While legislative leaders and Gov. Josh Shapiro continue to haggle over the nearly four-month-late state budget, rank-and-file members of the General Assembly have had time to do something that happens far too little in Harrisburg: actually make laws.

One long-delayed reform is finally being considered (a committee vote scheduled for Wednesday was unfortunately postponed): indexing wages to inflation for direct support professionals (DSPs) who care for Pennsylvanians with intellectual disabilities and autism (ID/A). We urge the House Human Services Committee to approve the bill, and the full legislature to pass it into law.

Recent success in reducing the number of people on the commonwealth’s wait-list for ID/A services has demonstrated what should have been obvious: paying DSPs higher w

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