Bills Would Shrink PA Legislature

Two bills that wold shrink the size of the Pennsylvania Legislature will receive a hearing next week, the Patriot-News reports:

One of them, sponsored by retiring House Speaker Sam Smith, R-Jefferson, that seeks to reduce the size of the House by 50, to 153 members, after the 2020 reapportionment was approved by a 148-50 vote in the House in December. That was the second time in as many years the House approved a plan for downsizing the General Assembly.

Sen. Lloyd Smucker, R-Lancaster County, said the committee would also consider an amendment to a bill introduced by Sen. Elder Vogel, R-Beaver County, that proposes cutting the size of the Senate by 5 members, to 45. Vogel’s original bill proposed reducing the Senate to 30 senators and the House to 121 members.

The Pennsylvania Legislature is the nation’s second-largest, behind New Hampshire.