HARRISBURG, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — Nearly three hours of contentious debate came to the floor of the Pennsylvania Senate after Republicans packaged a proposed constitutional amendment that has broad bipartisan support with two others that Democrats oppose.
SB1 contains a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would retroactively extend the amount of time child sex abuse survivors have to seek civil action. Senate Republicans have lumped in with it two other proposals: One would create a voter ID requirement; the other would give the Legislature the power to overturn state regulations with a simple majority.
Senate Republican leader Joe Pittman says all three of these issues have already been put before members.
“There is nothing new in Senate Bill 1. There is nothing different in Senate Bill 1,” he said. “We are advancing a process to bring to the voters these critical constitutional questions.”
But Senate Democratic leader Jay Costa called it political gamesmanship. Democrats unequivocally support extending the timeline for sex assault victims, he said. “What we don’t support is it being joined with two other provisions which clearly we now know Senate Democrats do not support.”
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Berks County Democrat Judy Schwank pointed out that the Republican leadership was unable to answer specifics about the voter ID amendment — for example, what forms of ID would be acceptable.
“I think it’s insulting to the people to say ‘Decide,’ when you’re not giving them all the information about how these issues will work,” she said.
SB1 passed the Senate 28-20 with one Democrat and all Republicans voting in favor. The bill now moves on to the House, where its future is a bit murky, as the House speaker has said he won’t run any other legislation until the extension for sex abuse survivors is passed.
The House canceled their special session days this week after Republicans and Democrats hit an impasse over the rules governing the session.
Any amendments that both the Senate and the House would go before voters later this year before becoming law.
Survivors of childhood sexual abuse have been advocating for years for a remedy that would allow them to file lawsuits for incidents that occurred long enough ago that alleged abusers are protected by statutes of limitations. The Legislature passed a measure allowing retroactive lawsuits in 2019, but the Wolf administration bungled the public notice requirements needed to put it on the ballot for voters.