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Capitol Recap Capitol Recap AROUND THE ROTUNDA Volume 5 Number 442 PLS coverage of Capitol events including press conferences, bill signings, & media availabilities November 13, 2018 HOUSE LEADERSHIP ELECTIONS CONTENTS AROUND THE ROTUNDA 1 House Republican Leadership: NEW LEGISLATION 5 Speaker-Nominee: Mike Turzai (R-Allegheny) LEGISLATIVE ACTIONS 6 UPCOMING MEETINGS 8 Leader: Bryan Cutler (R-Lancaster) Appropriations Chairman: Stan Saylor (R-York) Whip: Kerry Benninghoff (R-Centre) Caucus Chair: Marcy Toepel (R-Montgomery) SESSION STATUS At 11:26 p.m. on Caucus Secretary: Mike Reese (R-Westmoreland) Wednesday, October 17, Caucus Administrator: Kurt Masser (R-Northumberland) 2018 the Senate stands in Policy Chair: Donna Oberlander (R-Clarion) recess until the call of the President Pro Tempore. House Democratic Leadership: The Senate is next Leader: Frank Dermody (D-Allegheny) scheduled to reconvene on Appropriations Chairman: Matt Bradford (D-Montgomery) Wednesday, November 14, Whip: Jordan Harris (D-Philadelphia) at 1:00 p.m. Caucus Chair: Joanna McClinton (D-Philadelphia) Caucus Secretary: Rosita Youngblood (D-Philadelphia) At 5:33 p.m. on Tuesday, Caucus Administrator: Neal Goodman (D-Schuylkill) November 13, 2018 the Policy Chair: Mike Sturla (D-Lancaster) House stands in recess until the call of the Chair HOUSE REPUBLICANS UNVEIL NEW LEADERSHIP TEAM By Matt Hess, Pennsylvania Legislative Services | November 13, 2018 The new leaders of the House Republican Caucus held a press conference following session this evening to introduce the new team. UPCOMING SESSION DAYS House Rep. Bryan Cutler (R-Lancaster), new House Majority Leader, announced that next session’s January 1 leadership team will be: • Speaker-Nominee: Mike Turzai (R-Allegheny) Senate • House Appropriations Chairman: Stan Saylor (R-York) November 14 • Whip: Kerry Benninghoff (R-Centre) January 1 • Caucus Chair: Marcy Toepel (R-Montgomery) • Caucus Secretary: Mike Reese (R-Westmoreland) • Caucus Administrator: Kurt Masser (R-Northumberland) • Policy Chair: Donna Oberlander (R-Clarion). “We look forward to working with everyone in the new legislative session. Once again voters returned divided government to Harrisburg. Gov. Wolf won re-election but they also returned strong majorities to the House and Senate,” Rep. Cutler stated. “As we look forward to next Provided by Pennsylvania session I think it’s all of our goals to make sure we work with each to find solutions that the Legislative Services citizens of the Commonwealth are looking for.” 240 N. 3rd St. 6th Floor Harrisburg, PA 17101 Rep. Turzai said the caucus is honored to have Rep. Cutler serving as majority leader. “We 717.236.6984 phone are returning for the fifth consecutive session a majority and we’re proud of the effort of the 717.236.5097 fax team had in the election across Pennsylvania,” he stated. “We’re very positive about moving www.mypls.com forward with this outstanding leadership team.” Rep. Cutler and Rep. Turzai then responded to questions from the media. Do you have any favorite policy issues that you want to move? Rep. Cutler stated, “We have a lot of new members on both sides of the aisle but I think that a lot of the unfinished business from last session will probably bubble up to the top. If you look at the career and technical package that got close to be signed last session…I expect that package to come up again. I think the regulatory reform that Rep. Oberlander and Rep. Benninghoff and many other members of the caucus will come up again. That’s something I heard consistently from businesses is the regulatory environment. Particularly where I live on the border of Maryland, you can go literally 100 yards into Maryland get a permit there in 90 days and it could take a year or two here. We are competing with them and we need to be competitive with them.” Since you lost a lot of seats in the southeast, how does that change your caucus? Rep. Cutler said, “If you look at the result I think it was a direct result of straight ticket voting on both sides. I talked to Rep. Barbin, while we had a great candidate, he thought the tide he was swimming against was tough because it is a very pro- Trump area and this election had that undercurrent to it. As far as dynamics, it just means we have a little bit smaller group of folks we need to find those 102 votes in.” Do you think your caucus is more conservative now? Rep. Cutler stated, “I think both caucuses went a little bit. Ours went a little bit more to the right and theirs went a little bit to the left but I think we can find solutions.” There seemed to be disagreements between former leader Reed and Speaker Turzai that led to some fractures in the caucus, do you think that you are more philosophically aligned with each other? Rep. Turzai stated, “We had an outstanding leadership team last session and we have an outstanding leadership team this session. It’s a diverse state, we’re