PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call
Bill White
Rep. Mark Rozzi doesn’t like hearing that it’s too close to the election for legislators to support the strongest possible version of House Bill 1947, the child sexual abuse statute of limitations bill.
“That’s somewhat disconcerting to me,” he said. “Any representative or senator who would make a comment like that should be voted out.”
Anyway, Rozzi isn’t convinced voting in favor would be all that risky.
“The majority of people in Pennsylvania know what’s going on,” he said. “They want this to happen.”
The last time I wrote about Berks County Democrat Rozzi, it still was unclear whether the House leadership would go along with his plan to discard the watered-down Senate version of the bill and restore its most important component to many survivors and advocates, the provision of some kind of retroactive access to the courts for victims of past abuse.
There was some sentiment that it would be wiser to accept the weaker bill and get it signed rather than risk returning it to a very uncertain fate in the Senate. After all, even as amended by the Senate, HB 1947 is a big improvement on the state’s present law. And with more grand jury reports likely as a result of investigations into abuse in several Pennsylvania dioceses, including Allentown, a renewed effort to restore retroactive civil access would gain plenty of momentum in the next legislative session.
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