Thanks to Fumo, Senate Withdraws Slavery Bill May 6, 2008 –
Following surprising remarks Wednesday [see video below] in which Sen. Vince Fumo accidentally revealed that his colleagues would unanimously pass "a bill on slavery," the General Assembly rushed to withdraw the controversial measure. "The uproar over Sen. Fumo's comments made us realize that it was best to table the legislation," Sen. Gib Armstrong (R., Lancaster) acknowledged yesterday. "Thanks to his slip of the tongue, we saw that the people of Pennsylvania are perhaps not quite ready to institute slavery."
Sen. Robert Mellow (D., Lackawanna) expressed relief that the retrograde bill would not be coming to its scheduled secret vote on Friday. "As the senator from Philadelphia said, [the bill] would've passed in a landslide. But I was planning on voting against it. There was something about bringing slavery back to America that just didn't sit well with me." Sen. Pat Browne (R., Lehigh), however, vowed that House Bill No. 1012 would not be forgotten. "[Fumo] was correct in saying that there was near-unanimous support for the measure," he said. "So even though we've rescinded it for now, you can bet it'll be back. The state's farmers are desperate for relief."
Fumo, for his part, was pleased that his comments, during an Appropriations Committee hearing on gay marriage, had led to the bill's suspension. "I had no intention of revealing the legislation's existence–call it a happy accident," he smiled. "I'm just happy my fellow senators have finally understood, as I said last week, that slavery isn't right. Sometimes, you just have to take a stand." Meanwhile, Fumo's colleagues marveled at his effectiveness. "Even when Vince didn't mean to, he got the job done," said Anthony Williams (D-Phila), who opposes the legislation. "It's a shame that his corruption trial [in September] will be bringing his senate career to an end."