a diverse caucus, and we to bring all of us together for a consensus and we did that over the last two session. There’s public pension reform because of our caucus. Today we have wine and beer in grocery stores because of our caucus, myself, Rep. Reed, and everyone in the leadership team. In addition, we make sure we govern from a fiscal stewardship perspective and have put record high investments in public education and we did it without any increases in broad based taxes. Why? Because myself, David Reed, and this leadership team stood strong. We believe we can continue to do great things for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and we are very excited to be behind Bryan Cutler as our majority leader and this leadership team.” Do you have any idea what you’re getting into? Rep. Cutler responded, “Yes and I still ran.” Do you think the seats that you lost in the southeast are permanently blue? Rep. Cutler said, “Absolutely not. There continues to be opportunity down there. We had a pickup out there this cycle as well as two pickups out west. If you look at our majority of 121 there were about 22 of those seats that had Democratic majorities. Likewise the Democrats had four seats that had Republican majorities and we picked up two of them this time. I think the opportunity for pickups continues far into the future. While that’s the political side of the equation, I’m a firm believer that policy makes good politics and good candidates can win seats.” Will you pursue a 20 week abortion ban? Rep. Cutler stated “That’s something we’ll discuss as a leadership team and then as a caucus.” 2 LAWMAKERS, ADVOCATES SPREAD AWARENESS ABOUT VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN, CHILDREN By Robert Cochran, Pennsylvania Legislative Services | November 13, 2018 The Zonta Club of Harrisburg - Hershey, a nonprofit organization dedicated to women’s advocacy, joined legislators and advocates this afternoon to raise awareness regarding violence against women and children. President of Zonta Club of Harrisburg - Hershey, Elaine Weinert, said the organization is comprised of 29,000 members across 1,200 clubs worldwide. Weinert said the club advocates for victims of domestic violence and human trafficking, adding that the organization combats violence towards women and children. Weinert said laws need to be changed to enforce stricter protections for vulnerable women and children. She stated the club celebrated the passage of SB 554, which expands protections for sexually-exploited children, adding, prior to this law, a child saved from sex trafficking was considered a criminal. “Today, we now have a law to protect the children, and the child is now considered the victim,” Weinert said. Rep. Sheryl Delozier (R-Cumberland) said Pennsylvania is vulnerable to human trafficking because of the amount of truck traffic and the proximity to large consumer markets. Rep. Delozier stated safe harbor legislation for sexually-exploited children expanded immunity for any minor subjected to human trafficking or sexual exploitation. The legislation mandated law enforcement to inform the Department of Human Services of any minor subjected to sexual exploitation so the victim could receive services for housing, education and other life skills, Rep. Delozier said. Rep. Delozier claimed 2.4 million children in the United States run away from home each year. She added that one-third of homeless teenagers are persuaded into prostitution within 48 hours of leaving home, indicating 800,000 runaway children will be lured into criminal sexual exploitation annually. The representative highlighted the National Human Trafficking Resource Center Hotline Notification Act, which required places where human trafficking frequently occurs to post signs regarding resources for victims of human trafficking. Rep. Delozier said 246 calls were made to the hotline from Pennsylvania during the first six months of 2018. Donna Greco, policy director of the Pennsylvania Coalition against Rape, advocated against forced marriage of children, saying 250,000 children were married in the United States between 2000 and 2010. Greco said marriages involving children derail their health, safety and development, and often result in sexual violence, including rape. Greco indicated a marriage involving children enables abuse, including forced pregnancies and forced abortions. “In Pennsylvania, current law allows marriage licenses to be issued to children under the age of 16 if a court decides it is in their best interest,” Greco said. She added that marriage under the age of 18 is permitted if consent is provided by parental care. “This antiquated law opens the door for child sexual abuse and exploitation, as well as a whole host of social struggles.” Sen. Camera Bartolotta (R-Washington) said Gov. Tom Wolf signed SB 919, which would provide relocation for victims of domestic violence in public housing.
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