Bill to Reduce Size of Legislature Passes
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HARRISBURG – A bill to reduce the size of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and the Senate passed the House today by a vote of 140-49, Speaker of the House Sam Smith (R-Jefferson/Armstrong/Indiana) said. The bill now heads to the Senate for consideration.
House Bill 153, authored by Smith, would reduce the House of Representatives to 153 members from 203 and the Senate to 38 members from its current 50.
“I believe that by reducing the size the House it will make the legislative process more efficient, because members would communicate better and understand the other person’s problem. And I think that will create better legislation at the end of the day.”
With 253 members, the Pennsylvania General Assembly is the second-largest in the country.
With a current population of more than 12.7 million people, the proposed 153 House districts each would represent about 83,022 people, which is not a significant change from 62,573 with the current 203 districts.
While the overall number of legislators would be reduced under House Bill 153, according to Smith, the ratio of representation between urban and rural areas remains equivalent.
During his floor remarks, Smith pointed out that communication has made the world grow ever smaller in a relative sense, while the number people in a legislative district has remained essentially static. Even members of the 1968 Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention argued there is no need to maintain a House composed of 203 members in order to serve the representative function of the body. And that was before the days of email and social media, which have made communication so much easier and instantaneous.
“Real time communication with multiple friends and neighbors back in our legislative districts is as different from the telephone system of 1968 as that system was to the Pony Express,” Smith said. “In order to right-size Pennsylvania’s government, the legislature needs to put its own house in order.”
To change the size of the legislature requires an amendment to the state constitution, which means the same bill must be debated and passed.
The news leader of the Twin Tiers ...
since 1947
HARRISBURG – A bill to reduce the size of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and the Senate passed the House today by a vote of 140-49, Speaker of the House Sam Smith (R-Jefferson/Armstrong/Indiana) said. The bill now heads to the Senate for consideration.
House Bill 153, authored by Smith, would reduce the House of Representatives to 153 members from 203 and the Senate to 38 members from its current 50.
“I believe that by reducing the size the House it will make the legislative process more efficient, because members would communicate better and understand the other person’s problem. And I think that will create better legislation at the end of the day.”
With 253 members, the Pennsylvania General Assembly is the second-largest in the country.
With a current population of more than 12.7 million people, the proposed 153 House districts each would represent about 83,022 people, which is not a significant change from 62,573 with the current 203 districts.
While the overall number of legislators would be reduced under House Bill 153, according to Smith, the ratio of representation between urban and rural areas remains equivalent.
During his floor remarks, Smith pointed out that communication has made the world grow ever smaller in a relative sense, while the number people in a legislative district has remained essentially static. Even members of the 1968 Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention argued there is no need to maintain a House composed of 203 members in order to serve the representative function of the body. And that was before the days of email and social media, which have made communication so much easier and instantaneous.
“Real time communication with multiple friends and neighbors back in our legislative districts is as different from the telephone system of 1968 as that system was to the Pony Express,” Smith said. “In order to right-size Pennsylvania’s government, the legislature needs to put its own house in order.”
To change the size of the legislature requires an amendment to the state constitution, which means the same bill must be debated and passed.
The news leader of the Twin Tiers ...since 1947
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