PA Bill Number: HB2235
Title: Providing for regulation of the meat packing and food processing industry by creating facility health and safety committees in the workplace; ...
Description: Providing for regulation of the meat packing and food processing industry by creating facility health and safety committees in the workplace; ... ...
Last Action: Referred to LABOR AND INDUSTRY
Last Action Date: Apr 25, 2024
Pennsylvania Senate to explore removing Kane as attorney general :: 10/23/2015
HARRISBURG — The Senate on Friday took the first step toward using an obscure provision of the Pennsylvania Constitution that could trigger a vote to remove Attorney General Kathleen Kane, an accused felon, from her position as the state's top law enforcement officer.
Utilizing the procedure would be unprecedented, though it's not certain the Senate will do so.
“We don't have a predetermined outcome,” said Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson County.
Scarnati next week will appoint a committee that would explore her removal from office, through the “direct address” process.
“This is a very grave, serious and unprecedented action the Senate is embarking on,” Scarnati told reporters in a conference call.
Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, reiterated his position that Kane should step aside.
“He believes Attorney General Kane can no longer serve as attorney general and has called for her to resign,” said Wolf's spokesman Jeffrey Sheridan.
Sheridan said the governor's administration and Senate leaders are discussing ways to ensure “that the citizens of Pennsylvania have an effective and properly functioning Office of Attorney General.” He said Wolf would review the committee's findings.
Thursday's suspension of Kane's law license, ordered by the Supreme Court, led to the Senate action, Scarnati said.
Kane's spokesman Chuck Ardo said she “believes any action the Senate might take before the legal process has the opportunity to work itself out to completion is premature.”
Scarnati said the committee's members will be evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats. They will be tasked with evaluating Kane's ability to perform her job, given the temporary suspension of her law license.
Losing her right to practice law might be a “tipping point,” Scarnati said in an interview this week.
Kane, 49, the first woman and Democrat elected as attorney general, faces 12 criminal charges in Montgomery County, including obstruction of justice, official oppression and two felony counts of perjury.
The charges relate to a leak of grand jury information to a Philadelphia newspaper. Prosecutors say Kane intended to embarrass a former state prosecutor with whom she publicly feuded.
If the Senate proceeds, Kane would be entitled to a hearing. Removing her from office would require a two-thirds, or super majority, vote from the full Senate.
Kane's office, relying on research by author William Keisling, said there was an unsuccessful effort to remove a state treasurer and auditor general in 1891.
Brad Bumsted is Trib Total Media's state Capitol reporter. Reach him at 717-787-1405 and bbumsted@tribweb.com.
http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/9312903-74/kane-senate-general#axzz3pRktYvp1
