Pennsylvania Speaker Mark Rozzi has finally accomplished what he promised would be the state House of Representatives’ first action under his leadership.

On Friday, the House passed the legislation that will give a window of opportunity for victims to sue over child sexual abuse claims that otherwise would be outside the statute of limitations.

In fact, they did it twice.

The first passed 161-40. It is a constitutional amendment that has to go to the Senate. If it passes there unchallenged, it would go to the voters for referendum approval before enacting real change to the state constitution.

One would hope it will all go better than when the 2019-20 session passed similar legislation. That ended in what the Department of State called “simple human error” — an advertising screw-up that kept the measure off the May 2021 ballot and started the process over. Kathy Boockvar resigned as Secretary of State afterward.

If the Senate comes through and the boxes are all checked, the ballots could be in front of voters in November. But politics being politics, that’s no guarantee.

Enter the second bill passed by a vote of 134-67. It’s the net under the high wire, doing exactly the same thing but without the force of constitutional change. If passed by the Senate and signed by the governor, it would go into effect immediately — but only prop open that claim window for two years while the amendment process plays out.

This was all supposed to happen in the special session called in January before Tom Wolf left the governor’s mansion. It didn’t, and, when it wasn’t forthcoming, Rozzi — an abuse survivor who put his weight behind the bill even before he was floated as a compromise candidate for the speakership — shut down the House and sent representatives home until this week.

But now it is moving forward. Now it is getting done. Now people whose lives have been scarred by years of suffering could have a path to healing.

Now it’s up to the Senate to finish the job.

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