Jeff Pyle

Pyle ran for the 60th Legislative District seat after incumbent Jeff Coleman declined to seek another term. Coleman then publicly endorsed Pyle as his successor through a series of campaign ads.

In his first term, Pyle introduced legislation to increase the penalties on drug delivery resulting in death. This passed the house 199-0 but was not considered by the Senate.[2] He also worked on legislation to provide property tax relief by raising the state sales tax by 1%. The amendment failed by a few votes.[3]

In 2007, Pyle was appointed a Deputy Whip and chaired the Task Force on Drugs and Law Enforcement. His work greatly enabled the decision of Allegheny Technologies Inc to build their hot strip mill in Brackenridge which solidified ATI's western Pennsylvania steel making and those jobs for the next century to come. He also served on the following committees: Environmental Resources and Energy (chair of the subcommittee on Mining), Labor Relations, Liquor Control and as the Republican Secretary of Transportation (chair of the subcommittee on Aviation). In addition, he served on the House Republican Policy Committee and was a member of the Firefighters and Sportsmen's Caucuses Executive Board and chaired the Coal and Diabetes Caucuses.

In 2014 there was a chemical spill of MCHM that polluted the drinking water of 300,000 people around Charleston, West Virginia. The MCHM remaining in the damaged tanks was moved from West Virginia to Rosebud Mining's Dutch Run coal preparation plant near Elderton, Pennsylvania, within Pyle's district, in February, 2014. Reacting to news that Washington lawmakers want more oversight of MCHM, Representative Pyle said training of emergency responders makes sense, but requiring federal oversight of something that's been used for fifty years is "capricious".[4]

In 2020, Pyle suffered a stroke. His continued rehabilitations and cancer treatments forced him to retire from the House on March 16, 2021.[5]

In January 2021, Pyle posted a meme on his personal Facebook account mocking Joe Biden's appointee for Assistant Secretary for Health, Rachel Levine.[6][7][8] Critics characterized the post as transphobic, and the LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives called for Pyle to be reprimanded.[7] In response, Pyle issued an apology.[7][8]