Lawmakers consider fast-track plan for abuse lawsuit window
Trending
HARRISBURG -- A bid to amend the Pennsylvania Constitution to give victims of child sexual abuse a new legal window to sue over otherwise time-barred allegations got new life Thursday, days after the disclosure of a paperwork error threw it into disarray.
Rep. Mark Rozzi, D-Berks, told colleagues during a state House session that Republican leaders in both chambers were working with him and he hoped to get the proposed amendment on the spring primary ballot through an emergency process allowed in the constitution.
"We'll be able to pass a standalone quickly and get this on the May ballot as originally intended," Rozzi said.
Rozzi, a prime backer of the effort to pass the amendment, said the top-ranking senator in the GOP-majority Senate, President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, supports an emergency amendment process. Corman's spokesperson Jenn Kocher was noncommittal.
"As always, we look forward to reviewing any plan the House is able to pass over to the Senate and that includes an emergency constitutional amendment," Kocher said.
House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff, R-Centre, said on the House floor that his caucus will work with Rozzi and other backers to get the emergency amendment through the chamber.
The proposed constitutional amendment would give now-adult victims of childhood sexual abuse a two-year reprieve -- a so-called window -- from time limits in state law that otherwise bar them from suing perpetrators or institutions that may have covered up abuse.
The drive to amend the constitution has been fueled by investigations into child sexual abuse allegations inside Pennsylvania's Roman Catholic dioceses.
It was not immediately clear Thursday how many times the emergency constitutional amendment process has been used, or for what, since voters added it to the state Constitution in 1967.
The provision in the constitution is designed to be used "in the event a major emergency threatens or is about to threaten the Commonwealth and if the safety or welfare of the Commonwealth requires prompt amendment," it says.
An emergency amendment requires both chambers to support it with a two-thirds approval vote. That needs to happen at least 30 days before the May 18 primary to appear on the ballot as a referendum.
"We have to find a remedy because these victims' constitutional rights have been violated and we need to fix this problem," Rozzi told colleagues.
The proposed amendment had been on track to appear on the May 18 statewide ballot.
But Gov. Tom Wolf's administration disclosed Monday that the Department of State had failed to advertise the amendment during the 2019-20 legislative session, as required, when the amendment received the first of two rounds of approval in the House and Senate.
That threatens to set back the process by two years, until at least 2023. As a result, Wolf's top elections official, Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, is resigning.
Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa, D-Allegheny, said he expects his chamber's Democrats will support an emergency constitutional amendment, but they have not discussed it. Their preferred method is to pass a two-year window both as a law and as a constitutional amendment, Costa said.