Majority Leader Turzai: Don’t make state House a “circus atmosphere”

House Republicans passed on taking a vote on new rules Monday, which would have stripped Democrats of significant legislative power.

The new rules contained in H.R. 6 would remove one Democrat from each of the state House’s 27 standing committees and would allow Republicans to block amendments offered on the House floor by directing them to committees instead of debating them.

Republicans proposed the new rules as a punitive measure after Democrats filed dozens of amendments to a series of government reform bills last week. Republican leaders wanted to move the bills through the chamber as quickly as possible and accused Democrats of trying to “gum up the works” with the litany of amendments to bills which enjoyed bi-partisan support in committee.

Monday, Majority Leader Mike Turzai (R-Allegheny) said the measure of the threat’s effectiveness was its outcome. Last week, Democrats filed more than 60 amendments, but fewer than 30 remained on the calendar Monday morning and only a dozen were considered on the House floor.

“Don’t make a mockery of the amending process on the floor and try to make it a circus atmosphere. Instead, let’s have a responsible, professional approach with civility on the house floor,” said Mr. Turzai.

Mr. Turzai made it clear the new rules were still ready to be passed at any time. He said opposition lawmakers “cannot be gunslingers about filing amendments to stop a substantive agenda.”

Bill Patton, spokesperson for House Democrats said the caucus was glad the new rules were not voted on Monday, but disappointed by how Republican leaders handled the amendments which did make it to the floor.

Although Republican leadership did not bring the resolution to the House floor for a vote Monday, the rules remain on the calendar and could be voted on at any time. With Republicans holding a 112-91 majority in the state House, Democrats have little chance of preventing the rules from passing.

When the new rules were considered Thursday in the House Rules Committee, Democrats stormed out of the meeting before a vote was taken. The video of the meeting has since become popular online, garnering more than 8,000 views on YouTube and being featured on national political news websites over the weekend.

House Democrats are reportedly planning a statewide media campaign using the video to attack Republicans in 18 districts, according to PoliticsPA.

Mr. Turzai declined to say whether widespread opposition to the new rules played a role in the decision not to act on the resolution Monday.

Earlier in the day, State Rep. Eugene Depasquale (D-York) said he hoped civility would be restored after last week’s theatrics in the House Rules Committee. Over the weekend, leadership from the two parties discussed how to move ahead, he said.

“Most of us hoped cooler heads would prevail and we wouldn’t move forward with the rule changes, but that we would negotiate on which amendments were priority ones and which weren’t. That’s exactly what happened,” said Mr. DePasquale.

State Rep. Ron Marsico (R-Dauphin) said the reform bills were the priority Monday, not the rules changes.

“I think leadership was working together on both sides, and that’s a good sign,” said Mr. Marsico.

Mr. Marsico said the new rules would not be abandoned and could be brought to the House floor at any time.

“I think those changes are going to move ahead, but I don’t know when,” he said.