Legislator
State Senator
Cris Dush
(R) - Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania Senate District 25
In Office
contact info
Capitol Office
East Wing
Senate Box 203025
Harrisburg, PA 17120-3025
Senate Box 203025
Harrisburg, PA 17120-3025
Phone: 717-787-7084
Bellefonte Office
301 N. Spring St.
Suite 110
Bellefonte, PA 16823
Suite 110
Bellefonte, PA 16823
Phone: 814-355-0477
Vote Record By Category
| Category | Vote Index | Total Score |
|---|---|---|
| Privacy & Surveillance | 75 |
2
|
| Open Government | 56 |
1
|
| Reproductive Freedom | 0 |
-1
|
| Religious Liberty | 0 |
-2
|
| Police Practices | 0 |
-4
|
| Free Speech | 0 |
-4
|
| LGBQ&T Rights | 17 |
-4
|
| Student & Youth Rights | 0 |
-4
|
| Constitutional Amendment | 0 |
-4
|
| Due Process | 22 |
-5
|
| Criminal Justice | 39 |
-7
|
| Voting Rights | 23 |
-7
|
| All Bills | 34 |
-17
|
Rated Bill Votes
| Bill | Bill Name | Motion | Vote Date | Rating | Vote | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HB103 | New felony offenses to expand special protections for police | Senate Floor: HB 103 PN 3500, Final Passage | 10/25/2022 | -1 | Yea | HB 103 would create two new felonies for offenses against police officers. Police already have special protections that punish people more severely when they’re assaulted, and prosecutors already have all the tools they need to charge offenses against police. Moreover, the communicable disease provision in HB 103 could be weaponized broadly against civilians, including those engaged in First Amendment protected speech, protest, or assembly. |
| HB140 | Special prosecutor for Philadelphia public transit | Senate Floor: HB 140 PN 3601, Final Passage | 10/25/2022 | -1 | Yea | HB 140 was originally a benign bike lane bill until a Senate amendment added a provision that would allow a special prosecutor to be appointed in Philadelphia to investigate and initiate criminal proceedings for any violations occurring on SEPTA property (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority). This was one of many politically motivated bills seeking to interfere with the prosecutorial discretion of the twice-elected Philadelphia district attorney. |
| HB146 | Mandatory parole postponement (Markie's Law) | Senate Floor: HB 146 PN 3329, Final Passage | 07/06/2022 | -1 | Yea | HB 146, also known as "Markie's Law," would keep people needlessly incarcerated by delaying consideration of parole by adding a mandatory 12-24 months to a person's minimum date of release, depending on the offense. |
| HB156 | Expansion of "tender years" hearsay exception | Senate Floor: HB 156 PN 121, Final Passage | 06/24/2021 | -1 | Yea | Pennsylvania's Tender Years Hearsay Act is a hearsay exception that allows out-of-court statements made by individuals 12 years of age or younger to be entered into evidence under specific conditions. HB 156 would uniformly expand the Tender Years Hearsay Act to allow the introduction of hearsay statements made by people 16 years of age or younger, further eroding the due process right to confront one's accuser. |
| HB184 | Penalty enhancement for aiding or causing suicide (Shawn's Law) | Senate Floor: HB 184 PN 1884, Final Passage | 06/25/2021 | -1 | Yea | HB 184 would enhance the penalty for causing or aiding suicide when the person who died by suicide is under 18 years old or has an intellectual disability from a second-degree to first-degree felony, which is punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Causing or aiding suicide is already heavily penalized under current law and there is nothing in the bill that requires a person to know that the person is under 18 years old or has an intellectual disability. |
| HB246 | Extending Rape Shield Law to human trafficking cases | Senate Floor: HB 246 PN 214, Final Passage | 06/25/2021 | 1 | Yea | HB 246 would apply the protections contained within Pennsylvania’s Rape Shield Law to victims of human trafficking, specifically prohibiting the introduction of evidence relating to the victim’s past sexual victimization or prior allegations of victimization at criminal trials. |
| HB773 | Increased penalties for DUI offenses (Deana's Law) | Senate Floor: HB 773 PN 1022, Final Passage | 07/07/2022 | -1 | Yea | HB 773, also known as “Deana’s Law,” would impose mandatory consecutive sentences for DUI offenses to be served consecutive to any other sentence imposed by the court. HB 773 would also create a penalty enhancement (punishable by 5-10 years in prison and up to $25,000 in fines) simply for refusing to take a breath or chemical test. |
| HB940 | New offenses for injury to police animals (Titan's Law) | Senate Floor: HB 940 PN 3285, Final Passage | 07/06/2022 | -1 | Yea | HB 940 removes the mens rea requirement necessary to convict a person of injuring or killing a police animal and then creates two new "unintentional" offenses: recklessly injuring or killing a police animal and holding someone criminally culpable when a police animal is injured or killed while the person is engaged in the commission of a felony. These are unnecessary, duplicative offenses and dangerously lower the threshold for criminal convictions. |
