Jan. 23, 2018
HARRISBURG – Rep. Jerry Knowles’ (R-Berks/Carbon/Schuylkill) legislation to reduce the size of Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives passed the State Government Committee on Tuesday.
House Bill 153 would reduce the House from 203 to 151 members.
Since this involves a change to the Pennsylvania Constitution, a specific process must be followed for this to take place.
“I am pleased that this legislation has passed through committee and has been sent for the consideration of the entire House,” Knowles said after the meeting. “The reality is that our state Legislature is the largest full-time legislature in the country. My goal is to let our bosses, the people of Pennsylvania, make the final decision about the size of its state House. The best-case scenario is that people will be able to vote on this in the general election.”
In the 2015-16 session of the General Assembly, House Bill 153, again sponsored by Knowles, passed in both the House and Senate. Article XI, Section 1 of the Pennsylvania Constitution requires that identical language be passed in two consecutive sessions of the General Assembly before it can be voted by voters.
Speaker of the House Mike Turzai (R-Allegheny), House Majority Leader Dave Reed (R-Indiana) and State Government Committee Chairman Daryl Metcalfe (R-Butler) are supportive of this proposal and were pleased to see the bill approved by the committee.
For more information about this legislation, or any other legislative topic, contact Knowles’ district office in Tamaqua at 570-668-1240, or in Hamburg at 610-562-3411. Information can also be found online at
RepKnowles.com or
Facebook.com/RepKnowles.
Representative Jerry Knowles
124th District
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Media Contact: Krisinda Corbin
717.705.2032
kcorbin@pahousegop.com
RepKnowles.com /
Facebook.com/RepKnowles