It’s the time of year where work demands momentarily cease, family and friends gather to exchange gifts, Christmas music is playing in every store and on every radio channel, and we begin to reflect on the prior year and take account of the highs and lows that 2023 brought us. Here at Americans for Prosperity, we’re taking a moment to reflect on the highlights of Harrisburg and Washington politics, and update our Christmas political wish list as we approach the second half of the 2023-24 legislative session and the 118th Congress.
Washington and Harrisburg dynamics are ever-changing—we know this to be particularly true this year as evidenced by the two Speaker of the House votes in both DC and the Keystone state capitol. For the first time in over a decade, House Democrats took the majority, albeit a slim one, in the PA House of Representatives. Following a rapid change in House leadership, a whopping six special elections were held over the course of the year to determine the balance of power in the lower chamber.
As dynamics change, so do political priorities. This year, on both a federal and state level, we saw both wins and setbacks in the fight towards a more liberty-minded commonwealth and country. Navigating divided government is no small feat, and the fact that both parties found points of agreement should be cause for constituents to celebrate. However, given the shifting dynamics in Harrisburg and Washington towards a more progressive agenda, in 2023, we saw our freedoms and liberties at stake.
The start of the 118th Congress brought Democrats a new one-seat Senate majority. In fact, the results of the 2022 midterms required that House Republicans would have to be in lockstep to protect against defection in their very slim majority. As we saw the leadership elections unfold, it became clear that the ability to work in lockstep as a conference would be far from achievable. House leadership battles, coupled with a Senate progressive policy wish list, resulted in overall inaction from the legislative branch. However, there was one big House win: H.R. 1, or the Lower Energy Costs Act. Despite the politics surrounding House leadership elections, the conference was able to take swift action to pass this legislation that would allow for energy producers to innovate through the removal of government red tape. It even received bipartisan support, with four House Democrats voting “yea”. On our Americans for Prosperity Christmas policy wish list: for the Senate to take up the bipartisan H.R. 1 and allow energy ratepayers and motorists to feel relief!
Meanwhile, in Harrisburg, 2023 was nothing short of a political distraction keeping Pennsylvanians from policymaking that served their interests: removing governmental barriers to economic prosperity. Instead, the new House Democratic majority prioritized legislation that stifles the workforce and prevents flexible employment through House Bill 950 and refused to address rising energy costs by continuing to drum up support for PA’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. Instead of economic prosperity, we saw dysfunction. Instead of meaningful health care reform, we saw leadership fights. One bright spot of the year was the unanimous House passage of legislation that protects online free speech. However, there’s still a lot of work to do to make Pennsylvania competitive with our neighboring states, and on Americans for Prosperity’s Christmas policy wish list for next year are bills that will set guardrails on Harrisburg spending, accelerate our CNIT reduction, allow for universal school choice options for students, and ensure legislative oversight over new carbon taxes.
As we ring in the 2024 new year, it’s not lost on us that our commonwealth and country is at stake. Policymakers need to adopt a forward-facing message that inspires hope amongst their constituents and ensures that economic prosperity is possible here in Pennsylvania. At Americans for Prosperity, we’ll continue to build policy coalitions in the new year that prioritize a more limited government and work to inspire grassroots leaders from across the commonwealth to demand more from their elected officials. Join us in a movement for more by heading to americansforprosperity.org. With your participation in the fight for freedom and policy accountability, we can make 2024 the best year yet.
This is Emily Greene, Deputy State Director with Americans for Prosperity-PA.
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