| HB972 | Banning trans girls from school sports | Senate Floor: HB 972 PN 2886, Final Passage | 06/29/2022 | -1 | Yea | HB 972 would ban transgender girls and women from participating on athletic teams or in sports from K-college. Trans youth have the right to participate in sports consistent with who they are and denying them that right is blatantly unconstitutional and discriminatory. |
| HB975 | Criminalizing consensual sex | Senate Floor: HB 975 PN 3363, Final Passage | 07/06/2022 | -1 | Yea | HB 975 would add caretakers to the list of people who can be charged with institutional sexual assault, making it a third-degree felony for an employee to have any kind of sexual contact, including consensual sex, with a person who receives care, services, or treatment in or from a facility. This bill recklessly expands this offense and infantilizes the elderly and those with physical disabilities by assuming they are incapable of engaging in consensual sexual activity. |
| HB987 | Retroactive reinstatement of driver's licenses | Senate Floor: HB 987 PN 1000, Final Passage | 10/25/2022 | 1 | Yea | During the 2017-2018 session, HB 163 repealed the law permitting the automatic suspension of driver's licenses for drug-related and other non-traffic convictions. HB 987 would apply that law retroactively, allowing people with prior convictions to get their driver's licenses back without having to pay a reinstatement fee. This bill would ensure that the reforms made by HB 163 apply to everyone. Furthermore, HB 987 eliminates some additional offenses that currently lead to license suspensions. |
| HB1300 | Voting and elections restrictions | Senate Floor: HB 1300 PN 1869, 2021 A20420, Final Passage | 06/25/2021 | -1 | Yea | HB 1300 would make numerous changes to the Elections Code, many of which would restrict voting and elections provisions, including (but not limited to): requiring voter ID; requiring signature match verification, eliminating the permanent mail voting list; moving the registration deadline to 30 days before Election Day (from 15 days); moving the mail ballot request deadline to 15 days before Election Day (from 7 days); and opening drop boxes only when staffed by two inspectors. |
| HB1393 | Legalizing fentanyl test strips | Senate Floor: HB 1393 PN 3253, Final Passage | 10/26/2022 | 1 | Yea | HB 1393 would amend the Controlled Substance Act to explicitly exclude fentanyl test strips for personal use from the definition of drug paraphernalia. As fentanyl is increasingly being added to heroin to increase its potency—often without the knowledge of those who use it—overdose deaths continue to rise. By legalizing fentanyl test strips for personal use, HB 1393 would help those in the grip of addiction avoid a potentially deadly overdose without fear of facing criminal charges. |
| HB1546 | Criminal penalties for sharing public officials' information | Senate Floor: HB 1546 PN 3569, Final Passage | 10/25/2022 | -1 | Yea | HB 1546 would create a new assault offense that prohibits the sharing of "restricted personal information" of 39 public officials. The bill poses an unnecessary, unjustifiable, and likely unconstitutional expansion of protections that would hold people criminally liable for perceived future harm committed by someone else. |
| HB1929 | Eliminating automatic knives from offensive weapon definition | Senate Floor: HB 1929 PN 2197, Final Passage | 10/26/2022 | 1 | Yea | HB 1929 would eliminate the antiquated criminalization of automatic knives in PA. § 908 currently prohibits individuals from repairing, selling, dealing, using or possessing an “offensive weapon.” This definition includes many dangerous weapons, but also includes knives used for recreational or work purposes. HB 1929 would remove automatic knives from this definition, thereby removing the opportunity for prosecutors to criminally charge people for merely using or possessing such a knife. |
| HB2032 | Exemption for failure to report injuries resulting from sexual assault | Senate Floor: HB 2032 PN 3148, Final Passage | 07/06/2022 | 1 | Yea | HB 2032 would resolve a conflict between current law and Sexual Assault Testing and Evidence Collection Act (Act 29 of 2019) by creating an exception for failure to report injuries in sexual assault cases where the victim wishes to remain anonymous. This is a reasonable and justifiable proposal to decriminalize failure to report injuries by victims whose privacy is already protected under Act 29. |
| HB2039 | Notification and comment at bail hearings | Senate Floor: HB 2039 PN 3323, Final Passage | 06/29/2022 | -1 | Yea | HB 2039 would amend the PA Crime Victims Act to require that alleged victims are notified of and have an opportunity to comment at bail hearings, allowing bail hearings to be treated more like criminal trials. As a result, HB 2039 would create delays in bail hearings, permit prejudicial information to unduly influence bail determinations, deprive defendants of their due process rights, and undermine the presumption that the defendant is innocent until proven guilty. |
