Rydal-Meadowbrook Civic Association

153rd Legislative District of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania  map

 Rep. Josh Shapiro, 36, represents the 153rd Legislative District in Montgomery County in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. Shapiro is a committed public servant who has worked in federal and state government for more than a decade and was named “Best State Legislator” by Philadelphia Magazine. Rep. Shapiro was first elected to the House in 2004 and reelected in 2006 and 2008 and served as Deputy Speaker of the House from 2006-2008.

While in the state House, Shapiro has authored and led the fight to implement the farthest-reaching ethics and government reform agenda in a generation.

As Co-Chairman of the Speakers’ Commission on Legislative Reform, Shapiro led an effort to pass more than 30 reforms to state law and the House rules, including a revamped Open Records Law that dramatically exposed the inner workings of state government to public scrutiny. Shapiro also sponsored the first major rewrite of the House rules in decades that opened up House proceedings to the public, eliminated certain legislative perks and made House expenditures subject to public disclosure.

As Chairman of the Legislative Audit Committee, Shapiro secured unanimous support to require the General Assembly to return its $210 million surplus to the taxpayers and establish stricter financial controls over the expenditure of state funds.

In addition to his work to promote ethics and reform of state government, Shapiro has focused on increasing the affordability of college for Pennsylvania’s students, expanding access to healthcare and divesting state pension funds from companies that do business with terror sponsoring countries. To make college more affordable, he passed two laws allowing college students to transfer their academic credits when changing from one state or community college to another and to make contributions to 529 college savings plans tax deductible. Shapiro passed legislation in the House to require the Commonwealth’s two pension funds to divest from Iran and Sudan. He also authored a House-passed bill to address the shortage of physicians in Pennsylvania by offering new doctors full medical school loan forgiveness in exchange for an agreement to practice medicine in Pennsylvania for at least 10 years.

Shapiro has earned a reputation as a bipartisan consensus builder and has been recognized nationally for his efforts. He is one of 24 elected officials nationwide, and the first and only Pennsylvania official, to be selected for the prestigious Aspen Institute-Rodel Fellowship in Public Leadership program. He was selected because of his ability to work with both Democrats and Republicans. The two-year fellowship focuses on the ethics and responsibilities of public leadership and the study of democratic values.

Rep. Shapiro is the Secretary of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, Chairman of the Legislative Audit and Advisory Committee, co-Chairman of the Speaker’s Commission on Legislative Reform, as well as a member of the Finance and Insurance committees. He also is an appointee to the Tobacco Settlement Investment Board, the State Planning Board and is a fellow of the Pennsylvania Leadership Academy at the University of Pennsylvania.

Before his service in the Pennsylvania state House, Shapiro served as an aide on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. from 1995-2003 for United States Senators Carl Levin and Bob Torricelli and Representatives Peter Deutsch and Joe Hoeffel. For five years, he served as Chief of Staff and counsel to Congressman Hoeffel.

Shapiro is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Rochester (1995) and received his law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center (2002). He is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar.

Josh and his family live in Abington Township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. He is married to his high school sweetheart, Lori. The couple has three young children, Sophia (8), Jonah (4) and Max (1).

Read a Q&A with Mr. Shapiro on the Times Chronicle web site.
Army Judge Advocate Tom Bogar is challenging Representative Shapiro.
Read the biography or Mr. Bogar here.