Editorial: A legislature that does nothing can do damage
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What is worse than 15 votes to get a speaker of the House in Washington?
Not one vote in Harrisburg.
On Monday, the speaker of Pennsylvania’s state House — Democrat or possibly independent Rep. Mark Rozzi of Berks County — sent the other 199 representatives home without taking up a single issue. The collapse came as Democrats and Republicans fell apart over how the laws will be made in the new term.
If that sounds familiar, it’s probably because establishing the rules was a U.S. House sticking point too.
The difference between Harrisburg and Washington right now is not that one capital is doing things right and one is doing them wrong. It’s that neither of them is accomplishing much of anything as important topics fall prey to the petty stupidity of power struggles.
That’s not so much exclusive to right now. Politicians are experts in jockeying for position. However, this year is proving to be a master class in self-obstruction — and 2023 isn’t two weeks old yet.
Is that really a problem? Some would argue that the less the state or federal legislatures do, the fewer problems they can create.
But it’s hard to justify when there are real problems that need to be addressed. In Pennsylvania, those problems include child sexual abuse and the fallout for its survivors.
A constitutional amendment that would allow a period of time for victims to sue not only the abusers but also institutions that covered up the abuse needs to be addressed, especially after the Department of State under Gov. Tom Wolf made a colossal error that kept it off the ballot already.
Rozzi is an abuse survivor and has said the issue is his top priority, with no other legislation on his agenda until it is settled. It must be passed quickly to meet requirements for voting in two consecutive sessions if it will make the May primary ballots.
Party politics often takes prisoners as one side struggles to maintain superiority over the other. But it should never actively hurt people — especially people who have been hurt by their abusers, the institutions that protected those abusers and the government that already failed them once.