The Pennsylvania House of Representatives Appropriations Committee held a meeting on Tuesday night at 8:30 p.m. that lasted until just before 1 a.m. on Wednesday morning.
Pennsylvania is now ten days into the fiscal year without a budget in place. House Appropriations Chair Jordan Harris of Philadelphia placed a Tuesday late-night meeting at recess as soon as it began so members could discuss legislation privately. House members met with members from the Republican-controlled Senate and Governor Shapiro’s office. When members returned around 12:45 a.m., the meeting was then adjourned.
When asked why the meeting was kept open late into the evening, Harris said, “We were leaving all cards on the table to make sure that we could get as much as possible done and get as far as possible.” He had previously said that a general appropriations bill was complete, but told reporters after the meeting was adjourned that the committee had decided not to move forward with the measure.
House Republican members of the Appropriations Committee left shortly after midnight under the impression that the meeting had expired. Committee ranking member Seth Grove of York County was able to return in time for Harris to adjourn the meeting.
Shapiro has asked House Democrats to hold off on running the main appropriations bill, Harris explained, “because there are some other code bills that he wanted us to get to a certain place on.” Harris and House Majority Leader Matt Bradford of Montgomery County declined to speak on what specific issues are holding back the budget.
When asked if she believed Harris and the committee would move the general appropriations bill on Tuesday night, Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward said, “If they are, they’re doing that on their own without any coordination with us.”
Spokesperson for Governor Shapiro’s office, Manuel Bonder, said that “folks are working hard, and we are very close to getting this done. Governor Shapiro appreciates the leaders in both parties and all the staff who are continuing to work together to finalize a budget that delivers for Pennsylvania.
