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Senate committee agrees with its House counterpart on redistricting measure

HARRISBURG, June 4 – On Tuesday, the state Senate State Government Committee followed the lead of its counterpart in the House in putting off a vote on a redistricting bill that would have moved the power to draw legislative districts from one legislatively controlled committee to another.

State Rep. Babette Josephs, D-Phila., said that action only solidifies her argument that the proposal is fatally flawed.

"I believe that gerrymandering should not have a place in state government, however it makes no sense to change the way the legislative redistricting process is handled simply for change's sake," Josephs said. "The current proposal that has been offered in both committees is fatally flawed and we would be negligent if we were to advance such a proposal."

On Tuesday, the Senate committee tabled S.B. 346, which would amend the state constitution and give the Legislative Reference Bureau the authority to draw legislative district after the census is taken every 10 years.

A similar bill was slated for consideration by the House State Government Committee, but Josephs, its chairwoman, pulled it from the voting agenda last week, citing the concerns she had with the way the legislation was written.

In a memo to her committee members explaining her decision, she said the LRB would play a major role in reapportionment in the Commonwealth, however its director has said the bureau does not have the capabilities to perform this role, and it would change the bureau's long-standing nonpartisan mission.

"I am very willing to examine alternative proposals that would improve on the current process for legislative redistricting. But passing a bill just because it is labeled reform is not reform, and the Senate committee's action supports that," she said.