In the 2023/24 session, Governor Josh Shapiro signed 217 bills into law. Those are an official part of Pennsylvania’s legal records now.

217 laws… out of the 3,862 bills filed by the House and Senate in the same time frame. 

Some got referred to a committee, never to see the light of day again. Others passed the House, but were ignore by the Senate. In the past, a bill might even have passed both chambers and made it all the way to the governor’s desk— only to never be signed.

On December 1, a new legislative session hit the reset button.

0 bills in the system.

 

To The Basement

Beneath the Main Capitol in Harrisburg, displayed neatly in a long hall from the East Wing to grand basement stairs, is Legislative Services for the House and Senate.

Mirroring each other with the open hall between, beautifully welded wrought iron runs from counter to ceiling, arched at the bottom to create a window where papers can pass through.

When a lawmaker has an idea for the law, they have to write the thing out (often with the help of the Legislative Reference Bureau) and then file a draft with legislative services. This is where an idea transforms into a right and proper bill.

The bill is assigned a number, copies are sent to all the offices that need a copy, and the bill can begin its legislative journey.

Modernizing

For decades, this was an in person and paper printing process. A lawmaker’s office would print the bill draft, walk down to the basement, and hand the draft through those wrought iron windows.

A legislative services worker would assign a number to the bill draft to officially file it. Once filed, a physical copy of the bill was sent to the House Speaker’s office or Senate President’s office to get referred to a committee— where it starts its legislative journey of being publicly scrutinized and haggled over by lawmakers.

This is the first year that both the House and Senate legislative services have made this process electronic.

“September of last year, we went 100% electronic,” Jordan Davis said, director of the House Legislative Services. "Now, member has an idea, tells the legislative reference bureau what their idea is. They [LRB] type it up, they send that back to the member, and the member and his/her office has the ability to file that bill electronically."

On the House Legislative Services side, a staff member can log into their account, see the bill draft, and with two clicks of the mouse— the bill gets a number assigned and is ready to get emailed to the offices that need a copy.

The software for the electronic process was designed by House staff, using existing resources. House Parliamentarian David Brogan says going electric brings significant cost savings to tax payers.

“In the old process, every one of those bills had to be printed, all the amendments had to be printed, and multiple copies had to be printed to be sent around to all the offices,” David Brogan said, the Parliamentarian for the House of Representatives. "And it was just a tremendous waste of resources considering the technology we have available now.”

On the Senate side, Legislative Services have been using electronic filing for several years.

Both the House and Senate do still have to print the bill once it is referred to a committee— meaning a physical copy has to be printed and walked from the office of the House Speaker of Senate President to the office of the committee chair. And then a physical copy must be returned from the committee to the Chamber floor if the bill passes committee.

Brogan said the House is set to do a pilot program of making the committee referral process electronic as well, with hopes of adopting the system for all committees.

“Our goal is to get where we don’t have to print the bill until we have to send a physical copy over to the Senate,” Brogan said.

Repetition in Refiling

In the 2023/24 session, the Senate filed 1273 bills and 374 resolutions… 1647 filings all together. The Senate voted on and passed 278 bills over to the House.

The House filed 2,589 bills and 550 resolutions… 3,139 filings all together. The House voted on and passed 428 bills over to the Senate.

Of note, Pennsylvania lawmakers did not have 4,786 new ideas for bills and resolutions (though I wouldn’t actually put it past them). Many resolutions repeat every year. Many bills are refiled after failure to get signed into law the previous session.

Some might get copy and pasted. If a bill had a committee hearing where new amendments and ideas were brought up, some of those changes might get incorporated into a refiled bill's language.

For example, Rep. Pat Harkins (D-Erie) has filed his Jake Schwab Workplace Safety bill every session since 2015. The 15/16 memo looks similar to the 17/18 memo, and the bill gets a more personable name in the 19/20 session, which continues into the 21/22 session; the 23/24 session is referenced in the 25/26 session version, which got filed on January 23.

As of January 24, the House had 344 bills and resolutions filed for the current session.