Pennsylvania House of Representatives

From dKosopedia

Categories: State Legislatures | Pennsylvania Government

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is one of the oldest continuously functioning, democratically-elected legislative bodies in the world, being founded with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1681. The Pennsylvania Senate was not founded until nearly one hundred years later.

The three most prominent Speakers of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives have been Benjamin Franklin, Frederick Muhlenberg, later the first Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, and K. Leroy Irvis, the first African-American to be elected Speaker of any state legislature and the presiding officer at the 1988 Democratic National Convention, and a longtime member of the Democratic National Committee.

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives has traditionally been the more activist house of the Pennsylvania legislature. Not being in possession of the Senate's power to confirm gubernatorial nominees, a power that leads to much horsetrading, the House has long been more focused on the initiation of policy proposals of both liberal and conservative varieties, depending on the balance of power.

The current Speaker of the House is Republican John Perzel of Philadelphia. If the Democrats gain a majority in the 2006 election, Democratic Leader H. William DeWeese of Greene County is expected to succeed Perzel.