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Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2019 - 2020 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted:	December 7, 2018 03:09 PM
From:	Senator Patrick J. Stefano
To:	All Senate members
Subject:	Banning Convicted Public Officials from Lobbying in Pennsylvania

In the near future, I plan to re-introduce legislation to prohibit convicted public officials from lobbying in Pennsyvania. Not too long ago, I read a PennLive article entitled, “Have bribery, fraud and abuse of power become synonymous with ‘Pennsylvania?’” and found myself wanting to do more to combat corruption in the Commonwealth. As the article states, “it’s rare for more than a few months to go by without a high-profile official in Pennsylvania making headlines for violating a law.” What is even more unfortunate in my opinion is that many of the same individuals who have made these headlines have since been welcomed back into the Capitol as registered lobbyists and still wield a large amount of power and influence. I believe the acceptance of this practice undermines the trust of voters. Therefore, I plan to introduce legislation to prohibit any future public official convicted of a crime related to their public office from registering as a lobbyist in Pennsylvania. A public official will be defined as “a person elected by the public or elected or appointed by a governmental body, or an appointed official in the executive, legislative or the judicial branch of the Commonwealth or any political subdivision thereof.” This legislation was formerly Senate Bill 666 from the 2017-18 Legislative Session, and was co-sponsored by Senators Mensch, Bartolotta, Reschenthaler, and Wagner. I sincerely hope that you will consider joining me in co-sponsoring this legislation. If you have any questions regarding this information, please contact Jake Gery in my office at jgery@pasen.gov.

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