Lame Duck Alive and Kicking
Well, no sooner did we tell you that the House and Senate both had agreed not to hold
session after the election than House Speaker Sam Smith, Jefferson, breathed life into the
old bird.

On July 31, Smith sent a memo to all members of the House adding four session days after
the election: November 13, 14, 19 and 20. While the stated purpose of the post-election
session days is “caucus reorganization, farewell speeches and other housekeeping
matters,” there’s far more to lame-duck session than that.

Disrespect for Voters
There’s nothing to stop the House from legislating as long as they’re in session. Its members
still will be able to enact any legislation received from the Senate before Election Day as
long as there are no amendments.

The office of Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, Delaware, confirmed that in the Senate
“there will NOT be any votes on legislation that needs to be sent to the Governor.”
(emphasis in original)

Until the House makes a similar statement, it runs the risk of defying what 86% of PA voters
want: their legislators’ complete voting record to be available before Election Day. See the
2012 Public Integrity Poll.

Per Diems
The House and Senate must be in session for lawmakers to charge taxpayers for daily
expenses that may or may not exist, otherwise known as per diems. Click here for the IRS
“State Legislator Travel Fact Sheet.” Lawmakers can only collect per diems for session days,
and there are no session days after a legislature has adjourned for four days.

By scheduling session days after Election Day, Smith has made it possible for House
members to continue collecting per diems for doing little or no official business. The Senate
is in the same posture, having scheduled November 14 as a session day for “housekeeping
purposes.”If the House and Senate would simply adjourn before Election Day, taxpayers would be
spared the cost of an entire month’s worth of legislative expenses. For per diems alone, the
cost could exceed $500,000. Combined with other expenses that attend having lawmakers
in town, the cost easily could exceed $1 million.

Question:
• Wanna save a million bucks without cutting programs?
• A million bucks for farewell speeches? Housekeeping? Caucus reorganization?

Caucus Reorganization
Speaking of which, caucus reorganization must await the outcome of the election on
November 6.

However, nothing requires the House or Senate to be in session when they reorganize their
caucuses because there’s nothing official about it. Caucus reorganization is pure party
politics in each chamber, and none of it becomes official until January. That’s why
lawmakers who retired or were defeated don’t participate, even though they are still sitting
legislators. Yet those who are newly elected do participate, even though they’re not sworn
into office until January.

Just Too Busy to Finish Before Election Day
The House has scheduled exactly two session days in the entire month of September and
just eight session days in October. The Senate has scheduled the same two days in
September and two fewer days in October. So it would seem that there is plenty of time for
“farewell speeches and other housekeeping matters” before the election.

Then an adjournment motion is in order. They’ll still get an automatic pay raise on December
1.

August 5, 2012 717-448-4582 P.O. Box 618, Carlisle, PA 17013 tim.potts@democracyrisingpa.com