Pennsylvania State House Votes to Reduce its Size

Yes, it’s a step in the right direction. Yes, it is relatively rare. But before anyone starts thinking that the politicians voting to reduce the number of members that will be sitting on Pennsylvania’s Assembly floor are considering the possibility of surrendering their own positions for the greater good, think again.

Yesterday’s passage of House Bill 153 is step one out of a minimum of six needed to reduce the size of our bloated State Assembly. Before this Bill can become the law of the land in the Commonwealth, it must pass both the House and Senate for two consecutive sessions, then be approved by the voters via referendum. And this Bill is referring to census on the floor in 2020.

So, this change won’t happen overnight regardless, and that makes for an interesting situation, if the people and press take advantage of it. Arguably, there are relatively few members of the Assembly today that can realistically assume that they could lose their seats 8 years from now. There are four election seasons in the interim. Yes, we do have quite a few career politicians out there in Harrisburg, but that’s not something any of them really want to use to justify voting against this measure. The vote went pretty much along party lines, with the majority of “nays” coming from the Democrats side of the aisle.

Well, at least we’ve made it through step one. Now it’s the Senate’s turn, for the first time around.