The Pennsylvania State Senate is doing what the state House, hamstrung by an obstructive committee chairman, cannot.

On Tuesday the chamber’s State Government Committee, a 12-member body chaired by Rep. Mike Folmer, R-48th, and Rep. Anthony Williams, D-8th, unanimously approved Senate Bill 22 — legislation that proposes amending the state Constitution to overhaul how Pennsylvania draws legislative and congressional voting districts.

The Senate proposal would form an 11-member redistricting commission to replace the 5-member commission that currently does the job. That’s in line with what fair-minded citizens have been asking for for months now.

But, commendably, SB 22 doesn’t simply propose an 11-member, independent “citizens commission” and leave it at that. It drills down into the meat of the logical follow-up question:

What exactly does “independent” mean?

Because try as we might to remain impartial, we all have political biases, allegiances and tendencies. Might those creep into an “independent” redistricting process?

And try as they might, legislators might miss opportunities to ensure the commission is free from the kind of politicking that generated the national embarrassment that is the state’s 2011 Congressional voting map.

Unless they don’t — which is what Mr. Folmer’s committee, to its great credit, appears hell-bent on accomplishing.

SB 22 removes the guesswork by laying out a lengthy list of qualifications for those who would seek a seat on the commission:

All must be voters who have been “continuously registered” with the same party or unaffiliated for the previous three years.

All must have voted in two of the last three statewide general elections.

None may have held or have a family member who has held public office at the federal or state level for the previous five years.

None may have served or have a spouse who has served as a paid staffer or consultant to Congress or the General Assembly.

None may be, or be married to, a state or federal lobbyist for the previous five years.

None may have been nominated for elective office, or have a spouse that was nominated for public office for the previous five years.

In other words, the committee is working hard to ensure that voters get what they have been asking for: a redistricting process free from partisanship.

It’s not free of political parties — four members of the group must be from the state’s largest political party, four from the second-largest, and three from neither, according to the bill — but it would be free from lobbyists, active politicians and those who stand to gain from turning what should be an objective, fair-minded process into a political free-for-all.

The bill also goes into detail regarding how people can apply to be on the commission and how the 11 members are ultimately selected — including laying out rules allowing political leaders in Harrisburg to eliminate candidates through a strike system that resembles how lawyers select or dismiss potential members of a jury before trial.

There’s much more in the bill, and we encourage people to read it in-full at: https://bit.ly/2GGxltg

We hope members of the General Assembly recognize SB 22 for what it is: a well-written piece of legislation that would enact much-needed reforms to Pennsylvania’s broken system of redistricting.