| HB2044 | Prohibiting third-party election funding | Senate State Government: Reported as Committed | 04/11/2022 | -1 | Yea | HB 2044 would prohibit the use of private donations or contributions for operating elections, employing staff, selecting and equipping a polling place, or for use in voter education or outreach. Because the legislature has repeatedly failed to properly fund elections, and counties are desperate to have the resources they need to run fair elections and to do so safely during a pandemic, these grants patched a critical funding gap. |
| HB2125 | Removing 'homosexuality' from the Crimes Code | Senate Floor: HB 2125 PN 2476, Final Passage | 07/07/2022 | 1 | Yea | HB 2125 would remove references to the term “homosexuality” within definitions of prohibited sexual acts in the Crimes Code, which references homosexuality in outdated and offensive ways. This prejudicial language has no place in our laws, and removing those references will not expand or alter the offense definitions amended under HB 2125. |
| HB2157 | Increased and mandatory penalties for fireworks violations | Senate Floor: HB 2157 PN 3332, Final Passage | 06/30/2022 | -1 | Yea | HB 2157 would establish mandatory minimum fines for existing fireworks violations as well as four new suboffenses with enhanced grading and mandatory minimum fines for each type of violation, all under Title 3 (Agriculture) rather than under Title 18 (Crimes and Offenses). This kind of overly punitive response—for violating restrictions on the use or sale of fireworks, no less—undermines judicial discretion, widens Pennsylvania’s carceral net, and, at best, offers hollow promises of deterrence. |
| HB2271 | Sentencing enhancements for sexual extortion (Lindsey's Law) | Senate Floor: HB 2271 PN 2634, Final Passage-Reconsidered | 07/06/2022 | -1 | Yea | HB 2271, also known as Lindsey's Law, would require the Sentencing Commission to create an additional enhancement for people convicted of sexual extortion if the complainant attempts or dies by suicide within 90 days of the extortion. This bill creates a duplicative penalty, already covered by a law just enacted in 2021. Prosecutors have all the tools they need in our Crimes Code to punish people many times over without creating more duplicative and unnecessary offenses. |
| HB2484 | Requiring financial disclosure for write-in candidates | Senate State Government: Reported as Committed | 10/18/2022 | 1 | Yea | Currently, only candidates who file nominating petitions are subject to removal from the ballot for failure to file financial disclosure documents—candidates placed on the ballot due to a write-in campaign are not. HB 2484 would extend the requirement for filing a statement of financial interests to all candidates who appear on the ballot in a General Election, thereby providing voters increased transparency about candidates running for public office. |
| HB2524 | Limiting Right to Know requests from repeat requesters and incarcerated people | Senate State Government: Reported as Amended | 09/20/2022 | -1 | Yea | HB 2524 would amend Pennsylvania’s Right to Know Law (RTKL) to make several updates to the law. Unfortunately, two provisions in particular—designating “vexatious requesters” and limiting requests from incarcerated people—establish dangerous and potentially unconstitutional precedents for allowing the state to pick and choose to whom it responds. |
| HB2527 | Expansion of Good Samaritan immunity | Senate Floor: HB 2527 PN 3150, 2021 A4917, Final Passage | 10/24/2022 | 1 | Yea | HB 2527 would expand the scope of Good Samaritan immunity provided under Act 139 of 2014 from the use of naloxone only (an opioid overdose reversal drug) to all opioid reversal medicines approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration so that any new life-saving drug can be accessed without penalty just as naloxone is today. |
| SB78 | Child custody proceedings (Kayden's Law) | Senate Floor: SB 78 PN 930, Final Passage | 06/24/2021 | -1 | Yea | SB 78, also known as Kayden's Law, would require an evidentiary hearing during child custody proceedings to vet allegations—new or old—of abuse. The hearing requirements will likely trigger traumatic suspensions of contact between mothers and their children, with nearly impossible barriers to reestablish contact, both because the presumption of supervised visitation has no expiration date and because of the enormous financial penalties that can accompany a finding of a history of abuse. |
