In Your State - Pennsylvania
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Center Identifies Potential for Conflict in State Legislature
WASHINGTON, September 24, 2004 — The Center for Public Integrity today released results of its year-long examination of state legislators' personal financial disclosures. Researchers entered lawmakers' outside ties into a database and cross-referenced them with committee assignments and lists of lobbying organizations. In this way, the Center analyzed three key indicators of the potential for conflict: overlapping committee seats, ties to lobbyists, and employment by other government agencies. Of 245
state legislators in office in 2001 and disclosing their interests in 2002, in
Pennsylvania:
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Go directly to filings: State Receives F for Disclosure of Legislative Outside Ties
WASHINGTON, April 20, 2006 — Meanwhile, Pennsylvania ranked 33rd in the nation for making basic
information on state legislators' income, assets and potential
conflicts of interest available to the public.
Pennsylvania received 56 out of a possible 100 points. Report Card >>
Sample Filing(s): Statement of Financial Interests |
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The constitution prohibits members from voting in conflicts of interest, but the legislative rules leave it up to presiding officers to decide when the prohibition should apply.
According to Article 3, Section 13 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, a lawmaker with a "personal or private interest in any measure or bill" must disclose it to the legislature and abstain from voting.
Senate Rule XXI reiterates the requirements in the constitution and outlines the procedure for declaring a conflict and being excused from voting. Senators must stand and explain their situation to the presiding officer, who then rules whether it warrants abstention or not.
Mark Corrigan, the secretary of the Senate, said that since taking up his position in 1981 he has seen many requests to be excused – but none that were successful.
The exchanges between the petitioner and the presiding officer are entered into the Journal verbatim.
House Rule 65 also reiterates the constitution's requirements. Clancy Myer, the House parliamentarian, said proceedings there mirror those in the Senate: Members are generally required to vote, but representatives with a potential conflict can rise on the floor and describe it, and the speaker rules whether to grant an abstention. Myer said the descriptions of potential conflicts are entered verbatim into the Journal.
The Public Official and Employee Ethics Act prohibits conflicts of interest, which it defines as the use of public office to achieve a "private pecuniary benefit," not including actions that have a minor financial impact or affect all members of a class equally. But it defers to the constitution and legislative rules to establish voting procedures in cases of conflict.
At the time of this writing, the House and Senate rules were available online apparently only as part of the much larger PDF version of the Pennsylvania Manual.