Jan. 9—HARRISBURG — Embracing Pennsylvania’s energy prowess, instituting school choice and aiding rural hospitals and nursing homes are among the legislative priorities outlined by the state Senate’s returning president pro tempore.
While the dynamics surrounding the state House’s indefinite tie for its voting majority captured much of the attention Tuesday inside the State Capitol, new and returning state senators were sworn into office on the opposite side of the Rotunda.
Republican Sen. Kim Ward, re-elected to lead the Senate for a second consecutive legislative session, spoke about the session to come. Like her contemporaries in the lower chamber, Ward expressed a need for Pennsylvania’s divided government to pursue legislation that benefits all state residents.
“While it’s very important to continue the work to help the people who sent us here, it’s equally important that we continue to work together and compromise to get things done,” Ward said.
Ward’s comments also echoed that of Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, who often cites the challenges of divided government to “get s- — done,” spicier phrasing than Ward’s but a mantra that he’s repeated often in his two-plus years as governor.
Republicans control the Senate with a 27-22 majority and a vacancy to be filled through a special election in a GOP-friendly district. The House split is even, 101-101, with the recent illness of a Democratic legislator whose absence is indefinite. It’s essentially a repeat of the 2023-24 session which produced a lot of head-butting over big issues like school vouchers and public transit, for instance, and the lowest count of bills passed into law since former Gov. Ed Rendell’s final two years in office.
Sen. Lynda Schlegel Culver, R-Northumberland/Snyder/Montour/Columbia/Luzerne, spoke up in support of Ward’s nomination. In her floor remarks, Culver described Ward as humble, principled and compassionate. She said the Senate president is “focused on what is best for the people of Pennsylvania.”
“In order to achieve this, she understands the art of compromise and reaching across the aisle,” Culver said.
The first issue Ward addressed was energy. Pennsylvania trails only Texas in energy production. She described her approach to an energy strategy as all-encompassing, harnessing fossil fuels and renewables like solar and wind.
She seemed to aim at Shapiro’s own energy agenda, one that hasn’t gotten past Republican opposition. She warned against “lawsuits” and “delay tactics” — the governor’s administration is appealing a court ruling that found Pennsylvania’s participation in the multi-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative cap-and-trade program is unconstitutional because it amounts to an illegal tax.
“There’s room. We can use all of those energy sources to help the folks we represent,” Ward said.
Republicans will again press this session to institute a voucher-style system to allow public school students to take the state’s funding and use it for tuition in a private school if their public school is performing poorly. Ward said Pennsylvania’s children need more than “historic investments,” the billion-plus additional spending Democrats successfully pursued in the last two state budgets in the wake of another court ruling, one that found the commonwealth’s funding system unfair and unconstitutional.
“Nursing homes are struggling,” Ward later continued. “Rural hospitals are struggling.”
She didn’t dwell on the topic, stressing a need to aid providers and hinting at “right-sizing” health care facilities before saying the same for state government.
“We have empty buildings. Nobody’s going to work in some of these offices yet we’re running electricity, water and heat. That’s wasteful,” she said.