Harrisburg, Pa. − January 7, 2025 − Today, Senate Republicans rejected efforts by Senator Lindsey M. Williams (D-Allegheny) and Senator Katie Muth (D-Chester, Montgomery, Berks) to ensure government transparency, encourage public participation in the legislative process, and hold senators accountable to the public.

During the first day of the 2025-26 Session, Senator Williams and Senator Muth offered a set of three Senate Resolutions that would update the Senate Operating, Ethics, and Financial Rules. Instead of voting on these resolutions, Senate Republicans referred them to the Rules Committee by a party-line vote of 27-21. Similar reforms introduced by the Senators the previous two Sessions were also referred to Committee, where they never received a hearing or a vote.

“Instead of taking this new Session as an opportunity to create Rules that better reflect what Pennsylvanians want from their government, the Senate chose to adopt rules that uphold the status quo and concentrate power in the hands of a few,” said Senator Williams.  “Pennsylvanians expect and deserve a transparent and accountable legislature that actually works for them, but that is not what they got today.”

The Rules Resolutions that were adopted for this Session were not made available to Senators to review until shortly before the vote. These rules only require a simple majority vote and do not benefit from Committee consideration.

“Despite our third attempt to change the Senate Rules to ensure fairness and transparency, the Pennsylvania State Senate will continue as one of the least transparent and least democratic state government entities in the nation. The Senate Rules adopted today will continue to silence the voices of the Minority Party Senators that represent over 5.5 million Pennsylvanians. Our proposed reforms did not even receive a floor vote, but instead, were sent to the Rules Committee by a party-line vote,” Muth said. “These proposed changes would have leveled the playing field by ensuring fairness in the legislative process for all members of the Senate regardless of party affiliation, increased transparency by making fiscal notes and expenditures publicly accessible and would have promoted robust debate and deliberation on legislation sponsored by all members of the Senate, not just the Majority Party bills.  Democracy cannot exist without fairness and transparency and today’s vote to continue the same old system is another example of why the public continues to lose faith in government.”

“A great example to simplify what happened today is this – if both teams played by different sets of rules on a football field, our Commonwealth would revolt. Would it be fair if, since the Eagles had a better record than the Steelers, they got to play 11 players to the Steelers 7 on each side of the ball? That is what we deal with here in the Senate – one team gets all the advantages, while the other has no say,” Muth added.

The rules reforms requested by Senator Muth and Senator Williams include measures that give members more advance notice of floor and committee proceedings; require votes on bills that have bipartisan support; and give all Committee chairs the same powers to call meetings and set voting agendas. Click here to read the cosponsor memo that includes a summary of all the proposed updates to the Senate Rules.