Harrisburg – October 19, 2020 – Sen. Anthony H. Williams has begun circulating a co-sponsorship memoranda for a Senate Resolution to limit voting during a sine die session of the Senate to budget-related matters only.

“The people of Pennsylvania will be taking to the polls on November 3, 2020, to elect the officials who they feel will best serve them,” Williams said. “Our current elected leaders have a duty to fulfill to their constituents no matter what happens on November 3, and that is passing a budget for our state.” 

Under normal circumstances, the Pennsylvania Senate does not typically convene for voting session days between the General Election and November 30 when the legislative year ends. However, due to the dire economic challenges faced by the state since the beginning of COVID-19, the Pennsylvania legislature passed a five-month budget in May to get Pennsylvanians through the first wave of the pandemic. Now, the legislature must pass a budget for the remainder of 2020-2021 before November 30, 2020.

“This resolution will ensure that we are focused on the task at hand and not distracted by partisan policy goals. We must complete the work of this session by closing out the budget and leave other substantive policy discussions until January, when half of the Senate will be sworn and seated,” Williams said. “The legislature owes it to the people of Pennsylvania to make this year’s sine die session about only the budget task at hand, or we risk the public trust in this institution to carry out the will of the voters.”

###