| SB106 | Constitutional amendments to deny abortion rights, change voting and election procedures, and limit executive authority [constitutional amendment] | Senate Floor: SB 106 PN 1857, Concurrence in House Amendments as Amended | 07/08/2022 | -1 | Yea | SB 106 proposes five separate amendments to the Pennsylvania Constitution that would: deny the right to abortion in PA without exception; permit the legislature to reject any executive branch regulation; require voter ID; shift election audit authority from counties to the Auditor General; and allow nominees for governor to select the lieutenant governor as their running mate. |
| SB118 | Expanding Megan's Law registry | Senate Floor: SB 118 PN 89, Final Passage | 04/12/2022 | -1 | Yea | SB 118 would add three trafficking offenses to the Megan's Law registry, including non-sexual offenses. The registry is uniquely invasive and comes with dire and enduring collateral consequences — severe punishment imposed after serving a sentence. It is also ineffective punishment, as Megan’s Law has showed no demonstrable effect in reducing sexual re-offenses and no effect on reducing the number of victims involved in sexual offenses. |
| SB492 | Limiting access to public records | Senate State Government: Reported as Amended | 09/20/2022 | -1 | Yea | SB 492 would amend Pennsylvania’s Right to Know Law (RTKL) to permit agencies to deny requests made by a party involved in litigation against that agency. By conditioning access to public records based on who is making the request, SB 492 would set a dangerous precedent and introduce an untested interpretation of how the Right to Know Law has been understood and applied since it was first enacted. |
| SB516 | Referring fines and costs to private debt collection | Senate Floor: SB 516 PN 802, Final Passage | 06/09/2021 | -1 | Yea | SB 516 would allow for unpaid fines, costs, and restitution in magisterial district and common pleas courts to be referred to a debt collection agency when a defendant fails to appear, triggering a 25% surcharge to the amount owed. As a result, SB 516 is likely unconstitutional. Adding a 25% surcharge without due process right to a hearing is a clear infringement on a defendant’s constitutionally-protected property interest. |
| SB521 | Invasion of privacy | Senate Floor: SB 521 PN 541, Final Passage | 05/24/2021 | -1 | Yea | In order to criminalize "upskirting" (a behavior already punishable under current statute), SB 521would expand the scope of invasion of privacy under 18 Pa.C.S. § 7507.1 by selectively increasing the grading for adults or teachers convicted invasion of privacy from misdemeanor to felony offenses. |
| SB554 | Increased transparency for public meetings | Senate Floor: SB 554 PN 875, Final Passage | 06/09/2021 | 1 | Yea | SB 554 would amend the Sunshine Act to require public agencies to post public meeting agendas at the meeting location, at the agency’s office location, and on the agency’s website no later than 24 hours prior to a meeting, and to prohibit an agency from taking official action on items not in the meeting agenda. This is a commonsense measure to ensure greater government transparency. |
| SB573 | Out-of-county poll watchers | Senate Floor: SB 573 PN 1712, Final Passage | 06/06/2022 | -1 | Yea | SB 573 would permit any registered voter in Pennsylvania to be appointed as a poll watcher in any precinct in the commonwealth. Permitting Pennsylvania electors to serve as watchers in any precinct in the commonwealth invites people from outside county communities inside local polling locations. This change needlessly invites opportunities for confrontation, unfounded challenges to voters’ eligibility by out-of-county watchers, and, in some cases, an increased risk of voter intimidation. |
| SB588 | Eroding double jeopardy protections | Senate Floor: SB 588 PN 648, Final Passage | 06/15/2021 | -1 | Yea | SB 588 would create an exception to PA’s compulsory joinder rule (Rule 110) that would allow prosecutors to try summary offenses separately from misdemeanor or felony offenses that arise from the same criminal episode. Rule 110 requires a prosecutor to bring in a single proceeding, all known charges against a defendant. SB 588 would create an arbitrary exception to that rule for summary offenses, thereby eroding constitutional protections against double jeopardy. |
| SB735 | Voter ID [constitutional amendment] | Senate Floor: SB 735 PN 952, Final Passage | 06/23/2021 | -1 | Yea | SB 735 is a proposed amendment to the PA Constitution that would require every voter to present "valid identification" at the polls every time they vote. But SB 735 fails to clearly define which forms of ID qualify as “valid," which means that voters must decide whether to amend the constitution to require voter ID before the legislature has even defined the legal requirements for the process. Voter ID can and should be implemented by changing the Election Code, not by amending the constitution. |
