January Pennsylvania House Journals

The Pennsylvania State House of Representatives met in full session 8 times in January, 2007. This is a brief summary of what was reported in the House Journals for those days. Much of the Journal is taken up with lists of bills voted on without discussion, lists of bills referred to committee, congratulatory notes regarding visitors, and the like. Only pithy discussions or things that randomly catch my eye are noted here.

Jan. 16 (2 p.)
Jan. 17 (1 p.)
Jan. 22 (1 p.)
Jan. 23 (2 p.)
Jan. 24 (1 p.)
Jan. 29 (5 p.)
Jan. 30 (31 p.)
Jan. 31 (6 p.)

Jan. 2
p. 5-12 Dennis O'Brien nominated as Speaker of the House. Bill DeWeese speaks. Much discussion. Since the House had not passed rules for itself yet the Masonic Manual was used to make parliamentary decisions, which usually required a lot of thumbing around.
p. 12 vote on Speaker
p. 13 Josh Shapiro and Barbara McIlvaine Smith escort O'Brien to the rostrum [blogger's note: this custom alarms me -- are they afraid he will be mugged in route?]
p. 15, in a comment from Bill DeWeese: "In the last few years, while it has changed in the business world, the world of the Internet, the world of communications, of bloggers and all of those reams of writing that are out there, out world that we conduct business has changed."
Jan. 29 p. 3, teh number of minority party members on committees increased
Jan. 30, a long list of committees and membership on those committees.