compensation in the state, suggested to lawmakers that it cannot sufficiently tackle delays in unemployment without an increase in staff.
(And yet Josh Shapiro continues his months-long campaign to prosecute imprisoned Pennsylvanians for applying for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, trying to claim time and again that they are the ones “illegally tak[ing] benefits from hard-working Pennsylvanians.”)
ASSAILING WAGE
Rep. Barbara Gleim (R-Cumberland) this month resurfaced several bills intended to create exceptions to the prevailing wage, defined as “the average wage paid to similarly employed workers in a specific occupation in the area of intended employment.” Prevailing wage requirements for state projects ensure that the government does not artificially depress labor standards by allowing employers who underpay their workers to undercut employers committed to higher wages and better benefits—in this way, the prevailing wage is inherently pro-union, important for protecting the labor standards attained through collective bargaining. Many Republicans consider these protections “onerous.”
Currently, the prevailing wage applies to all projects over $25,000, a threshold that was set in 1963 and has not been adjusted for inflation. One of Rep. Gleim’s bills would raise this threshold to $207,000, accordingly, as well as impose an inflation adjustment mechanism to the law. Two other bills would create exceptions to the prevailing wage requirement: one for work “performed on dirt [and] gravel” and for “low-volume road maintenance projects,” and the other for projects to rehabilitate and convert residential properties “containing fewer than eight units” into low-income housing. A separate bill (not introduced) by Rep. Brian Smith (R-Jefferson & Indiana) would create another prevailing wage exemption for historic preservation and land conservancy projects.
WHAT ARE THEY THINKING?
Bills that are proposed but not taken up yet can tell you a lot about what kind of ideas are floating around in the Capitol brain. For the month of February, those ideas include:
Creating an option for “voluntary donations” to the General Fund (in lieu of higher tax rates for the rich).
Fighting social media “censorship” by requiring companies to “inform their users—in writing—why their accounts were banned or disabled within 30 days and require those companies to offer users recourse to restore their account.”
Forcing trans women and girls to play on men’s and boys’ teams.
Mandating health insurance coverage for all part-time and full-time law enforcement officers.
Allowing Housing Authorities to establish their own police forces.
Permitting the House and Senate to join in on litigation challenging the constitutionality of state statutes.
Expanding the Castle Doctrine to allow lethal self-defense "in cases where an individual or group of assailants place another individual in a life threatening situation without being in possession of lethal weapons.” Under current law, the Castle Doctrine applies only when the attacker displays a "firearm or any other weapon readily or apparently capable of lethal use.”
Prohibiting firearms at polling places.
Prohibiting landlords from requiring disclosure of certain criminal records as a condition of lease—also known as “Ban the Box.” The law would not apply to all criminal records, but would include “juvenile records, arrests with no convictions, convictions older than seven years, or any conviction that is not a felony or misdemeanor.”
Providing financial assistance for the purchase of diapers.