The late-winter ritual of state budget hearings is getting a coronavirus makeover in Pennsylvania this year.
The House Appropriations Committee announced Monday that its three-week, department-by-department review of Wolf Administration budget requests will open in the main House chambers starting Feb 16, in order to give presenters and committee members a chance to follow all relevant social distancing protocols.
Because the Capitol building is technically closed to the public under Gov. Tom Wolf’s emergency rules, this is also the first time in memory that the hearings will be closed to in-person attendance by members of the public.
That’s a different thing, however, than being closed to the public, Appropriations spokesman Neal Lesher said, noting all of the sessions will be broadcast by the Pennsylvania Cable Network and live-streamed on the Internet by the Republican and Democratic caucus staffs.
In addition, credentialed media - who have continued to have access to the Capitol throughout the closure - will be able to cover the hearings in person if they wish, Lesher said.
The last three days of scheduled House Appropriations hearings: March 2 through 4, will be held in the Forum Auditorium.
The House’s budget hearings have traditionally taken place in the majority caucus room, located right off the Capitol’s Main Rotunda, often playing to relatively packed rooms of members, lobbyists and issue advocates, and reporters.
Lesher said masks will be required for all members, staff, and testifiers. The House floor will be cleaned and sanitized between hearings. The full schedule of the House hearings can be found here.
And in another change for 2021, the Senate Appropriations Committee has delayed the start of its hearing schedule to the week of March 8, and it will then proceed into April. The Senate’s hearings are tentatively scheduled to take place in the Senate chamber.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Patrick Browne, R-Lehigh County, said the intent of new dates - in the past, the House and Senate reviews have run concurrently, giving the whole process a two-ring circus feel - is to get the hearings moved closer to the start of earnest budget negotiations between the administration and legislature.
The new budget - and all related tax and fiscal legislation - is supposed to be in place for the July 1 start of the new fiscal year.