The legislature
is officially adjourned for the 2013-14 legislative session. Lawmakers returned to Harrisburg on November
12th to elect leaders for the 2015-16 legislative session. Here is how those elections turned out:
In the House Republican
Caucus, Speaker-designee of the House is Mike
Turzai (R-Allegheny), who will be voted by the full House on
January 6, 2015. Former Policy Committee Chair Dave Reed (R-Indiana) becomes
the new Majority Leader, while Bryan
Cutler (R-Lancaster) takes over the Majority Whip position, William Adolph (R-Delaware)
maintains the Appropriations Chair position, and Sandy Major (R-Susquehanna)
continues as Caucus Chair. Donna
Oberlander (R-Clarion) will become Secretary, Brian Ellis (R-Butler) will
serve as Administrator, and Kerry Benninghoff (R-Centre) takes over as Policy
Chair.
For the House
Democratic Caucus, the leadership is largely unchanged with Frank Dermody (D-Allegheny)
remaining as Leader, Mike
Hanna (D-Clinton) as Whip, Dan Frankel (D-Allegheny) as Caucus Chair, Joe Markosek (D-Allegheny) as
Appropriations Chair, Neal
Goodman (D-Schuylkill) as Administrator, Mike Sturla (D-Lancaster) as
Policy Chair, and Rosita
Youngblood (D-Philadelphia) taking over as Caucus
Secretary.
In the Senate, a
new team emerged as Jake
Corman (R-Centre) takes over as Majority Leader, making Pat Browne (R-Lehigh)
Appropriations Chair and John
Gordner (R-Northumberland) Whip. Bob
Mensch (R-Montgomery) takes over as Caucus Chair, Richard Alloway (Franklin) as
Secretary, Chuck McIlhinney (R-Bucks) as
Administrator and Dave
Argall (R- Schuylkill) as Policy Chair. Joe Scarnati (R-Jefferson) was
designated to remain as Senate President Pro Tempore when the full Senate votes
on January 6, 2015.
The Senate
Democratic Caucus reelected many of its leaders also , with Jay Costa (D- Allegheny) continues
as Leader, Anthony
Williams (D-Philadelphia) as Whip,
Vincent Hughes (D-Philadelphia) as Appropriations Chair, and Lisa Boscola (D-Northampton) as
Policy Chair. New to their positions are Wayne Fontana (D-Allegheny) as Caucus Chair, Lawrence Farnese (D-Philadelphia)
as Secretary, John Blake (D-Lackawanna)
as Appropriations Vice-Chair, and John
Yudichak (D-Luzerne) as Administrator.
NIFB wants to
congratulate all of the leaders and we look forward to working with them to
improve Pennsylvania’s business climate for small businesses.