By The PA. AFL-CIO

– We told you on Friday about a last-minute bill that the Senate Republicans were trying to rush through the chamber, with no oversight, financial analysis, or hearings. During a whirlwind 3 days, the Senate managed to pass the bill out of the Finance committee and the Appropriations committee, in spite of there being no actuarial analysis of the bill, and the full Senate just passed the bill this afternoon by a final vote of 28 to 19.

(Go To: http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/RC/Public/rc_view_action2.cfm?sess_yr=2015&sess_ind=0&rc_body=S&rc_nbr=84 to see how your Senator voted!)

In fact, the rush to pass this legislation was so reckless that the non-partisan State Commission charged with overseeing the pension system lashed out at the Senate for denying them time to properly inspect the legislation.

The Senate had already been called out for dropping a 410-page bill on the Friday afternoon before Mothers’ Day, and for glaring problems with the legislation, including the easing of regulations that would allow our pension funds to invest in companies that do business with state sponsors of terrorism, like Iran and Sudan. The legislation is also clearly unconstitutional, as it unilaterally changes the rules for current employees.

The Senate has already taken their stand, on a nearly party-line vote (Senator Greenleaf was the only Republican Senator to vote against this terrible bill). But we still have a chance to demand that the State House does the right thing.

To E-mail your State Representative NOW and Tell them to OPPOSE Senate Bill 1, Go To: http://act.aflcio.org/c/236/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=10280

Source – http://www.paaflcio.org/?p=5954