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Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2021 - 2022
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | January 13, 2021 11:50 AM |
|---|---|
| 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 reintroduce legislation to prohibit convicted public officials from lobbying in Pennsylvania. In 2017, PennLive published an article entitled, “Have bribery, fraud and abuse of power become synonymous with ‘Pennsylvania’?” and I found myself wanting to do more to combat corruption in our 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 last session. I hope that you will join 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. |
Introduced as SB727