| SB738 | Constitutional amendment tracking | Senate Floor: SB 738 PN 867, Final Passage | 09/27/2021 | 1 | Yea | SB 738 would establish a useful, transparent mechanism to publicly monitor the status of the procedural steps required for a proposed amendment to the Pennsylvania Constitution after the General Assembly passes the amendment in a second consecutive session and before it appears on the ballot for voters to approve or reject. |
| SB814 | Evading arrest or detention on foot (Wilding's Law) | Senate Floor: SB 814 PN 1822, Concur in House Amendments | 07/06/2022 | -1 | Yea | SB 814 would create two new duplicative and unnecessary felony offenses: (1) prohibiting evading police arrest or detention on foot; and (2) harming a police animal while evading arrest or detention; resisting arrest; or disarming a law enforcement officer. SB 814 would criminalize the legal and constitutional right to run from law enforcement—an open invitation to charge young Black men and other people of color, who may be legally running from the police, with a felony offense. |
| SB904 | Permitting remote probation supervision meetings | Senate Floor: SB 904 PN 1140, Final Passage | 12/15/2021 | 1 | Yea | SB 904 would permit probation officers to hold remote supervision meetings when appropriate. Probation officers would still be free to insist on in-person meetings, to hold unannounced meetings, or to schedule meetings at times that the probation officer deems necessary. |
| SB905 | Scheduling considerations for probation supervision | Senate Floor: SB 905 PN 1141, Final Passage | 12/15/2021 | 1 | Yea | SB 905 would ensure that when probation officers set a supervision schedule for their clients, that they consider their client's work schedule and any scheduled essential medical care, when making those scheduling decisions. |
| SB913 | Faux probation reform | Senate Floor: SB 913 PN 1282, Final Passage | 12/15/2021 | -1 | Yea | SB 913 fails to meaningfully reform our broken probation system and changes current law in ways that risk making probation worse in PA by making it easier for judges to incarcerate people after revoking their probation and allowing judges to keep people on probation indefinitely for those who can't pay restitution in full. Its only solution to reducing time on probation is a convoluted and exclusionary process to terminate probation early—an outcome far easier to achieve under current law. |
| SB940 | Changing how constitutional amendments are prepared for the ballot [constitutional amendment] | Senate State Government: Reported as Committed | 12/14/2021 | -1 | Yea | SB 940 would amend the PA Constitution to give the Legislative Reference Bureau responsibility for preparing proposed constitutional amendments for the ballot, including drafting the ballot question and the plain English description of the amendment. By shifting these duties to a legislative agency, SB 940 would eliminate the checks and balances in the process, giving the legislature wide latitude to control the drafting and public messaging on all amendments presented to voters. |
| SB982 | Prohibiting and criminalizing third-party election funding | Senate Floor: SB 982 PN 1856, Concurrence in House Amendments as Amended | 07/07/2022 | -1 | Yea | SB 982 would prohibit state and local governments from soliciting, applying for, entering into contract with or receiving gifts, donations, grants or funding from a non-gov't entity for election expenses. Violations would be criminalized as second-degree misdemeanors. SB 982 is an overreaction to county election offices that received nonprofit funds in 2020 to assist with COVID--related prep for the general election—funding the legislature failed to provide. |
| SB1018 | Mandated changes to voter registration records | Senate State Government: Reported as Amended | 04/06/2022 | -1 | Yea | The ACLU-PA certainly supports policies that prioritize making the voter registration system as secure and accurate as possible. But SB 1018 mandates changes to voter registration records that violate federal and state law, are too vague, and/or are already operational. |
| SB1040 | Victim notification for family members | Senate Floor: SB 1040 PN 1356, Final Passage | 04/12/2022 | 1 | Yea | SB 1040 would amend the Crime Victims Act to provide better notification to surviving family members of a murder victim. The bill would require law enforcement to make reasonable efforts to ensure the victim's next-of-kin has been notified of the death before publicly releasing the murder victim's identity and medical personnel would be prohibited from releasing the victim's identity within 24-hours from when the next-of-kin was notified by either medical personnel or law enforcement. |
| SB1166 | Limiting duration of court-drawn congressional maps [constitutional amendment] | Senate State Government: Reported as Committed | 04/06/2022 | -1 | Yea | SB 1166 is a proposed constitutional amendment would add a new section to Article II that will limit any congressional plan that is devised by a court or by a person under the direction of a court to only be valid in the election cycle in which the court or person directed by the court devised the congressional plan. This change would eliminate the incentive to draw fair maps if the parties knew that court-drawn maps will be time-limited. |
