News & Brews October 22, 2025
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Pa. Senate passes budget, House says no
WGAL reports that as the state budget impasse nears four months, the GOP-controlled state Senate yesterday passed a $47.9 billion spending plan that “keeps spending essentially flat but does include increases for the Commonwealth’s Debt Service and school employee pensions. It also reduces funding for the legislature by five percent.” The Democrat-controlled House, which wants to increase spending beyond revenue, has no interest in the bill. And Gov. Shapiro, who’s proven himself a terrible negotiator on the budget, called it “a joke.”
Shapiro to release book
Gov. Shapiro can’t negotiate a state budget, but apparently he can negotiate a book deal. Shapiro will reportedly release a memoir in January. The book, “Where We Keep the Light: Stories From a Life of Service,” will talk about “everything from his swift political rise to the trauma of his home being set on fire,” the AP reports. It’s unclear if the state budget will be done before the book’s release.
How Pa. Supreme Court rulings impact cities
Yesterday, I shared a story on how state Supreme Court rulings have affected rural Pennsylvania. Today, Spotlight PA looks at how court rulings have impacted cities, “sometimes right down to a single city block.” The list includes everything from the soda tax to impeaching Philly DA Larry Krasner. (Caveat: Spotlight PA leans left, so the interpretation of cases in this story is from that angle.)
Fetterman: End filibuster to reopen government
U.S. Sen. John Fetterman said yesterday that he supports ending the filibuster in order to reopen the federal government, which has been shut down for more than three weeks. “When I ran for Senate, everyone, including myself, said we’ve got to get rid of the filibuster,” he said. “I don’t want to see any Democrats clutching their pearls about it now. If we’d had our way, the filibuster wouldn’t have been around for years.” Fetterman has consistently backed the Republican plan to reopen the government, over Democrat opposition. Of his party’s approach to the shutdown, he said, “If you look at my record, I’ve been voting the Democratic line, but this is different now. The tactic is wrong.”
Senate committee considers school cell phone ban
Yesterday, the state Senate Education Committee held a public hearing on school cell phone policies. City & State PA reports that the hearing “focused on the effect of cell phone use on students, social development and learning – and dialing in on what a cell phone ban entails. Administrators and educational leaders were largely in agreement that the state needs to provide a broader state framework for cell phone usage while still ensuring local control is available for districts and schools to include specific policies or exceptions.”