Pa. House lawmakers reintroduce gift ban bill despite decades of legislative inaction

by Peter Hall, Pennsylvania Capital-Star
April 7, 2025

In the last quarter century, state lawmakers have attempted to ban public officials from taking cash or gifts from lobbyists 37 times.

At a sparsely attended news conference Monday in Harrisburg, Reps. Jared Solomon (D-Philadelphia) and Jim Rigby (R-Cambria) spoke with optimism about the 38th try they’re spearheading. 

“This is the hard stuff, the egregious stuff, the headline making stuff … I’m talking the vacation homes, the cars, the jewelry,” Solomon said. “This tries to do something very simple, it says we’re not going to tolerate it.”

The legislation, co-sponsored by Solomon and Rigby, would bar elected officials, public employees and nominees or candidates for public office from taking or seeking gifts of cash or any item worth more than $50. 

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in Harrisburg have rejected claims that expensive gifts rarely influence policymakers’ decisions and that constituents should not be concerned. But for decades, the General Assembly has failed to pass legislation that would end what critics say amounts to legalized bribery.

Each of the dozens of bills introduced over the years has been an attempt to reach consensus on a commonsense gift ban, Michael Pollack, executive director of the government-reform group MarchOnHarrisburg, said.

“We can discuss the details of this bill and those other bills but this is going to be chopped to shreds and rewritten eight times,” he told the Capital-Star. “It’s not a matter of what the exact right policy prescription is, it’s a matter of political will.”

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Current law lets lawmakers accept gifts from anyone, if they disclose items more than $250 on annual interest forms. Legislation to clamp down on gifts, including bills that Solomon has co-sponsored with Republican colleagues in the last two sessions, has died without advancing beyond the House State Government Committee.

Solomon noted House Bill 744 includes reasonable exceptions, as the legislation has in the past.

“If you get a dinner in Harrisburg, I don’t think you’re susceptible to bribery. If you’re in your district and you accept cookies from a constituent who says, ‘Job well done,’ I think that’s okay,” Solomon said. Such exceptions, including donations to be passed on to help constituents, would allow lawmakers to continue doing their jobs.

The exceptions cover gifts, hospitality, transportation or lodging from family members and from lobbyists related to a celebration of a major life event, such as a wedding or the birth of a child, or when a lobbyist and a public official are involved in a personal romantic relationship.

Rigby said dinners and events offered to lawmakers are often educational, especially for those who are new to elected office. House Bill 744 would allow members of the General Assembly to continue interacting with constituents and advocates, and Rigby said those types of events aren’t the problem.

“I didn’t come to Harrisburg for the bennies, for the perks, for the big events, I don’t think any of us did,” Rigby said, adding that. “I thought this is a good place to start, and it certainly has its value.”  

 

Pollack pinned the failure of gift ban legislation on leadership in both chambers, noting that its difficult for leaders to admit fault in the institutions they oversee and to recognize their own humanity.

“It shatters their own self image and that gets a response of arrogance and anger a lot of the time,” Pollack said.

Spokespeople for House Majority Leader Matt Bradford (D-Montgomery), Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R-Indiana) and Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward (R-Westmoreland) did not respond to a request for comment.

Solomon, who made an unsuccessful bid for attorney general last year, agreed that reforming the legislature is particularly difficult for those who would be subject to the new rules.

“I’ve often thought, maybe if we make this bill effective 20 years from now … maybe we could get passage through the legislature,” Solomon said. 

In the 2022-23 legislative session, MarchOnHarrisburg recruited a lawmaker to force a vote on a bill that would ban legislators from accepting gifts, transportation, and recreation exceeding $250 from a single person each year.

The move would have directly defied Republican leadership, specifically then-Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff, R-Centre, who controlled the chamber’s voting calendar. Ultimately, no one made a move and the legislation remained stuck in committee.

MarchOnHarrisburg, which also advocates for campaign finance reform, the end of dark money campaign spending and other issues involving transparency and political accountability, has continued to push for the gift ban.

Last month, the group’s members spent a day “bird dogging” lawmakers for answers on their support or silence on a gift ban and plans to release them to constituents.

But the pressure not to rock the boat that individual lawmakers face from their caucus leaders, lobbyists and donors is real, Pollack said. He noted that rank-and-file lawmakers who stepped out of line in the past have been stripped of committee assignments, staff and even their Capitol offices.

It’s also legal for lawmakers to have side jobs, despite Pennsylvania having a full-time legislature, and to promote legislation to benefit industries with which they have business relationships.

“All of these things add up to a really deep culture of corruption,” Pollack said. “If we don’t do it, we just continue to be governed by smaller and smaller numbers of people with money and influence.”

Pennsylvania Capital-Star is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Tim Lambert for questions: info@penncapital-star.com.