Standing Committees

"No bill shall be considered, unless referred to a committee," the Pennsylvania Constitution stipulates. The committees are the workshops of the General Assembly.

Each session, the House and Senate determine their own number of standing committees. The Speaker appoints the chairman of each House committee and subcommittee from the majority party, thereby giving that party greater power in the committee system. The Presidend Pro Tempore appoints the Senate committee chairmen in the same manner. The Minority Leader in each chamber selects minority party chairmen. The Speaker, Presidend Pro Tempore and the leadership in both chambers, rely on the chairmen to resolve issues and concerns and to act as spokesmen for their committee bills on the chamber floor.

The President Pro Tempore is an ex-officio member with a vote in all Senate committees. The House Speaker, Majority Leader and Minority Leader are ex-officio members of all committees, but have votes in only the Rules Committee.

The Appropriations Committee in each chamber is the most important committee and the largest, with 20 majority and 12 minority members in the House and 13 and seven members respectively in the Senate. These legislators write the State Budget, and when a joint budget Conference Committee is required, the Appropriations Chairmen are key leaders in facilitating a compromise.

All other House committees have had 14 majority and 10 minority members, while the Senate's largest committees have six and four members respectively. The Senate Rules committee has 15 members, and, unlike the House Rules Committee, it also considers executive nominations submitted by the Governor for the advice and consent of the Senate. Confirmation of these appointed officials is a constitutional responsibility reserved to the Senate.

The fate of a bill is often determined within the committee. In committee, members discuss the bills which the presiding officer has referred to that particular committee. Members often become experts in their committees' fields, respected by the public and their fellow legislators. Since 1973, virtually all committee meetings have been open to the public.

Budget-Making

Democracy places the "power of the purse" in the hands of the people through their elected representatives. "When the great nerve that runs from the pocket to the brain is touched, then people stop to think," said Senator William A. Wallace, after the 1874 debate of the budget and tax legislation.

The Pennsylvania Constitution requires that the Governor propose a balanced budget which can be enacted only by the Legislature. Until 1923, the Governor proposed and the General Assembly adopted hundreds of line appropriations which added up to a budget.

With the Administrative Code of 1929, the Commonwealth created its first General Fund Budget, a biennial spending program of $135 million. In 1961 the Legislature adopted annual budgets as yearly expenditures reached $1 billion. The Budget Code, developed in 1977, gave the Legislature access to the Governor's current revenue and expenditure estimates. Since the 1970s, the House and Senate have developed their own budgeting expertise and committee review processes.

The General Fund is more than $12 billion a year now, with a similar amount for special funds, such as Motor License Fund and Pennsylvania Lottery, both of which finance themselves.

Pennsylvanians have proven responsive and prudent budget-makers. The budget, however, has always been a controversial issue. Elected lawmakers struggle each spring to pass the spending plan. Several times in the past two decades the budget has been submitted to a Conference Committee. Six legislators, the Majority Leader, Minority Leader, and the Appropriations Chairman from each chamber work together to reach a compromise. Then, they present the bill to the membership at which time it can no longer be amended.

 

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