Lawmakers in Harrisburg have all received their committee assignments—and some new rules in the house could make committee votes more critical to the political power structure this year.

Before a bill can be voted on by everybody in a legislative chamber— it goes to committee. This is where a smaller group of lawmakers will research a bill, listen to public opinion, and see if there are mistakes or a bad legal premise that can be changed.

Committees are set up by topic— such as education committee or transportation committee— and are very much run on partisan politics.

Just like the Speaker of the House and President Pro Temp-ore of the Senate have final say on what legislation is called up for voting in the full chambers… the chair of a committee has final say on which bills can be publicly discussed and voted on to pass back to its respective chamber.

The majority political party in each chamber keep their majority power in committees as well, assigning the chair positions.

There are 24 committees in the Senate. Each committee has at least 11 members, and a partisan break of 7 Republicans and 4 Democrats.

Over in the House, partisan breaks were part of negotiations for a divided chamber.

Democrats and Republicans are currently tied at 101 members each, as one Democrat representative is recovering from a medical emergency.

At session start last week, Democrats kept their majority role, but in turn, Republicans now have an extra member on committees.

The House has 30 committees— three of which are new. Each has at least 26 members, with a partisan break of 14 Democrats and 12 Republicans… compared to 11 Republicans last session.

Other updates to the House rules include processing all proposed amendments instead of the Majority party dismissing (called ‘tabling’) all amendments on a bill, making it easier for the Minority party to get enough signatures to ‘discharge’ a bill from committee, and generally allowing more debate on the House floor.

"For the inner workings of the House, it means essentially the minority has more of a say and it enhances debate and deliberation both on the floor and in committee,” Rep. Jesse Topper (R) said, the House Republican Leader.

While the Republicans negotiated more leverage, Democrats do maintain the majority and can operate House even with a tied membership.

"Our obligation is to get those committees moving, get bills out of committee, start teeing up legislation, and doing the people's business,” said Rep. Matt Bradford (D), House Democrat Leader.

The next session day for both chambers is January 27. Committee meetings will also start that week.

In our area, Senator Dan Laughlin is chair of the Law and Justice Committee in the Senate. Representative Ryan Bizzarro is chair of the House Democrat Policy Committee. Rep. Pat Harkins is chair of Gaming Oversight Committee. For local Republican representatives, Rep. Brad Roae is minority chair of State Government Committee, and Rep. Kathy Rapp is minority chair of the Health Committee, which will play a big role in if adult-use cannabis is legalized in this session.