Speaker Bryan Cutler
100th
Legislative District
Pennsylvania
House of Representatives
Media
Contact: Mike Straub
717-260-6397
RepCutler.com
/ Facebook.com/RepBryanCutler
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 25, 2021
Select Committee to Investigate Department of State
Failure
Bipartisan committee to scrutinize statute of
limitations clerical error
HARRISBURG
– This month, Pennsylvanians were supposed to have the opportunity to
vote on a constitutional amendment to provide a path for victims of childhood
sexual abuse to take civil actions. However, the Pennsylvania Department of
State failed to meet standard publication requirements for the amendment
process and a clerical error within the department led to the removal of the
question from the ballot, causing additional hardships to victims of childhood
sexual abuse across the Commonwealth.
As
a result, the House recently ordered an investigation into the error by
establishing a select committee to determine what happened within the
Department of State so that a mistake of this magnitude can never happen again.
“Our
power as legislators is only strong as the people’s faith in us,” Cutler said.
“A constitutional amendment takes years to reach the voters, and the fact is we
still know very little about what actually led to this failure. This committee
will find out exactly what caused this breakdown, and work to restore the
public’s trust in our processes.”
As
established by House Resolution 91, the committee will examine, investigate and
make a complete study of the publication of the constitutional amendment
process.
The
committee will be made up of the following members:
·
Rep. Natalie Mihalek (R-Allegheny/Washington) – chair.
· Rep. Seth
Grove (R-York).
· Rep. Jason
Ortitay (R-Washington/Allegheny).
· Rep. Margo
Davidson (D-Philadelphia).
·
Rep. Mark Rozzi (D-Berks).