HARRISBURG, Pa. — The Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed a long-awaited bill to open a retroactive window for adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse to sue their abusers. The action comes after years of setbacks for the beleaguered bill, which still faces long odds in the Senate.
Speaker of the House Mark Rozzi (D-Berks) has long supported the measure, as he was raped by a Catholic priest as a child. The embattled speaker said he would not address any other legislation until this measure passed, despite months of procedural partisan bickering.
Rozzi made one last impassioned speech before the final vote on HB 1, a constitutional amendment.
“Put yourself in my position of a 13-year-boy being raped in the shower. Do you think I knew what the statute of limitations was? My statute of limitations was two years. That’s why we’re giving two years back to these victims, and they sure as hell deserve it,” he said.
Two bills ultimately passed in the House, each taking a different route to the same goal. Both measures were introduced to increase the chance one gets signed into law.
HB 1 is a constitutional amendment that voters could see as a ballot referendum in the fall elections.
HB 2 is a statutory bill that could be passed in the Senate, then signed into law by Gov. Josh Shapiro.
“The dual path is the right way to go because we can pass the statutory bill and let the courts start working on it, and we can have the backup as the constitutional amendment,” Rozzi said in a press conference following the votes.
House Republican Leader Bryan Cutler voted for the constitutional amendment, but against the statutory bill, citing concerns about potential legal challenges. In a statement, he said Democratic leaders still weren’t doing enough to protect other victims, such as a lobbyist who recently testified she was sexually harassed by a male legislator. He continued in the statement,
“These actions raise serious concerns about how the Democratic Majority is operating, and if they can be trusted to guide our chamber forward this session.”
The bill’s fate in the Republican-majority Senate, though, remains unclear. Senate Republican leadership has said they would only consider the measure if it were bundled with two unrelated issues, both of which are deeply unpopular with Democrats.
The Senate next meets on Monday.