Harrisburg, PA – October 21, 2025 –113 days after the deadline to adopt the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s budget and 70 days after Senate Republicans voted to fund the state at archaic levels for FY24-25, Senate Republicans continued to deliberately delay by introducing an irresponsible budget bill that:
- Ignores $2 billion in contract increases for social services programs
- Removing $50 million from child care recruitment and retention
- Removes $105 million boost for school districts
- Removes $10 million from the student-teacher scholarship program
- Cuts the Department of Human Services by more than $1.3 billion
- Cuts state food purchasing program by $4 million
In response to the failure of Senate Republicans in negotiations regarding true Budget for FY 25-26 Senator Maria Collett (D-12 Montgomery, Democratic Caucus Chair) issued the following statement:
“You are not serious people.”
The latest version of Senate Republican bill SB 160 once again takes a partisan approach that willfully delay progress in passing a fair budget and, if implemented, will result in cuts to services and operations across the Commonwealth, including programs that are heavily exploited by Pennsylvanians living in Republican Senate districts to achieve arbitrary political goals. This is the opposite of multiple bipartisan budget bills sent by the House to the Senate for consideration.
Collett added, “Senate Democrats are ready to support a bipartisan budget that actually delivers benefits for working Pennsylvanians.”
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