The Pa. House returned from summer recess but hasn’t addressed more than $1 billion in unfinished work

HARRISBURG — The Pennsylvania House returned from a three-month recess last week with more than $1 billion in unfinished business.

Approximately $1.1 billion from the state budget still needs approval, and was left hanging when lawmakers left Harrisburg for their summer break amid a breakdown in budget negotiations. So was hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for four state-related universities that allows those schools to offer in-state tuition discounts.

Lawmakers also have yet to agree on a new date for the 2024 Pennsylvania primary, which they want to move due to a conflict with Passover.

But they didn’t tackle any of it last week. The House was tied 101-101 until a new House representative was sworn in Monday to return the Democrats to their one-seat majority.

Instead, the House voted last week on a number of noncontroversial bills as lawmakers got back to work. As of Monday, none of these time-sensitive issues were scheduled for a floor vote.

“We’re in this situation where we’ve waited all summer to do what?” asked House Republican Whip Rep. Tim O’Neal (R., Washington). “There isn’t any reason why we couldn’t be here, except to ensure a political win.”

Here’s a look at the outstanding issues House lawmakers will need to address soon:

The state budget was approved in August after a five-week standoff over a private-school voucher program that Gov. Josh Shapiro helped Senate GOP members create — and then vetoed because it lacked support from House Democrats.

The Senate returned to Harrisburg in August to send the $45.5 billion budget bill to Shapiro for his signature.

Now, $1.1 billion of that budget remains untouched in the state Treasury because additional legislation must be approved to create new programs and continue old ones. That money includes millions of dollars for Democratic priorities, such as a popular home repairs program, $100 million for the state’s poorest school districts, and $7.5 million in state funds for public defenders’ offices. It also includes a number of noncontroversial issues that still need legislative approval, like $20.7 million to increase ambulance reimbursement rates and millions set aside for health systems.

Senate Republicans and House Democrats haven’t yet reached an agreement to approve that spending. The Senate passed its own versions of these bills in August and cut out a number of the Democratic priorities. They also re-added the school voucher program to a separate bill they sent to the House.

“Here is our first shot at a negotiation, sending something to the House and letting them counter,” Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward (R., Westmoreland) told The Inquirer at the time. “We’re negotiating in public now.”

Beth Rementer, a spokesperson for House Democrats, said last week that conversations with Senate Republicans “continue in good faith.”

“If those conversations do not bear fruit, the House stands ready to send a comprehensive [code bill] to the Senate for their consideration,” she said.

The House has not scheduled any votes on the Senate Republicans’ proposal.

More than $650 million in state funding still needs to be approved by the state House to go to its four state-related universities: the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania State University, Temple University, and Lincoln University. These schools receive annual appropriations from the state so they can offer an in-state tuition discount to Pennsylvania residents.

House legislators have voted twice this year to approve the state-related universities’ funding, but they failed both times to get the two-thirds majority vote needed to disburse the funds.

At a Pennsylvania Press Club meeting last month, House Minority Leader Bryan Cutler (R., Lancaster) said he had “not seen any movement to date” on reaching an agreement with House Democrats to approve state funding for the state-related schools.

House Republicans have opposed funding Pitt and Penn State in recent years, citing concerns with fetal tissue research at Pitt and gender-affirming care offered to minors at Penn State’s health system.

More recently, House Republican leaders say they oppose funding the schools until they freeze tuition and agree to greater oversight from the state.

O’Neal noted a Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi column in PennLive as a recent win. Bendapudi argued that lawmakers create a performance-based funding model to “reward institutions with additional dollars for achieving agreed-upon metrics,” which House Republicans previously supported.

Rementer said that the universities’ fall semesters are well underway, “and we can no longer wait” to approve their funding.

However, House Democrats haven’t negotiated with House Republicans on the issue since July, O’Neal said.

Pennsylvanians will vote in the 2024 presidential primary election in less than seven months. But lawmakers still haven’t decided when voters will actually head to the polls.

Lawmakers want to change the primary date due to a scheduling conflict that would have voters casting their ballot on the first day of Passover. Traditional Jewish law prohibits many regular activities such as driving, working, and the use of electricity during the holiday, which is observed for eight days in the United States.

Lawmakers are still tied between two dates — March 19 or April 2. Top Democrats have said they favor April 2, because it will maintain the full 13-week election cycle and ensure that candidates can collect nominating petitions after Christmas. Republicans favor the earlier date, March 19, as a way to make Pennsylvania more decisive in presidential primaries.

The Senate last month approved a bill to move the primary to March 19. However, several senators acknowledged that a final agreement on a new date had not been reached.

A House committee will consider legislation Tuesday to move the primary date to April 2.