Pa. House to Take up Sex-abuse Law to Expand Victims" Rights
By Maria Panaritis
With only days remaining in the legislative session, the House intends to rewrite and send back to the Senate a contested child sex-abuse bill that would give victims the right to sue for decades-old abuses, leaders said Tuesday. The plan by Republican House leaders repudiates the work of GOP Senate counterparts, who gutted a House bill with a retroactive-lawsuit provision opposed by the Catholic Church and insurance lobbyists. The House intends to restore that language to the bill, potentially exposing private institutions to enormous financial liability by allowing lawsuits for abuse that happened years ago. Rep. Mark Rozzi (D., Berks) announced the decision at an hour-long Capitol news conference attended by, among others, Republican attorney general candidate Sen. John Rafferty Jr. (R., Montgomery); Rep. Thomas Caltagirone (D., Berks); Rep. Frank Burns (D., Cambria); the state victims' advocate, and leaders of child-abuse victims' groups. Rozzi said GOP House leaders had pledged to reject the Senate version and try a second time to change the law so that he and other former clergy-abuse victims will have the right to sue attackers and institutions for incidents that occurred in the 1970s, '80s, and '90s. "It's our plan to run this legislation and send it back to the Senate," Stephen Miskin, spokesman for House Majority Leader Dave Reed (R., Indiana), said after Rozzi's announcement. Though only seven voting days remain, the bill likely will move out of the House this session, Miskin said. "We're going to send it back to the Senate and say, do your jobs," Rozzi said. "Do we expect a fight over this? For sure. Could they sit on the bill? For sure." House leaders were influenced in part by comments last week by new state Attorney General Bruce Beemer, who said in an interview that he believed a retroactive civil statute of limitations change for child sex crimes was constitutional. His stance, a reversal of that of his predecessor, Kathleen G. Kane, who resigned after her conviction on perjury and obstruction of justice charges, was viewed as potentially reviving legislation that has been the subject of acrimony and lobbying for months. An investigation by Beemer's office into clergy abuse, meanwhile, reportedly has expanded to include six Pennsylvania dioceses. Miskin said the House would support a bill that "probably" contains the provision rejected by the Senate in June - allowing the retroactive filing of lawsuits for people up to 50 years old. "That had a lot of support previously," Miskin said, "and we expect that it would again." The House approved such a bill by 180-15 in April, weeks after the release of a state grand jury report detailing decades of abuse in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese in central Pennsylvania. Amid a fury of lobbying, the Senate stripped retroactivity from the House bill in June. It cited concerns that the provision might not survive a state Supreme Court challenge. "We're going to send it back to the Senate and say, do your jobs," Rozzi said. "Do we expect a fight over this? For sure. Could they sit on the bill? For sure." House leaders were influenced in part by comments last week by new state Attorney General Bruce Beemer, who said in an interview that he believed a retroactive civil statute of limitations change for child sex crimes was constitutional. His stance, a reversal of that of his predecessor, Kathleen G. Kane, who resigned after her conviction on perjury and obstruction of justice charges, was viewed as potentially reviving legislation that has been the subject of acrimony and lobbying for months. An investigation by Beemer's office into clergy abuse, meanwhile, reportedly has expanded to include six Pennsylvania dioceses. Miskin said the House would support a bill that "probably" contains the provision rejected by the Senate in June - allowing the retroactive filing of lawsuits for people up to 50 years old. "That had a lot of support previously," Miskin said, "and we expect that it would again." The House approved such a bill by 180-15 in April, weeks after the release of a state grand jury report detailing decades of abuse in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese in central Pennsylvania. Amid a fury of lobbying, the Senate stripped retroactivity from the House bill in June. It cited concerns that the provision might not survive a state Supreme Court challenge.
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