From PennFuture (http://www.pennfuture.org):
We officially killed both Senate Bill 652 (‘pipeline protest bill’) & House Bill 2154 (‘conventional oil & gas reg rollback bill’). Thanks to all who took action!
Late last week, we learned that SB 652 would likely not be moving forward this week and that our outreach to the Buildings & Trades union was successful. We were able to get 35 amendments added to this bill, held the entire House Democratic caucus votes, and about 10-15 moderate House Republican votes (mostly from SEPA, Lehigh Valley & Rep. Mehaffie from Hershey). At the end of the day on Friday, SB 652 was not on the calendar for Monday or Tuesday this week and this held true through the week. We continued advocacy on this bill Tuesday and yesterday it became clear leadership would not be bringing it up.
On Monday, we learned that our ‘zombie’ bill – HB 2154 – would likely be seeing some unexpected movement this week as industry was really pushing hard to get this done in the Senate before the end of session. It was brought up for second consideration and re-referred to the Senate Appropriations committee Monday evening. On Tuesday morning, we were able to have HB 2154 pulled from the agenda of the Senate Approps committee and completely removed from the voting schedule/floor calendar, but Tuesday night at 9PM, we learned that industry pushback caused the bill to be added back to the agenda for a ‘sunshined’ off-the-floor Senate Appropriations committee vote that took place yesterday (Wednesday) around 1PM.
HB 2154 was re-reported as committed from Appropriations, but we were able to build up enough votes to block the bill from coming up for a final floor consideration on the Senate’s supplemental calendar. We prepared our friends and champions in the Senate Democratic caucus and a couple moderate Republicans who are really good on water issues to speak against the bill if it was brought up.
They didn’t have enough votes. The current vote count is 23 AYEs & 25 NOs, with one unconfirmed. All Democrats except for Sen. Brewster (he remained unflip-able) are NOs on the bill. We were also able to get several Republicans to be NOs: Alloway, Folmer, Scavello, Mensch, Greenleaf, McIlhinney, McGarrigle, Killion, and Rafferty. Sen. Aument was leaning NO, but I have been unable to confirm recently (I have a call out to his COS).
Our work and multiple strategies and tactics were crucial and really made the difference, including our all-hands-on-deck effort and engagement with the CCWC, CDRW, Methane & Clean Power coalitions. This truly made an impact.
The Senate gaveled out at about 11:30PM last night having not brought up HB 2154 for a final vote & the House gaveled out just before midnight. The Senate is in recess until the call of the President Pro Tempore and the House is in recess until the 12-hour call of the Chair, but both chambers are not expected – and not likely – to return until after the elections. Members want to get home and campaign for a tough election. The House is slated to return on 11/13 and the Senate is slated to return on 11/14 for leadership elections, caucus reorganization, and the start of new member orientation. There was some talk this week that there may be another day or two added after the elections and possible ‘sine die’ action, but nothing official or confirmed – and this very unpopular.
As far as I can see it, both bills are dead and we’re set until the next legislative session starting the first week of January (though we’ll continue to track closely). HB 2154 will most likely be back early in the next session, but the future of something like SB 652 is unclear. I’ll start conversations with several on our team in the coming days on ways we can tell these stories to our members/donors and taking a victory lap – or two.
Please feel free to share these updates with our partners/coalition lists and don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions you may have.
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