2025 is coming to a close- but the legislative session in Harrisburg is only half way through. Erie News Now caught up with some of our local lawmakers to hear what they accomplished in 2025 and what they count as unfinished business for 2026.<\/p>\n
State representative Ryan Bizzarro has served Erie county since 2012.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really proud of what we\u2019ve done in the district office helping over 6,500 constituents, over 20,000 unique cases to them,\u201d Bizzarro said, \u201cand helping people in 30 counties across the Commonwealth.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Harrisburg, Bizzarro is the policy committee chair and part of House Democratic Leadership- hosting hearings on topics of public interest.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve done over 44 hearings in I think 16 different counties and we\u2019re prepared to continue to hit the ground running as we start the new year,\u201d Bizzarro said.<\/p>\n
Reflecting on 2025, Bizzarro had his first time home buyers bill pass the house.<\/p>\n
Looking ahead to 2026- Bizzarro says cannabis will need legislative attention.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not a smoker but I\u2019m a state budget broker, and to continue kicking the can down the road is foolish for us,\u201d Bizzarro said. \u201cEvery day that we don\u2019t legalize marijuana for recreational use is a day that we are we are losing money.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the Erie area, Bizzarro says over $25 million in state funds were awarded to local programs and projects.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat a lot of folks don\u2019t understand these grants one folks apply for it locally. It\u2019s an incredibly competitive process down there,\u201d Bizzarro said. \u201cAnd so we use our voice down here to push and to ensure our region is well represented.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bizzarro extending thanks to staff in Erie and in Harrisburg for the work they do behind scenes and with citizens.<\/p>\n
\u201cGive us a call. We\u2019re here to help you with with any concerns that you might have,\u201d Bizzarro said. \u201cAnd if we don\u2019t have the answer, we\u2019ll get it for you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2025 is coming to a close- but the legislative session in Harrisburg is only half way through. Erie…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75161,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[2288,136,138,137,37,5929],"class_list":{"0":"post-75160","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-erie","8":"tag-bureau","9":"tag-erie","10":"tag-erie-headlines","11":"tag-erie-news","12":"tag-harrisburg","13":"tag-pennsylvania-capitol"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}