| SB1172 | Expanding access to Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners | Senate Floor: SB 1172 PN 1549, Final Passage | 04/12/2022 | 1 | Yea | SB 1172 would increase accessibility to Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANE) by expanding Penn State University's SAFE-T Program. The program utilizes tele-health to ensure all victims have access to proper care provided by SANEs and allows for continued training, and connects examiners to a peer network. This would improve access, treatment, and accurate prosecution for those experiencing sexual assault. |
| SB1179 | Victim Address Confidentiality Act update | Senate Floor: SB 1179 PN 1580, Final Passage | 04/12/2022 | 1 | Yea | The Domestic and Sexual Violence Victim Address Confidentiality Act provides address confidentiality to those leaving an abusive relationship by providing a legal, substitute mailing address to use whenever a residential, work, or school address is required. Currently, the program requires that all requests be made in writing. SB 1179 would allow applications and supporting documents to be filed electronically. |
| SB1191 | Banning trans girls from school sports | Senate Floor: SB 1191 PN 1562, Final Passage | 06/07/2022 | -1 | Yea | SB 1191 would ban transgender girls and women from participating on athletic teams or in sports from K-college. Trans youth have the right to participate in sports consistent with who they are and denying them that right is blatantly unconstitutional and discriminatory. |
| SB1200 | Requiring in-person delivery of mail and absentee ballots | Senate Floor: SB 1200 PN 1576, Final Passage | 04/13/2022 | -1 | Yea | SB 1200 would require delivery of mail or absentee ballots only to a physical person at the primary county office. In effect, SB 1200 would not only ban the use of drop boxes, it would also ban counties from opening satellite offices to accept mail-in or absentee ballots. |
| SB1208 | Collecting unpaid court debt | Senate Floor: SB 1208 PN 2006, Concur in House Amendments | 10/26/2022 | 1 | Yea | SB 1208 would allow counties and courts to collect outstanding court debt through private debt collectors without sacrificing the due process rights of indigent defendants. And by offering enhanced provisions to give judges and defendants greater flexibility and more options, SB 1208 would help counties focus on collectible debt while making it easier for some defendants to pay off their debt. |
| SB1277 | Censoring educational and library resources | Senate Floor: SB 1277 PN 1832, Final Passage | 06/29/2022 | -1 | Yea | SB 1277 would require schools to label and inventory instructional materials and library resources using an overly broad and vague definition of “sexually explicit content”. It would impose unreasonable burdens on schools and may result in extreme self-censorship. And while it doesn’t outright ban or censor educational or reference materials, it includes an explicit invitation for schools to consider such measures. |
| SB1278 | Don't say gay in PA | Senate Floor: SB 1278 PN 1739, Final Passage | 06/29/2022 | -1 | Yea | SB 1278 will create dangerous confusion about what teachers, staff and students are allowed to say and study in school. It will limit teachers' ability to give students the education and support they need, and it will foster, at best, an information vacuum or worse, a hostile environment that further endangers already-vulnerable young people. Finally, SB 1278 proposes a framework that operates like religious instruction attempting to masquerade as free speech–both pernicious & unconstitutional. |
| SB1292 | Prohibiting county election board members from serving as state party officers | Senate State Government: Reported as Committed | 09/20/2022 | 1 | Yea | SB 1292 would amend the PA Election Code to prohibit a member or appointee of a county board of elections from simultaneously serving as an officer of a state political party. Holding both positions presents a clear conflict of interest and would only serve to undermine public trust and confidence in the management and oversight of elections in the commonwealth. |
| SB1317 | Establishing a statewide Indigent Defense Advisory Committee and grant fund | Senate Floor: SB 1317 PN 2008, Final Passage | 10/26/2022 | 1 | Yea | SB 1317 would create an Indigent Defense Advisory Committee and a grant fund to support indigent defense. Pennsylvania remains the only state in the nation that fails to provide state-level funding for public defenders and instead requires that individual counties bear 100% of the financial burden to maintain their essential—and constitutionally required—public defense services. |
Rated Sponored Bills
| Bill | Bill Name | Rating | Comments |
|---|