State reps offer joint resolution they say will help protect the Constitution
In just the last year, almost 70 changes to the Pennsylvania Constitution have been proposed in the General Assembly 鈥� 61 from Republicans and eight from Democrats.
State Representatives Ryan Bizzarro, D-Erie, and Pam Snyder, D-Jefferson, said they have a resolution that would stop the sidestepping of debate and recommit the legislature to working together.
鈥淟egislating through constitutional amendment like this is a terrible idea,鈥� Bizzarro said. 鈥淚t takes away from citizens, sidesteps debate and diminishes what we鈥檙e supposed to do as a legislative body. Legislators must be committed to working together so that all Pennsylvanians are heard, and our constitution is treated as the sacred text that it is.鈥�
Bizzarro and Snyder said in the past, changes to the state constitution required serious forethought and debate, but that has not been happening in the past 12 months.
In a release issued recently by the two state representatives, Bizzarro said the Republicans, who have controlled the House for 23 of the last 27 years and the Senate since 1994, recently forced through three proposed rewrites of the constitution in just one week on party-line votes and didn鈥檛 allow debate.
鈥淯nder current law, any changes to the state constitution require that identical legislation be approved by a simple majority vote in both chambers of the General Assembly in two consecutive legislative sessions before being presented to voters in the form of a ballot question,鈥� the release states.
According to the measure鈥檚 two sponsors, claims from the right have decried 鈥渢he people spoke鈥� but, in reality, about one in 10 people spoke because these questions end up on the ballot when turnout is the lowest and less than one quarter of Pennsylvanians vote.
鈥淲e are taking action against slapdash and undemocratic attempts to rewrite our Commonwealth鈥檚 most fundamental document,鈥� Snyder said. 鈥淥ur joint resolution, 鈥楶rotect Our Constitution,鈥� ensures that any future amendment requires a two-thirds majority in both chambers of the General Assembly. If their ideas are worth changing the state constitution, it should be done with an overwhelming bipartisan majority of the legislature.鈥�
IBizzarro and Snyder said this change would ensure the voices of Pennsylvanians 鈥� those whom the state鈥檚 253 legislators represent 鈥� are heard at the beginning of the amendment process in Harrisburg.