Memos, Memos and More Memos Look For Sponsors As Preparations Begin For 2025-26 Legislative Session

Despite the fact that the 2025-26 Pennsylvania state legislative session is not scheduled to formally begin until next month, the first two days of the last month of 2024 have seen a flurry of activity.

How big a flurry? How about 299 new co-sponsorship memos in search of names to attach?

That’s 130 memos in the state House and 169 in the state Senate. These are a way of publicizing and gauging support among colleagues for a concept that may soon afterward be submitted in the form of a bill.

Rep. Robert Leadbeter (R-Columbia) submitted 29 memos on his own, while Rep. Russ Diamond (R-Lebanon) was second with 10.

In the upper chamber, Sen. Lisa Boscola (D-Lehigh/Northampton) topped the list with 34 memos, while Sen. Sharif Street (D-Philadelphia) was next at 23.

Some titles of memos that caught our eye include:

State House

  • Click to Cancel and Consumer Protections for Recurring Subscriptions (Ciresi)
  • Establishing a Recall Process for County & Municipal Offices (D’Orsie)
  • Banning Running For Two Offices at the Same Time (Diamond)
  • Change Swearing-In Day to December 1 (Diamond)
  • Corporate New Income Tax Reduction (Kephart)
  • Ending Automatic Pay Raises for Legislators, Judges, and Executive Officials (Kephart)
  • Legalizing and Regulating Adult-Use Cannabis (Krajewski and Frankel)
  • Harassment of a Sports Official (Kulik)
  • Net Operating Loss for Small Businesses (Kutz)
  • Voter ID Constitutional Amendment (Kutz and Ecker)
  • Ending Taxpayer-Funded Subsidies for the Film Industry (Leadbeter)
  • Protecting Job Opportunities for U.S. Citizens: Opposing the Hiring of Undocumented Workers at State Universities (Leadbeter)
  • Additional Sports Wagering Markets (Neilson)
  • Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the Hiring Process (Neilson)
  • Health Insurance Coverage to Age 26 (Pashinski)
  • Disclosure of Artificially Intelligent Generated Content (Pielli)
  • Suspend Mail In Voting for 3 Years (Roae)
  • Charter School Funding (Tomlinson)
  • Mandating Cursive Handwriting (Watro)
  • Prohibit Non-Compete Agreements for Broadcast Workers (Waxman)

 

State Senate

  • Addressing Pennsylvania’s Long-Term Care Workforce Crisis (Argall and Brooks)
  • Constitutional Amendment Regarding the Statute of Limitations and Childhood Sexual Abuse (Baker)
  • Film Industry Tax Credit (Bartolotta)
  • Taxpayer Protection Act – Constitutional Amendment (Bartolotta)
  • Redistricting Reform – Establishing an Independent Commission (Boscola)
  • Election Day Registration (Boscola)
  • Pennsylvania Daylight Protection Act, Adopting Atlantic Standard Time (Boscola)
  • Establishing the Pennsylvania Department of Energy (Boscola)
  • Campaign Finance Reform (Costa)
  • Alyssa’s Law (Haywood and Pennycuick)
  • Repealing Sunday Hunting Prohibition in Pennsylvania (Laughlin)
  • Defunding Antisemitism on Pa. University Campuses (Mastriano and Aument)
  • Protecting Our Elections from Artificial Intelligence Interference (Pennycuick, Gebhard and Kane)
  • Making the Chief Information Officer of the Commonwealth a Cabinet Level Position (Phillips-Hill and Pennycuick)
  • Decriminalization of Cannabis in Pennsylvania (Street and Bartolotta)
  • Improved Access to Wine and Beer at Grocery Stores (J. Ward)

Steve Ulrich

Ulrich has worked as managing editor of PoliticsPA since January 2022 after spending two years as the Director of Elections in York (Pa.) County. Prior to that, he spent 35 years as a college athletics administrator. Send email to [email protected]