February 12, 2016

Weekly Wrap:

Both the House of Representatives and the Senate were in session Monday through Wednesday, but the biggest news this week is the budget that wasn’t. Gov. Wolf delivered his 2016-2017 budget address, but with the 2015-2016 budget still not quite resolved, there wasn’t much to talk about. Wolf, frustrated with the lack of progress on the current fiscal year’s spending plan, encouraged members of the General Assembly to come back to the table and reiterated his three priorities from last year’s address:  schools that teach, jobs that pay and government that works. For more, check out our blogs from earlier this week at:

The Governor may have been somewhat encouraged that the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee held a public hearing this week to discuss the imposition of a tax on the extraction of natural gas. Wolf’s budget relies on new sources of revenue, including a severance tax. Kate Harper (R-Bucks), who has a severance tax bill before the committee, stated that such a tax “must be at a rate reasonably competitive with neighboring and competitive states and must maintain the current impact fee and its distribution of revenues.”

Also this week, the House’s newest Education Subcommittee, the Subcommittee on Career and Technical Education, held a hearing on advancing opportunities for career and technical education and STEM opportunities. Also, the House Gaming Oversight Committee advanced Rep. Matzie’s resolution to study sports gaming. H.R. 619 is set on the House Calendar for when legislators return to Harrisburg mid-March.

The big news in the Senate this week was S.R. 284, calling for the removal of Attorney General Kathleen Kane from office. After several hours of discussion on the Senate floor, the resolution failed by a vote of 29 to 19 (a two-thirds majority was needed). It was a party-line vote with the exceptions of Sen. Stewart Greenleaf (Montgomery) and Sen. Rob Teplitz (Dauphin). Republicans needed three Democrats to vote in favor of the resolution to reach the two-thirds majority.

After the resolution failed, Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman (Centre) made motions to re-refer the resolution to Senate Rules Committee and to reconsider the vote; both had enough votes to pass. S.R. 284 now goes back to Committee with the potential to be brought up at a later date.

Adding to the AG’s problems, the House voted to start the impeachment process against Kane. H.R. 659 was adopted on the House floor, with only 12 members voting no. A committee will investigate the conduct of the AG and make recommendations based on their findings to the rest of the chamber.

A Look Ahead:

Over the next few weeks, the Appropriations Committees in both the House and Senate will be busy with Executive Agency budget hearings. Up next week in the Senate is a joint hearing of the Senate Transportation and Senate Veterans Affairs & Emergency Preparedness Committees on the emergency response to the snow storm that hit the state earlier this month.

Neither chamber will return for voting session until mid-March.

In other News: